A Brief History of Walter Hoyle by Inexpensive Progress. www.inexpensiveprogress.com Three years ago I wrote that Walter Hoyle is in danger of being one of the forgotten Great Bardfield artists due to the lack of information on him. And with the Fry Gallery hosting an exhibition on his work it looked like that injustice would be corrected, but as I record this the world is still in lock down and it is unlikely that Hoyle exhibition will be seen. Hoyle was born in Rishton, Lancashire in July 1922 and in 1938 he went to Beckenham School of Art from there Hoyle gained a place at as a student at the Royal College of Art from 1940-42, and again from 1947-48 after serving in the Second World War. One of his tutors in London was Edward Bawden, who encouraged him to develop this watercolours and printmaking. Bawden was commissioned by the Festival of Britain to produce a mural for the Lion and Unicorn Pavilion, Hoyle was one of the students bawden asked to assist him. During that summer Bawden & Hoyle holidayed in Sicily together, Hoyle later used these memories to write the book 'To Sicily with Edward Bawden'. One of Hoyles paintings from this trip would be bought for the Cambridge Pictures for Schools Schemes. Encouraged by Edward Bawden, Hoyle would move to Great Lodge Farm, on the outskirts of Great Bardfield. He would get a reduced rate on his rent if he repaired the cottage. Here are some paintings made from the farm, a transporter here and a view from the window with typical Bardfield Victoriana and I love the way he has painted the oil lamp with that transparent wire. Hoyle's drawing was used for the catalogue of the 1954 Open house Bardfield exhibition, he took part in these exhibitions and met his wife Denise at one. Various illustration commissions from the BBC came in for their educational booklets and more illustration work would come to Hoyle as he illustrated the BBC Book of the Countryside alongside John Nash and fellow Bardfield'er Sheila Robinson. here you can see the illustrations and then the colour illustration is from the 1969 ‘Women’s Institute book of Party Recipes’. After leaving Great Bardfield for Great Sailing, Hoyle then moved to Bottersham, Cambridgeshire to be closer to the Cambridge School of Art where he worked. He worked at the St Barnabas Press that helped the art school gain a reputation for quality printmaking. While in Cambridge Hoyle took over the Cambridge Pictures for Schools scheme in the 1970s. Originally set up in the 1940s by Nan Youngman and Henry Mooris, in the 1960s few new works were added to the collection and Hoyle encouraged his students to donate works. While at Cambridge Hoyle was able to make many prints of the buildings of the university. Hoyle retired from teaching in 1985, moving from Cambridge to Hastings and Dieppe.

The Great Bardfield Artists were a community of artists who lived in Great Bardfield, a village in north west Essex, England, during the middle years of the 20th century. The village’s “open house” exhibitions attracted national press attention and thousands visited the remote village to view art in the artists’ own homes during the summer exhibitions of 1954, 1955 and 1958.