Storrington Museum - Pictures for sale / Church Street

Church Street. Storrington, 1965. Watercolour by J W Bramham.
J. W. Bramham was a well-known artist and teacher of art in Storrington, who lived at The Studio, on the main road at the entrance to Meadowside. His training was varied; he served an apprenticeship as a fitter, and went to work in Chatham Dockyard, taught art at Maidstone Grammar School and went to the Slade Art College.

During the war, people were needed in Simonstown in South Africa to work in the dockyards, so he went out, followed a few months later by his wife. He remained in shipbuilding during the war, and afterwards applied for a post as a lecturer in fine art at Witwatersrand Technical College, Johannesburg. Mr and Mrs Bramham spent 20 years in South Africa, before returning to the U.K. in the early 1960s when Mrs Bramham's mother, Mrs East began to lose her sight.

Opposite the home of Mr and Mrs East was a beautiful house with fine views of the downs and excellent light provided by a tall ground-to-roof window, The Studio, which had been built for the artist Vivian Rolt, who left at the outbreak of war. It had also been the home of Arthur Bell, the poet. As soon as it came on the market again, Mr Bramham bought it and they spent the next "very happy 30 years" there. Mr Bramham was a popular local art teacher, taking the Women's Guild at Worthing, and art groups in Storrington and district, as well as executing very many fine paintings of the countryside. He exhibited at the Royal Academy and held biannual exhibitions at his home, as well as painting commissions.

Cruelly, for such a fine artist, Mr Bramham began to lose his eyesight six years before his death. He left instructions with his wife that after his death, he wanted a memorial exhibition to be held at The Studio, which she organised. The paintings were all numbered, and people wishing to buy them were asked to name the price they were willing to pay in sealed envelopes and leave them with the steward. The envelopes were all handed to Mr Peter Harrild, who sorted them and allocated the pictures to the successful applicants. The profits of about £3000 were all given to Sullington Church, where Mr Bramham was buried. Some of Mr Bramham's commissioned paintings can now be seen in Storrington and District Museum, in the Old School. JH/99/0374, original size 17"x14".

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