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Peter Strong (1932-2018)

Peter Strong

Written by David A Cross

Occupations: Artist and Stained Glass Artist

Early Life

Peter Strong was born in a nursing home in Atholl Crescent, Edinburgh, the son of Thomas Strong (1900-1983), a solicitor of Carlisle and his wife Angela Scott-Nicholson (1910-2002), the daughter of Maud Hope Scott-Nicholson (1875-1947; qv) and her husband Edwin Nicholson (later Scott-Nicholson) (1873-1931; qv). Maud, his grandmother, was the only daughter of Sir Benjamin Scott (1841-1927; DCB, qv), chairman of Hudson Scott’s and mayor of Carlisle. Peter’s father was a partner in the solicitors’ firm Wright, Brown & Strong and his grandfather Thomas Slack Strong (1867-1947) was also a solicitor in the same firm. In succession they held the post of city coroner. Consequently, Peter and his older brother Michael (1934-2020) were under pressure to train in the law.  Initially the family lived at Scotby and following their parents’ separation after the war the boys lived with their paternal grandparents at The Elms, Wetheral. His father then married Gwendolen (Pip) Gibson (d.1989), with whom Peter fortunately had a good relationship.  However, his uncle Christopher Scott-Nicholson (1906-1945) was killed in the war, which was another blow.

Peter was educated at Lime House School, in Wetheral (now at Dalston), followed by Rugby School from 1945-1950, where he developed his latent creativity under the influence of two remarkable art masters: Denys J Watkins Pitchford (known as ‘BB’) (1905-1990) and Richard Barrett Talbot Kelly (1896-1971).  ‘BB’ was also a prolific writer and the winner of the Carnegie Medal in 1942 for The Little Grey Men, whilst Talbot Kelly was a fine ornithological artist, who published numerous illustrated books, including Bird Life and the Painter (1955) and in Peter’s words ‘gave me a reason for existing’ (biographical notes). Peter was an excellent shot, ran in cross country, played the trumpet in the school orchestra and in his final year won the art prize.  His early Self Portrait probably dates from this time. Later, while working in his father’s office in Carlisle, Peter lived with his father and Pip at Longburgh House, Longburgh, near Burgh-by-Sands, when his happiest times were spent on the Solway on horseback, in his canoe or painting on the marsh. He also assisted with the cows and the haymaking, both becoming subjects of early paintings. Generally he gave neither a title nor a date to his paintings but during this early period, he painted portraits, still life, landscapes and at least one scene from the Carlisle pageant, of 1951, in which he and his mother took part.  Peter appeared on horseback and they both wore costumes designed and made by his grandparents Edwin and Maud.  On a later occasion he was a stunt rider in a film. His brother Michael preceded him in the law firm.

Studying Law and National Service

In 1950, together with his good friend Michael Coulthard, Peter went up to King’s College, Durham (now Newcastle university) to read law, part time, and continued to work in his father’s office.  Then, from 1953,  he moved to the London office and attended courses with Gibson and Weldon in Chancery Lane and later in Guildford. Despite all this training, he did not fully qualify, as he disliked the law. He and his brother Michael covered both the Carlisle and London offices in turn but neither of them stayed in the firm. Wherever Peter was living he was involved with beagling, point-to-point, opera, ballet, concerts and life drawing classes. Michael was also a skilled artist and married Eleanor Joyce Lowe (1939-2022), daughter of Francis Hugh Lowe (1987-1975; qv), an accountant in a Liverpool shipbuilding firm who later bought Borwick’s Boatyard at Bowness-on-Windermere. Michael and Eleanor had one daughter, Anthea. After leaving Carlisle, Michael spent many years living at Paignton where he drew portraits and lived on Taramai, anchored in nearby Brixham harbour.

At Oxford, Peter’s uncle Christopher Scott-Nicholson had been friendly with John Saleby, whose sister Molly married Edward Payne (1906-1991), a stained glass artist trained by his father Henry Albert Payne (1868-1940).  Subsequently, John was Angela’s legal adviser. Edward Payne’s work is held at Cheltenham Art Gallery, the Imperial War Museum and in Gloucestershire churches at Box, Edge, Randwick, and Minchinhampton. His house ‘The Triangle’, in the village of Box, near Stroud, became Peter’s second home, where he assimilated stained glass making skills both before and after his time in the navy. Through this association and as Christopher’s mother Maud Scott-Nicholson was on the Carlisle Diocesan Advisory Committee, Payne travelled north to Arnside where he installed windows at St James’ church (1936 and 1948).  Once settled at Chedworth in 1966, Peter also assisted Payne, discovering that using a builder to install glass was not necessary, as it was a straightforward operation. Soon after this Peter exhibited his paintings with the Cheltenham Group which had been established in 1920 by Harold Holden (1885-1977).

From 1956-1958 he enjoyed his National Service in the Atlantic and Mediterranean as an ordinary seaman (later leading seaman) on the destroyer HMS Daring, joining the navy because of his love of the sea and the hope that he would sail to many countries. Peter was especially delighted when he reached the Caribbean. On board he continued to play the trumpet, learned to sail, drew constantly and designed the cover for ‘Venture’ the ship’s magazine. One unusual work shows sailors in hammocks. While in Portsmouth, he even managed to attend art classes. Music was played incessantly on the tannoy and when asked for a request Peter wittily replied: ‘three minutes silence’. In 1957 he had the pleasant task of taking the helm of the captain’s launch down the French canals, to Port de Sete. Here, he went to an exhibition in the municipal museum by the impressionist and modern painter Francois Desnoyer (1894-1972).  Later he had some further adventures in Spain, on holiday with his mother and painted architectural subjects including The Puenta Nueva, Ronda. Living in Pimlico, he maintained his concert-going and his mother introduced both Peter and Michael Coulthard to opera and he recalled seeing the bass David Ward (1922-1983) as the eponymous Flying Dutchman in 1958 at Sadler’s Wells.  He also made regular visits to the local restaurant ‘La Speranza’. His time in the navy gave Peter the courage to break the news to his father that he would not be returning to work in the law, and from 1958-1959 he joined the foundation year at Stroud art college, where he was taught by Jack Greaves (1928-2011), a painter and sculptor. Turning down an offer from the Slade, Peter then attended Camberwell college of art, from 1958-1961. From 1963, he also spent some time as a glass painter at the Whitefriars glass works which sent work to Australia and New Zealand. At Camberwell, his oil paintings included several nudes and portraits and among his course studies, a copy of Poussin’s Bacchanalia. One of his finest landscapes is Golden Cap, in watercolours, painted while staying with his mother in Dorset (David Stevenson private website).

Teaching and Designing for Mitchells

While at Camberwell, one of his tutors was Lesley South (1931-2004) a fine sculptor. She was born in Shanghai and was the daughter of Elsie Fearon (1901-1976), whose father was a publican near Aspatria in Cumberland; her husband William Henry South (1901- c.1955), was an engineer. They had married in Vancouver and emigrated to China but had returned to England with Lesley in 1936.  She studied at Portsmouth Art College and while at Camberwell was influenced by Karel Vogel (1897-1961), whose sculpture is now at the National Portrait Gallery and the Walker art gallery, Liverpool. As Peter’s tutor in woodcarving, she acknowledged that he was more skilled than she was in that medium.

In 1960 Peter and Lesley both took part in the BBC programme Looking at Animals, for which he visited Whitbread’s brewery in Old Street, to produce preparatory drawings of dray horses. Then, in the studio, there was a live equine model and the film showed him carving it in wood. Lesley was asked to draw a dragon, using a live crocodile as inspiration, which caused some chaos in the studio with the cameraman providing puffs of smoke from a cigar.  Having qualified at Camberwell, he taught there and elsewhere until 1964, probably part time. His relationship with Lesley grew and they were married at St Gabriel’s, Pimlico on 23 March 1962.  In time they had three daughters: Io, Benedicte (Benny) and Juniper-Hope.

In about1964, Peter was appointed a director of William Mitchell Design Consultants Ltd, working with the sculptor and designer ‘Bill’ Mitchell (1925-2020) in South London and accumulating valuable practical experience. They embellished modern buildings in Harlow and Basildon new towns and in London, using large scale decorative pre-cast concrete panels, sculptural features, mosaics and glass. Their memorial for the 100th anniversary of the Victorian Agricultural Society is at Islington, whilst at Harlow are Heraldic Panel and Seven Reliefs, examples of the Mitchell team’s ‘environmental sculpture’ which are now on the town’s sculpture trail.  Their work is now in company with Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), Henry Moore (1898-1984) and Lesley South’s own Legs No 4, which joined this collection later on. Other designs included the large chess pieces at Basildon, of which Peter expressed the view that such features brought ‘scale and humanity’ to urban developments. They also installed large concrete abstract sculpture and pre-fabricated sculpted walls to create robust play areas. His designs appeared at Blackburn technical college in 1965 and at Burton-on-Trent, Peter created a group of tall chunky concrete fountains, which echoed the form of a clump of reeds. One of their nationally visible contracts is the Mitchell design for the doors of Liverpool Metropolitan cathedral, made between 1962 and 1967. It has proved difficult to distinguish the work of different members of Mitchell’s team as the photographs in his biography are not well labelled and his website disappeared upon his death in 2020. It may be that like many successful designers he failed to acknowledge the individual work of members of his team. Peter also worked with Berkshire Building Finishes Ltd., employing new glass-fibre and resin materials. He averred that he had been the ‘inventor’ of glass bricks but it is more accurate to state that he was instrumental in a revival of this material, as the earliest blown glass bricks were made in Switzerland in 1886 by Gustave Falconnier (1845-1913). Nonetheless, a failing Wembley bottle-making plant was re-vitalised by Peter’s orders for such bricks, which were then used in several Preston schools. He also utilised etched and sand blasted glass and made abstract designs on painted glass for the Scunthorpe crematorium.

In 1969, Peter held an exhibition at Marlborough School, where he had briefly taught.  By this date he had made many more life drawings and studies in pen and ink. In 1970, the firm produced etched plate glass windows for the ICI headquarters in Manchester and in the same year he shared in the memorial exhibition at Stroud to the artist Geoffrey Payne (1908-1970), the brother of Edward; Geoffrey’s work may be seen at The Wilson, Cheltenham. In another large project, the entire auditorium of the Curzon Cinema in Mayfair was lined with murals cast in glass-fibre. A striking example of Peter’s own work is the 7 foot tall, stylised High Eagle, which has echoes of Mayan sculpture and was made in black glass-fibre for the façade of Barclays, London. Peter’s work with Mitchell’s was stunningly recorded by Crispin Eurich (1935-1976), a gifted photographer and the son of the artist Richard Ernst Eurich (1903-1992; ODNB).  Crispin’s portrait photographs at the National Portrait Gallery include the sculptors Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975; ODNB) and Willi Soukop (1907-1995).

During their early marriage Peter and Lesley lived aboard the houseboat Two Seas at Cubbitt’s Yacht Basin on the Thames at Chiswick. Peter painted Cubbitt’s Yacht Basin No 1and No 2 and the family still has an amusing drawing he made of life in the basin. There were about thirty six vessels of all sizes here, with creative and professional residents of all backgrounds, including a lady who had a grand piano on board. Peter recalled that both her boat and the grand piano sank, on several occasions.  Some years earlier, the playwright John Osborne (1929-1994) lived on a houseboat there and wrote Look Back in Anger (1954-5). It was challenging for the Strongs to have a toddler aboard and they sometimes had to tie Io to the mast for safety.

In the Cotswolds

So in 1966, just after Benny was born, they moved to terra firma to establish Peter Strong Studios at Buttress House, Chedworth, near Cheltenham in the Cotswolds, where their third daughter Juniper-Hope was born. Peter had maintained his friendship with Jack Greaves and his wife Milly, also friends of Edward Payne, and now they all lived nearby.  Here Peter and Lesley continued to use glass and mosaics in designing and fabricating creative elements to complement modern buildings, in close collaboration with the architects and civil engineers.Working together, the couple sought to exploit the artistic potential of building materials to the full and the Chedworth work was largely achieved in a similar style to that generated by Mitchell’s.  They also offered sculpture in stone and bronze and letter cutting in stone, though many of their commissions, from as far afield as the Netherlands and the USA, were for both secular and ecclesiastical stained glass. The business soon employed five men, including Michael Reynolds (1933-2008), an artist trained at Brighton, whose portrait Bernard Haitink (2004) is at the National Portrait Gallery. Their work included new techniques for creating a range of textures on concrete walls; a mural for Newquay post office, Cornwall; mosaics for the Lea Valley water board in London; pre-cast screens to enhance both housing estates and an ante-natal clinic at Corby, Northamptonshire.

He continued to paint and to hold exhibitions at the George Room, one of the Subscriptions Rooms, in Stroud and the Star Centre (now the National Star College) at Ullenwood, near Cheltenham. Here his exhibits included his still life Vase of Flowers, his landscape, Cook’s Hill, Chedworth, his Thames side subjects Cubbitt’s Yacht Basin No 1 and 2 and A Walnut Tree. Both Peter and Lesley were involved in the design of sets and costumes for the mystery plays of the York Cycle, performed in the village. The rather Picasso-like Dancing Figures, reflect this interest, while his programme cover features a tight bold circle of nails, representing Christ’s crown of thorns. Other Cotswold productions included the mummers’ plays St George and the Dragon and Piers Plowman, both for the Chedworth Society, which was established in 1969 to preserve and enhance the character of the parish and is an early example of a civic society. At Buttress House they kept quite a menagerie, including a fox, of which he made a drawing, and a tame raven.

At Preston they made wonderful doors for the county offices, which have coloured glazing and bronze handles. This contract also included stained glass and carved lettering designed and executed by them both.  The designs feature elements of ‘Lancashire history (and) topography’ (Hartwell), whilst inside the building are decorated oak doors and a large carpet. From 1970-1973 they produced what Peter called ‘tabletopwindowscreen work’ with elements such as pebbles, shells, rice and even dried broad beans, cast in clear shiny resin. This material was used on a large scale in a commission for a bar counter and was also attached to walls to create murals, as traditional heavier materials often led to structural problems. After several years, the financial climate of the three day week in 1973-1974 led to a decline in their orders, so Peter visited the USA and secured a contract for the New York subways. His stained glass east window at St George’s, Nailsworth, near Stroud (1977) demonstrates not only his Christian belief but also that he was building on his experience in this field too.

Archaeological Artist in Scotland

The shortage of work eventually led to Peter’s involvement as an artist at a series of archaeological digs, for the Central Excavation Unit of the Scottish Office, from 1976-1982 and in 1979 he separated from Lesley. These excavations were at Traprain, East Lothian; the graveyard at Iona Abbey, off Mull; at North Uist; at Callanish, on Lewis; on the Orkneys and the Shetlands. He worked initially with Dr John W Barber and later Peter became the director of excavations himself.  Barber wrote enthusiastically in one publication about Peter’s unusual vertical sections: ‘these drawings convey far more about the excavation than twice the number of conventional (i.e. boring) drawings could do’ (Barber, 1979). In 2022, Dr George Geddes of Historic Environment Scotland wrote that they had ‘quite a particular bravura’ and that his use of fonts and labels which dominate ‘is aesthetically novel’. On Iona, a volunteer member of the archaeological team for a week or two was Lorna Stevenson (b.1950), a primary school teacher at George Watson’s School, Edinburgh. She was the daughter of James Stevenson (b.1925) a distinguished civil engineer and his wife Marion Brown Macnair (1925-1989), daughter of John Ferguson Macnair, editor of the Ayrshire Post. From a successful start up for Balfour Beatty in Scotland, Stevenson took responsibility for the company’s global work becoming deputy managing director. Work included prestigious contracts such as Backwater and Kielder Dams, motorways, the Dunlin North Sea concrete oil platform, Jebel Ali harbour (Dubai) and the Victoria Dam (Sri Lanka).  He also held many public appointments.

By early 1982 Peter was divorced from Lesley and so he married Lorna on 14 May 1982 in St Mark’s Unitarian church, Edinburgh and they had two children: Adam and Ariadne. During his time with the Excavation Unit, Peter attended classes at Edinburgh art school, producing life drawings and experimental etchings, notably Lorna as a Harpist, the strongest of these prints and his wonderfully eccentric Knight on Horseback, which is closer to Daumier than Durer. Following these new experiences, Peter took an MPhil course at Glasgow university from 1982-1984, writing a thesis on linear earthworks in Scotland.

Return to Cumbria

Over the years Peter had frequently returned to Cumbria on holiday and painted works in the county such as Holm Hill on the Caldew.  In 1986 he and Lorna moved to the Strong family farmhouse at Ratten Row, near Dalston, which had been his grandfather’s birthplace. The building had been neglected but Peter had a great capacity for hard work and together they created a beautiful home, decorated with Peter’s paintings. Here, as in earlier life, he was keen on dogs and now also kept guinea pigs whilst the avian residents at the farm included doves, bantams, geese and guinea fowl. Peter’s mother Angela came to live in Pond House, a byre conversion next door, specifically and largely designed by Peter to ensure that his mother’s carpet and furniture would all have a place. Whilst caring for her mother-in-law Lorna made notes of her memories and had them distributed to the family.

Following a visit from Peter in 1988, Edward Payne expressed his delight that his friend was returning to making stained glass, writing to Lorna: ‘there is every need in the profession for men with good taste, as well as skills of craftsmanship and that Peter has, with a certain adventurousness…..’ (letter 1988). Among his stained glass commissions in Cumbria is his 1996 window at St Michael’s, Dalston, to Stuart and Mary Trimble, described as ‘a packed composition of figures, animals, and Dalston itself in steep foreshortening’ (Hyde). This and his other detailed compositions, many surviving also as preparatory cartoons, demonstrate his extensive knowledge of the Bible. In this design he was inspired by the Revelation of St John, the writings of St Augustine of Hippo (354-430) who pondered the mystical relationship between light, glass and the spirit of God and also ‘The Elexir’ by George Herbert (1593-1633; ODNB). In 1999, he gave a scholarly talk at Dalston on the iconography of the window: including the many manifestations of the tree in European culture and also the sheep, the shepherd and the doves. Wittily, he showed the Trimble heraldic bull scratching itself on the bark of a tree.

At St Paul’s, Causeway, Silloth, he designed a window to the local general practitioner, Dr Hugh Hutton (c.1998), which is now at Christ Church, Silloth. Here the tree again makes its appearance alongside further references to St Luke’s bull, the sprouting staff of St Joseph and the serpent of Adam and Eve, with its resonance of the emblem of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine. He evidently liked to locate both Christian and pagan iconography in the same composition. Another window was commissioned at St Kentigern’s, Caldbeck for James Boydell (2000), a pharmacist, which shows the Good Shepherd and Mary in ‘a densely imagined local setting’ (Hyde). The ‘towering’ east window at St Luke’s, Haverigg, near Millom (2002) was particularly praised byMatthew Hyde, who described the elements here including a ‘sturdy miner’ in ‘haematite colours’ and ‘a heroic fisherman hooking his great hands through the net, lively with fishes and rollicking billows’ as ‘highly successful’ and ‘even better’ than Christine Boyce (1928-2019; qv).  Regrettably, Peter’s masterly copy of the San Damiano cross of Assisi, made for a Franciscan mission at St Mary’s church Wreay c.1995, was taken to Rydal Hall from where it has disappeared.

In 1998 Peter also made a series of ten glass roundels featuring doves, for an exhibition at Upfront Gallery, near Penrith, to represent the ten years of Architects Plus (UK) in Carlisle. Another roundel features a feisty cockerel, echoing the Cumbrian cockfighting tradition, which is now the emblem of Dalston itself. His interest in Greek mythology, evident in the names of two of his daughters, is also manifest in his square format Pan and Syrinx.  Once again he shows both pagan and Christian iconography juxtaposed: the Greek pipes of Pan, the reeds of Syrinx, Eve’s snake’s head and Adam’s apple, whilst the pipes are also a reminder of his love of music. One of his last windows was a memorial (2009) for the son of Hattie Kilmartin, the ‘roaming cook’, which she took with her to the Falkland Islands. He also restored the windows in many churches, including Carlisle cathedral; St Kentigern, Castle Sowerby, St John, Newton Arlosh and St Michael and All Angels, Isel. Occasionally, he restored or created windows in private houses, such as Askham Hall, Isel’s Bridge House, and Southwaite Hall for Raymond Whittaker. All this work was done in the studio he established in the barn at Ratten Row, where he also continued to paint, notably his Still Life with Oranges.

Once established in north Cumbria, Lorna founded the Carlisle World Shop and joined the campaign to secure Fair Trade status for the city of Carlisle. With his friend the sculptor Chris Hall (b.1942), Peter held an exhibition of Nakshi Kantha quilts, at the Fratry at Carlisle cathedral, at Edinburgh and at venues in the Borders. The quilts were embroidered under the aegis of Angela Gomez by destitute Bangladeshi women who had been abused or abandoned by their husbands. Apart from talks on stained glass, he also spoke about the Shared Interest Foundation, as the local representative, to facilitate the raising of capital for fair trade businesses in Africa and South America. He continued to attend life classes, practiced fine calligraphy, made his own Christmas cards and enjoyed sailing holidays. Peter and Lorna were also part of the group who established the Friends of Wreay church, where Lorna played the organ. He was the secretary of the CWAAS regional group, made charitable collections house to house, was a member of Friends of the Earth and was successively the secretary, agent and candidate of the Carlisle Green Party.

Final Years

Peter continued to live at Ratten Row and was cared for by Lorna with the invaluable help of carers and the family. His sense of humour was maintained and he always enjoyed fish and chips, beer and wine. He died on 22 November 2018 and his ‘lovely’ funeral on 7 December was held at Wreay church, where he lay in a rainbow coffin as the Borders string quartet played Beethoven’s quartet in F major (Opus 18 no 1) and Barbara Gibson sang the blessing, ‘The Lord bless you and keep you’.  Peter had given instructions for the ceremony which was conducted by the Revd Steve Carter, supported by Canon David Weston. Lorna composed and read the eulogy, Helen Weston read from TS Eliot’s ‘The Four Quartets’ and Raymond Whittaker read from the Benedicite. Peter is interred in the family grave plot at Stanwix cemetery, under a ledger stone carved by Andrew Daish, a pupil of Eric Gill (1882-1940; ODNB).  Nearby are monuments to Sir Benjamin Scott, Edwin Scott-Nicholson, Maud and Christopher which were all executed by Harry Parr (1882-1966). Peter’s mother Angela’s stone was carved by Chris Hall, who had restored the exquisite cloister pillars at Iona abbey.

Coda

Peter experienced a rich and varied career manifesting great contrasts between the early monumental sculptural forms, his innovative archaeological drawings and the meticulous detail of his stained glass. He engaged with a wide range of interests and had ‘a clear perspective on life, enjoying the comic and responding to the tragic’ (his friend, Patrick Tooms). Futhermore, apart from encouraging his family, he maintained numerous friendships over many years. In his fund-raising he was ‘committed to social justice, truth and fairness’ (Guy Johnston) yet he often had a twinkle in his eye.

Sources

  • John W Barber, ‘Excavation on Iona in 1979’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, 1981, 282-380 (the quotation is from Barber’s inscription inside Peter’s copy in the Strong archive)
  • Clare Hartwell and Nikolaus Pevsner, Buildings of England: North Lancashire, 2009
  • E.F. Hitchcock, director, The Sculpture Centre, Sculptured Memorials and Headstones Designed and Carved in Sculptors’ Studios in British Stone, 1938, 42
  • Matthew Hyde and Nikolaus Pevsner, Buildings of England: Cumbria, 2010
  • WH Jameson, Sunfinders: A Floating Home, 1937 (re Cubitt’s Basin)
  • Malcolm Martin, Edward Raymond Payne centenary catalogue, 2006 
  • Ewan Mathers, The Cloisters of Iona Abbey, 2001
  • William Mitchell, Self Portrait: The Eyes Within, 2013
  • James Stevenson, The Life of a Contractor, published privately, 2009
  • Lorna Strong, Tales of a Grandmother (Conversations with Angela Strong), distributed within the family
  • Peter Strong family archive
  • Peter Strong, his own biographical notes
  • Peter Strong, publicity folder when at Buttress House
  • Peter Strong paintings, on David Stevenson’s private website
  • Peter Strong, in the journal Concrete, January 1973, 22
  • Peter Strong notes for his talk on the Dalston window in April 1999
  • County Hall and the Christ Church Precinct, booklet by Lancashire County Council publicity office, c.1970  
  • The Architect, February 1973, 63
  • ‘An Artist with a Practical Concept’, The Standard, Times and Echo, 9 June 1972, 10
  • Letter from Edward Payne to Peter Strong, 11 September 1957
  • Letter from Edward Payne to Lorna Strong, 29 November 1988
  • UK and Ireland Incoming Passenger Lists, Southampton, 1950
  • Papers of Peter Strong, archaeologist, Dalston, Cumbria, Historic Environment Scotland, cat 551 542
  • www.ancestry.com
  • https://sculpturetown.uk
  • artuk.org/discover/artists/greaves-jack-b-1928
  • emails from Veronica Fraser, Historic Environment Scotland, November 2022
  • emails from Dr George Geddes, Historic Environment Scotland, November 2022
  • Family information sent by email from Io and Anthea Strong
  • Conversations with Lorna Strong