Ye Old Talbot Hotel, Ledbury
1940
watercolor
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1940
watercolor
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Ye Old Talbot Hotel, Ledbury is a 1940 watercolor by Raymond Teague Cowern, depicting Worcester, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This painting shows a quiet street lined with old, half-timbered buildings. The wood frames are dark against light walls, and the roofs slope steeply. A sign on one building reads "Ye Old Talbot Hotel," and a few flags hang above the doorways. The street curves gently, with cobblestones underfoot and a few shadows stretching across the pavement. The artist painted this in 1940, capturing a small town that still looks like it’s from a different time. The loose, sketchy style makes it feel quick and alive, like a snapshot rather than a polished scene. Check out the Victoria and Albert Museum to see more works like this in person.
A watercolour by Raymond Teague Cowern from 1940 depicts the Talbot Inn on New Street in Ledbury, a low, timber-framed building with black and white patterning and a projecting bay window above the entrance. The scene shows the inn on a street lined with old, irregularly shaped houses, capturing the character of the town during the early years of the Second World War. This work was part of the Recording Britain project, a scheme initiated by Sir Kenneth Clark to document places and buildings across Britain that were considered at risk from wartime damage or changing conditions. The project…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Raymond Teague Cowern painted quiet watercolors of mid-century Worcestershire life during the Second World War.
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