William Ratcliffe’s ‘Reflections, Ickleford’

On Wednesday evening our latest acquistion, a painting by William Ratcliffe, called ‘Reflections, Ickleford’, was unveiled in the Council Chamber. The painting shows part of Hyde Mill, a flour mill at Ickleford, which was demolished in the 1930s. It was purchased from the Fine Art Society in Bond Street (where it was on sale as a painting of a pond in Letchworth) with grant aid from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the V & A, and the local Hertfordshire Heritage Fund. We knew that it was of Ickleford, as we have a photograph of the artist looking at the picture on exhibition in Letchworth Museum in 1954. The picture is shortly going off for glazing, and will be kept at Letchworth until the new museum opens.

Unveiling our most recent acquisition, William Ratcliffe’s ‘Reflections, Ickleford’