Grange Farm (Wigmore Abbey remains)

Puller employed a loose, sketch‑like approach typical of wartime field studies, using broad washes of colour and minimal line to capture the scene quickly. The watercolour medium allows for the soft, atmospheric effect seen in the subdued browns, pale greens and muted blues that convey both the texture of the ruins and the surrounding countryside.

The work was created under the Recording Britain scheme, a wartime project launched in 1940 to document vulnerable historic sites and rural environments. Funded by the Pilgrim Trust and administered by Sir Kenneth Clark, the initiative commissioned artists to produce visual records of places thought at risk from bombing, redevelopment or neglect.

During the early 1940s, Britain faced extensive aerial bombardment and rapid social change, prompting concerns that many cultural landmarks might be lost. Recording Britain sought to preserve a visual archive of the nation’s architectural and natural heritage, and Puller’s depiction of Wigmore Abbey contributes to that collective record of endangered sites.

As part of the broader Recording Britain collection, the watercolour serves as both an artistic study and a historical document. It offers contemporary viewers insight into the condition of Wigmore Abbey and its rural setting in the early 1940s, informing later conservation efforts and scholarly research on wartime landscape documentation.