Our heritage 

Peregrines, pilots and a paperback

And a varied programme for the Higham Ferrers Arts Weekend

PRIZE-winning artist Ophelia Redpath knew exactly what she was going to paint to celebrate living in Higham Ferrers for two years. Now, having returned to the town for the day, she has just unveiled her latest work which features two peregrine falcons which had made a home at the St Mary’s Church spire during her time in Higham Ferrers.

“This work is a tribute to living in Higham Ferrers. It is really a lovely place to have a home,” Ophelia told the audience at the Chantry Chapel, next to the church.

Ophelia, the 2021 Sky Landscape Artist of the Year, put the final touches to her peregrine painting just before leaving from her new home in Norfolk for Higham Ferrers and the town’s first Arts Weekend, where she was one of the VIP speakers.

The special weekend, which featured several events, was organised by The Friends of St Mary’s – a secular group dedicated to the preservation of the exterior of the town’s Grade 1 listed buildings (the Church, the Chantry Chapel and the Bede House).

The afternoon with Ophelia and a friend – author Artem Mozgovoy - was organised by Higham Ferrers Tourism, which partnered with The Friends of St Mary’s for the inaugural Arts Weekend.

Ophelia plans to put a photograph of the peregrines on her website and will sell prints of the birds, with a percentage of the proceeds going towards the costs for the restoration of St Mary’s bellcote.

Ophelia started her talk at the Bede House before everyone moved across to the nearby Chantry Chapel where her peregrine painting had been under wraps.

She spoke about her life as an artist and the various styles and techniques which had influenced her, including those of her grandparents, who were both acclaimed painters.

When Artem – a prize-winning writer and journalist from Siberia – took over the microphone, it was to tell the audience that he had written his book Spring in Siberia 10 years ago, but it was only after Sir Stephen Fry had read the manuscript that he finally found an agent and a publisher. Sir Stephen has hailed the book as “touching and…genuinely compelling.” Launched in London a year ago, Spring in Siberia, is labelled as a novel, but Artem said it was more a family story.  

Artem moved to Europe in 2011 when Russia began legalising its persecution of gay people and he had a series of jobs – including being a magician’s assistant - before settling in Brussels, Belgium.

He read extracts from his book and afterwards, he was kept busy selling – and signing – copies.

Artem volunteers at the Ukranian Refugee Centre in Belgium and his next book, which will be published in September, is based on the stories he had collected in his diary while volunteering.

The Arts Weekend also included “An evening with the Wellingborough Community Gospel Choir” and a talk by Victoria Wicks, grand-daughter of the prolific author, H.E. Bates, CBE, which focused on his time as an RAF officer.

Victoria recounted how H.E. Bates had written under the pseudonym of Flying Officer X and had produced 24 stories portraying the lives of bomber and fighter pilots.

In keeping with the wartime theme, several people in the audience were dressed in 1940s-era clothing. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Ria Jefferies and her mother, Jane Chambers, part of the wartime re-enactment group Family At War, were preparing to serve WW11 fare, corned beef and cheese and onion pies, and other delights. They had already baked dozens of Spitfire-shaped biscuits.

Ria’s son, Thomas, 7, part of the Family At War group, was also there, and dressed as a wartime pilot. 

Ophelia Redpath website