Houghton Trestles

You Will find the remains of old railway bridges near Houghton Mill in Huntingdon, close to the River Great Ouse

The Eastern Counties Railway opened its line from Cambridge to Ely in 1845. The Ely and Huntingdon Railway was authorised in 1845. It was to run from east to west through St Ives, but the company was unable to raise sufficient money to build the whole of the line. Instead it opened only between St Ives and a station named Huntingdon,

Houghton Trestle 1 Drypoint

Houghton Trestle 1

Drypoint Intaglio
Paper size 30x25.5cms, Image size 20.5x14.5cms

Railway bridges were built to cross the Great Ouse using large wooden trestles, coated with pitch to preserve them against the river water. However, the sparks from the steam engines frequently caused the bridges to be set alight. The Service was then reduced to horse drawn carriages but closed soon afterwards.

Many of those trestles remain at the waters edge a hundred and seventy five years later, although now trees have grown through the trestles. Some are barely holding together as wind and water work to their destruction.

Houghton Trestles 2

Card and colograph 2 colours
Paper size 27x45cms, Image 21x38.5cms

The Houghton Trestles is a print series that was created using a wide of printmaking techniques, made possible by the acquisition, in my studio, of a small etching press from the estate of Northampton artist David Williams.

The first print was made using drypoint (HT 1) – by scratching marks into the surface of a plastic sheet and pushing ink into the grooves. This print went through 9 stages before the desired result was achieved.

Houghton Trestles 3

Houghton Trestle 3

Card & Collograph
Paper size 27x45cms, Image size 21x38.5cms

Then came a series of card prints (HT 2/3/4) Each colour was printed from a different card matrix. Textures were added to the card surface with glue and carborundum powder. – Each colour layer was inked with rollers and passed through the press onto paper.

Houghton Trestle 4

Card & Collograph
Paper size 27x45cms, Image size 21x38.5cms

Then another drypoint was made - HT5 with complex cross-hatching to create tonal variation.

Houghton Trestle 5

Drypoint Intaglio
Paper size 24.5x21cms, Image size19.5x20.7cms

The next two prints were made using a mixture of screen-printed colour in the background with a lino cut design printed over the colour (HT 6/7). I tested my lino cutting skills to the limit with these combinations of trestle and undergrowth. The pinpoint registration (where one colour fits precisely next to its neighbour), was achieved with the introduction of Tern Burton buttons to aid registration.

Houghton Trestles 6

Linocut and Screenprint
Paper size 32,5x26.5ms, Image size 21x15.5cms

The subject matter is the same as HT1 except the focus is on the larger shapes made by the whole trestle structure. The next time I visited the site the top two elements had fallen asunder. I enjoyed using the thin black frame that surrounds the image and the way the screenprinted colour brings the trestle structure to the fore.

Houghton Trestles 7

Linocut and Screenprint
Paper size 27.5x29cms, Image size 19.3x20.5cms

Encouraged by the technical success of the previous print I decided to use the same technique again but allow the screenprinted colour to play a larger part in the design. The complexity of the interwoven branches proved somewhat of a challenge and I managed to make an error with the placement of one of the branches. As you will know. there is no way to replace an area of misscut lino so ........ I transferred the linoprinted block onto an acetate sheet, redrew the offending branch in a better position and printed the lino block as a screenprint. I thought of it as a tribute to Edward Bawden whose linocuts were published as Lithographs

Houghton Trestles 8

Screenprint
Paper size 50x50cms, Image size 33.5x33.5cms

For HT 8 I returned to pure screenprinting – trying to create some of the atmosphere of the undergrowth that swallows the trestles during the summer months. The weedy foreground was created by using leaves impressed into a soft ground tusche. (see my film about this technique on YouTube: Lascaux Tusches: Film no.5 Soft Ground).

Houghton Trestles 9

Houghton Trestle 9

@2block Linocut
Paper size/Image size 23.5x20.5ms

HT 9 was an attempt to create an abstract image (I had been reading a lot about the Bauhaus at this time). It was originally planned as a woodcut but the intended plank dished so I resorted to lino again. Two Blocks were printed in a variety of colour ways, each print different from its kin. Its more Expressionist than Constructivist, more Lyonel Feininger in a crude way.