A little bit of the River Thames in Manchester and a mystery

Now despite being away from the River for over 50 years, the Thames still exerts a powerful hold on me.

There are the  memories of long summer evenings gazing out across the water from the old Cutty Sark pub, watching the sun set, with only the occasional sound of barges banging gently together in the wake of a passing pleasure boat.

Or that biting wind from off the river, first thing in the morning which seemed to zip through the heaviest coat while waiting to board the ferry at Woolwich.

Of course, my River was the industrial one which flowed from Battersea past the posh bits and then out by Deptford, and Greenwich, to Woolwich and Erith.

The other bit was, and still is pretty much unknown to me, so I was pleased when my old friend Dave Scholes gave me a delightful little guidebook of the River from its source as far as Greenwich.

There will be scores of such books, but what I like about this one is that it is easy to read, and is illustrated with some fine line drawings.

It was written and illustrated by Montague Webb, and never wanting to reproduce other people’s work without their permission I went looking for him.

And I found him mentioned by various art dealers and came across four of his water colours on the Government Art Collection,** as well discovering his prolific output of guidebooks.

In time I will go looking for him but for now I will content myself with reproducing the cover, along with a small example of the drawings illustrating the last stretch of the river from his book.

Sadly I can’t locate the publisher and as yet a biography of Mr. Webb has yet to be revealed to me.

But I hope nether will mind me reproducing these two examples of the art work.

Location; The River Thames

Pictures; cover and last stretch of the river from his book

*Viewing the Thames, Montague Webb, 1972 Napier Publications

**Government Art Collection, https://artcollection.culture.gov.uk/person/webb-montague/