Canteen block: detail of gypsy caravans mural

Description Canteen block: detail of gypsy caravans mural

Catalogue Number SC 446614

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of C 73121 CN

Scope and Content Mural painting, World War II mess hall, canteen block, Ness Battery, Stromness, Mainland, Orkney Islands In both World Wars coast batteries were built to protect the channels into Scapa Flow and Kirkwall Bay, where there was an important contraband control. The greatest concentrations of firepower were at the main southern and north-western entrances to the Flow, the latter covered by a series of coast batteries centred, in World War II, on Ness Battery at Stromness. The timber-lined walls of the mess hall within the canteen block at Ness Battery are decorated with a mural oil-based painting which depicts various scenes of rural life and is signed by one A P Woods. In this section, elaborately detailed and brightly painted caravans surround a gypsy encampment in a copse, a rustic, free-spirited scene far removed from wartime discipline and the Orkney environment. At the heart of the Orkney archipelago, Scapa Flow was the main fleet anchorage for the Royal Navy during both World Wars. Its vital importance led to the creation of one of the most concentrated defence networks in Britain. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/446614

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap