Michael J. Fryer

The Parish of Mile End, in North Colchester was, up until the turn of the Millennium, still largely rural. It was possible then to walk from North Station, along footpaths that passed through meadows awash with buttercups in summer and grazed by peaceful cows, along ancient oak-lined hedgerows, lupin fields and orchards bordering the grounds of the old Turner Village Hospital, all the way to Mill Road in Mile End. It was the view of the Colchester skyline from these meadows that inspired Lucien Pissarro (of the Camden Town Group of artists and son of the famous French Impressionist, Camille Pissarro) to paint one of only two pictures of Colchester (‘Buttercups, Colchester’, formerly in the collection of the Canadian National Gallery). Even as recently as 1991, it was still possible to recognise the same trees and buildings he depicted in his 1911 painting. Mile End was also famous for its pastel-coloured rose fields which were a joy to see. Since 2000 and in only two short decades, the entirety has all but disappeared under the asphalt of roads and new housing. I paint the Lost Views of rural Mile End as a record of what has vanished and which many older residents will still recognise.