Harry Potter in the Hobbit Shires

Although my career in the Royal Air Force took me all over the world for 20+ years, my home base was usually in Wiltshire. In fact my kids still think of Wiltshire as their home county. When I left the Air Force to become an artist, we moved back to Wiltshire for six years

Wiltshire folk are mostly good solid farming stock. After all, this is the Hobbit shire!!

They tend to push the image of themselves as, "Wiltshire born and Wiltshire bred

strong in arm, and thick in 'ead".

They often talk in letters rather than words. For example,  for,"I have just arrived with the hay..." they might say,  "I B 'ere we the A, I B"

They love to think of themselves as Moonrakers, that is too say they hide their shrewd sharp intelligence behind a slow, straw-in-the-mouth, rambling accent. It seems that one moonlit night they were out smuggling brandy when they were ambushed by customs officers. They threw the barrels into the village pond, and to hide the ripples and bubbles they kept stirring the pond with hay rakes. When they were challenged by the customs officers, they explained that they were trying to rake the moon's reflection off the pond to stop it harming the water.... Moon rakers!

A lot of people know Wiltshire for the tragic scenes which flashed around the world, of events in the village of Wootton Bassett. Here the streets are lined  for every single Service Person who's body is repatriated from Afghanistan. The bereaved  families are taken into the bosom of the village and supported as the funeral passes through, en route from my old home base to Oxford. Despite the weather, not one serviceman who died in Afghanistan or Iraq has not been greeted by streets packed with people dressed up in their Sunday Best. My kids went to school here. I nice place to go to school!

But most of you will have seen the village of Lacock, although you might not know that you have. They have a scarecrow contest every year, but that's not what they are famous for! Lacock have been used as a Film and TV set since the 1950s. Early Robin Hood films were made here: Emma,  Pride and Prejudice and The Woman in Black, not to mention Warhorse. Lacock was also used for the TV series Cranford. ...  and.... Lacock was used for Harry Potter films.

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The High Street, Lacock, Wiltshire, England
Pen & Ink  12" x 9"   John Simlett

The village of Lacock was five miles from where we lived, and next to the Bowood Estate of Lord Shelbourne. It was in the Estate shop that I sold prints of my Lacock pictures. Once again I had used my secret weapon, Pat, to get my prints into the shop. No good being married to an ex-actress if you don't let her chat-up the aristocracy - and she did!

"The Sign of the Angel," the Village Pub.
 Lacock, Wiltshire, England
Pen & Ink  12" x 9" John Simlett

I did a few others, but I haven't got the pictures on this machine. But this gives you the flavour of the place.