FRIENDS OF CLAINES CHuRCH
WA Green
William Albert Green (Will A. Green) was born in Birmingham, England in 1907. In 1952, with his wife Edith and two children (Edwin and Marian) he moved to Ludlow in Shropshire. He died in 1983.
He began drawing in his teenage years, using pencil and water colour, but then turned to pen and ink working. He continued until a few years before his death although he suffered throughout his life with defective eyesight.
He concentrated on the historic buildings in the English Midland counties. The majority being in the Birmingham and Warwickshire area where he spent the first part of his life, and in Shropshire, a county which became his home in later years.
In addition the collection includes many scenes in the towns and villages of Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Staffordshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire and a few further afield in Cheshire, Lincolnshire, Somerset, Devon, Cumbria, Dyfed, Pembrokeshire, Powys and London.
Initially the drawings were for his own private collection. But later sold them at a nominal price to family and friends, then a major Midland omnibus company used some of the pictures to illustrate their tour guides.
His pictures appeared for many years in The Birmingham Weekly Post illustrating a weekly rambling article by John Hingley. Also in other Midland newspapers including The Sunday Mercury, The Birmingham Post, and The Birmingham Mail.
The drawings also appeared in magazines such as The Shropshire Magazine, in English Counties guide books published by the Littlebury Press, and a series CATHEDRALS OF BRITAIN appeared on the back of England Glory matchboxes.
His method was to make a pencil sketch on location (travelling by bicycle or public transport) from which he would later trace the outline onto cartridge paper and then complete the drawing using Indian Ink and a fine mapping pen.
Shown below is his fine sketch of Claines Church, from 1944, detailing the South East view.
Claines Church 1944. WA Green
