AUTUMN COLLECTION
AN EXHIBITION OF CERAMICS BY ANDREW DOWDEN
AT NEWTOWN OLD TOWN HALL
The rural countryside in the Isle of Wight is full of inspiration for artists. Tracks made by man, machine, and by nature, together with ploughed fields and rippling water, all provide imprints and inspiration for Andrew Dowden’s distinctive hand-carved ceramics.
‘Autumn Collection’, is an exhibition of Andrew’s handmade designs, and is appropriately set in rural Newtown’s Old Town Hall, owned by the National Trust and one of the Island’s little gems.
Carpentry was Andrew’s trade for twenty years and during research of Isle of Wight pottery—watching a bowl being thrown on a wheel—he was inspired to take up ceramics, now an absorbing pastime. Mainly self-taught, Andrew’s hand-carved designs are applied to wall plaques, tile panels and free-standing forms. A limited palette of glazes and slips are used, allowing the warmth of the clay to remain as part of the surface design. His work continues to develop as he strives to achieve complementary forms and textured surfaces.
The exhibition runs from 12 September to 3 October on
Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays from 2-5pm. Normal admission charges apply. National Trust members free.
04 June 2010
AIR SOURCE HEAT PUMP GENERATES INTEREST
If you’ve ever wondered what an air source heat pump is, then come along to the Needles Old Battery and find out more. Earlier this year, in partnership with Npower, the National Trust installed a Dimplex air source heat pump to replace an old oil fired boiler which was both inefficient and expensive to run, as well as being unsuitable for such an environmentally sensitive site as the Needles headland. Local island contractors were employed to install the pump and to carry out improvements to the thermal performance of the building: new energy efficient radiators with controllable thermostats, insulation work to the ceilings of the tea room building and secondary glazing.
Once fitted, the only indication that there is an air source heat pump is a grey grill in the external wall of the building but visitors to the Old Battery have shown so much interest in it as it something that can be used in private homes that steps are being taken to make the actual pump system visible.
The pump, which works on a reverse refrigeration principle, by taking air in and extracting the heat from it, provides all the hot water for the tea room kitchen as well as the heating in the Port War Signal Station (tea room and exhibition building) and has proved so effective that on some days it needs to be turned right down.
The majority of the cost was paid for from the National Trust’s Npower Green Energy Fund with a smaller amount being received from the island’s A.O.N.B Sustainable Development Fund. As Paul Rayner, Building Surveyor with the National Trust says: "This is the first stage in a longer plan to reduce fossil fuel dependence and energy consumption at the Needles and throughout all of our properties. We are now planning to install a solar PV array at the Needles Battery (subject to appropriate consents) which will offset electrical usage further. On the brightest, sunniest days when we get a lot of visitors using the superb catering facilities at the Battery the solar panels will quietly sit and give us free energy.
We can all make reductions in our energy usage with simple lifestyle changes and some basic measures such as improved loft insulation can make a big difference and the there is a small exhibition at the Battery designed to inspire our visitors with ideas they can try at home. The Needles project shows what fantastic things can be done using available funding sources and measures sensitive to the type of building in question."
This is only one small but important part of the Trust’s partnership work with Npower and more can be found out by visiting the Trust’s website at: www.nationaltrust.org.uk or http://www.ntgreenenergy.org.uk/
The Needles Old Battery is open daily 10.30am – 5pm (last admission 4.30pm).
30 March 2010
RE-CHARGING THE BATTERY
The Needles is much more than just rocks as visitors will discover this year when they go into the Cartridge Store at the Old Battery which has undergone a transformation this winter as phase one of our new and exciting interpretation project.
Most people’s first thought on hearing the words ‘the Needles’ is of the iconic rocks and the lighthouse and indeed it is this view, one of the most photographed on the Isle of Wight, which attracts many visitors to the Old Battery. So having first captured our audience it seemed a good opportunity to add to their visit by ‘bringing the Battery to life’. We couldn’t afford to station a garrison there, but we have taken a first small step by recreating a section of the Cartridge Store to look as it would have done in the 1880s.
What seemed like a simple idea to be implemented by a small group of 5 (3 members of staff and 2 volunteers), soon mushroomed involving several visits to Fort Nelson at Portsmouth and frequent consultations with the Chairman of the Palmerstonian Fort Society over the finer details of Victorian soldiery. The volunteers also visited the Records Office at Kew gaining even more information and everything has been recreated to be as historically accurate as possible.
The more we are learning, the more we want to find out and we see this very much as phase one of our interpretation project.
It’s not often you get the need to Google cordite in the course of a normal working day which is what makes working for the Trust so interesting and hopefully our visitors will also have a more interesting visit. The view of the rocks will still be there (unless it is foggy) but they should now begin to discover why the Battery is there and what is was used for.
