Perseus and Medusa Trail: Research and Development- Trentham Estate

Mood board

 Research - Trentham website

1086 

Estate was first recorded in the Domesday book. In order of William the conquerer- the Domesday book was the great survey of Wales and England. 

It is described as the Royal Manor and was worth 115 shillings. 

An augustinian priory originally occupied the site followed by a convent. Trentham priory occupied the land until the Dissolution of Monasteries. 

Originally a priory site- the Estate moved into private ownership when the church devolved. It was sold in 1540 to James Leveson and the estates first hall was built in 1599 on the priory ruins. It was replaced by Richard Leveson in 1633 in an Elizabethan style mansion. 

The largest yew trees in the Italian gardens appear to be from the Elizabethan period. 

"Look at the girth of the trunks and their grid like layout characteristic within a walled enclosure. At this time there was a church yard. 

1 metre = 100 years

Charles Bridgeman influenced the layout- the deer lawns, Georgian Boat tunnels and small boating lake. 

1759- Capability Brown 

removed 18th century pleasure garden with two mile long serpentine lake. 

Many of the gardens largest trees date from Brown's plantings along with the lake and mounded view points. 

The lake was created so that in each place you are theres a variety of vistas. (attractive viewpoints) The lake also creates the effect of the gardens being larger. 

1841- the clock tower was built and it was the last major addition. 

Response

 Reading this information at first it can be quite uninspiring however, I think using the width of the trees in the history trail could be a fun activity for the children to do- to use their arms to measure it themselves. And the main historical figures I could draw out of that is Capability Brown and James/Richard Leveson. 

The original Trentham History Trail. 

As you can see the original history trail designed by Trentham has a lot of words on and wouldn't be interesting for their target audience- children. If I illustrated most of these photos instead and added characters in the gardens that guided the children on the train it could be very beneficial. 

Some of the questions in this are long winded so as a child you would easily get distracted and not take in any information.

Development

Here are some quick illustrations I have done in response to my research. I have decided that, going forward, I will recreate the map of the gardens, the history trail, add an animal spotting activity and create a new trail based on Perseus and Medusa. 

 

In this first page, I focused on a few things in my research that stood out. For example the wildlife that live in the gardens for example the family of black swans that live and breed in the gardens. Capability Brown, the designer most famous for his work in the Italian Gardens. And finally the train in the gardens. Although I don't think these illustrations are successful, they have inspired me to take my brief further. I enjoyed drawing Capability Brown so as I continued to experiment I moved on to my ideas for the Perseus and Medusa Trail. 

For these Perseus and Medusa drawings, I wanted their faces to look very structured. In my first attempt of the Perseus drawing I drew a triangular shaped nose, so in the second attempt, I decided to change it to a Grecian nose instead and I prefer this outcome a lot more. For the first drawing of Medusa I drew her pretty as she's described in the original myth. In the second attempt I decided to draw her more like an antagonist as children will understand that she is the monster in the trail. 

I then decided to draw more illustrations of the wildlife in the gardens for the animal spotting activity. These illustrations were a lot more successful than the first lot I drew. Giving the birds big and round eyes will make the animals more friendly to children, however I didn't want to stray to far from a realistic depiction of the birds as it could be confusing for the children to spot. 

For these illustrations I did the same as I did on my last sketchbook page. I especially like how I've drawn the feathers on the duck and the eyes on the frog as I think they both look realistic while maintaining an illustrative appearance.