Summer evening at Hickling

Hickling is a small village in the Norfolk Broads, a historic wetland in eastern England. Its may be that without Hickling, England might have been invaded by Napoleon, and world history could have been very different. It was on Hickling broad, a lake next to the village (actually dug by monks in the medieval period to provide peat to fuel the fires of Norwich and Great Yarmouth) that Admiral Lord Nelson learned how to sail. Lord Nelson went on to become England's most famous seaman and naval commander, and defeated the forces of Napoleon Bonaparte at the battle of Trafalgar. Crawshaw paints the river at Hickling in the rich light of a summer evening, with boats mooring for the night under the shade of the trees. The scene is laden with the scents and sounds of summer in Norfolk; the fish rising, the waterfowl calling and honeysuckle on the air. Perfection.