Mellor Mill Painting - Handover to Stockport MBC

Marple Civic Society formally handed over their painting of Mellor Mill, painted by Joseph Parry c.1800, to Stockport MBC on long term loan for display in the Staircase House Museum. The Mayor and Mayoress of Stockport accepted the painting on behalf of Stockport MBC from the society's president, Angus                                  Yeaman. 

Civic Society President Angus Yeaman hands over the painting
to the Mayor and Mayoress of Stockport

The painting was donated to Marple Civic Society by member Mrs Barbara Sexton, wife of Basil Sexton, a founder member of the Civic Society in the 1960's. We are very grateful to Mrs Sexton for her kind and generous donation.

The painting was purchased by Mrs Sexton in 1958 from an auction sale at Abney Hall in Cheadle. Abney Hall was purchased in 1850 by cotton magnate Sir James Watts and remained in the Watts family for several generations until 1958 when it was sold. The painting was listed for insurances purposes by the Watts family in 1912 but it is possible that the painting belonged to the Watts family going back to the 19th century.

The gathering at the hand over of Mellor Mill Painting

It wasn’t unusual for artists of the time to be commissioned to paint more than one painting of the same subject but what is extraordinary is that two paintings of Mellor Mill, by the same artist and painted around the same time, should find their way back to Marple within 10 months of each other more than 200 years after they were painted and at a time when a £1.5 million Heritage Lottery funded 3 year project is being undertaken. 

One of the three sites of the Revealing Oldknow’s Legacy project is the Mellor Mill site and Marple now has two paintings to link to this important Marple project. The painting owned by Mellor Archaeological Trust hangs locally in Marple Library and this one belonging to Marple Civic Society  will hang in Stockport’s Staircase House Museum in the newly created industrial period section of the  museum.

More photos can be seen HERE

All photos by Arthur Procter