Fryer's Flour Mill, off Mill Lane, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, 1920

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  I have a beautiful painting here on my wall of the view of the mill ( Fryer's Mill) set behind tall trees, with the dam and an old cottage in the foreground, with a pear tree full of blossom. Above the dam on the hillside in mid distance is Bentinck Colliery which by its presence and sinking of shafts rendered my family's milling business over. We had been millers for centuries mentioned in the Doomsday book. My painting is by grandad Fryer who was one of the four sons ( I believe ) and for his discontinuation from milling set up a painting and decorating business based in Annesley Woodhouse. Grandad Fryer was taught to paint by Denholme Davies a renowned artist who was well established in those years.My father, ( grandson of the milling Fryer's) remembered a place on the edge of the dam where a man's leg had been buried it had been hit by a piece of stone which ground the corn and his leg had to be amputated. Dad used to sit here in old age and gaze at this painting - saying he had swum up and down the dam many times in his youth. I always felt this painting was a social history comment too - it embodies the transformation from rural England to Industrial England. I wrote a poem inspired by this beautiful painting. I also became an artist too.

  Mary( nee Fryer)