Edna Halls kindly displayed her collection of Ladybird books illustrated by Robert Lumley.3/12/2023 At the Hatfield Broad Oak exhibition last year Edna Halls displayed her collection of Ladybird books illustrated by Robert Lumley.
Robert was born in Southwark in 1920 and aged 14 won a scholarship to study art at technical school. WW2 disrupted his career as he joined the army and served in North Africa and Italy, reaching the rank of Captain. Post war he obtained an apprenticeship as an animator, where he met Priscilla (Sally) Sidgwick and they married in 1951. They came to Broad Oak in 1952 and set up Broad Oak Studios, offering a wide range of services including creating posters, greetings cards, portraits. They also joined in village activities. Between 1964 and 1974 Ladybird Books published their ‘Well Loved Tales’ series for which Robert illustrated half the series. For these illustrations he often took inspiration from local people and locations. For The Gingerbread Boy he initially commissioned three village cooks to make gingerbread boys so he could decide how the main character would look. He also used a local couple, Mr & Mrs Barlow, who were schoolteachers at the village primary school as the models for the old couple, initially posing in their own kitchen to help develop scenes. The front cover shows Cage Lane with the gingerbread boy running down the hill and across the road into the Allotments. The allotments have now been built on but the location is marked by The Gingerbread House. Robert was familiar with the old timber facades as he lived at the top of the road. Other books in the series included The Little Red Hen, The Big Pancake, The Enormous Turnip, The Magic Porridge Pot and the Old Woman and her Pig all used local people to populate the pictures. Edna has compiled a list of villagers involved. Frequently members of the Broad Oak Players would dress up to assist and the shops of the local baker and butcher feature. When seven hungry boys were required for The Big Pancake, he enlisted the sons of the headmaster, the vicar, a farm worker and the local bobby, amongst others. Robert died in 1976 in a car accident but his wife continued to live in the village. It is good to be able to record the work of Robert, who sent images of Broad Oak round the world, for a new generation of villagers. My thanks to Edna Halls for drawing this story to my attention.
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