A new series on TV tells the story of the “Crag Vale Coiners” (The Gallows Pole). At the end of the eighteen century the locality of Crag Vale, not far from where I live, became notorious for the activities of a gang of forgers, led by a man named David Hartley. I’ve watched the first of the series and it is very well done. I might have missed it but for the fact that my wife spotted it in the TV listings, and she remembered an interest I took in the place many years ago. I used to walk and climb in that area, and one day I encountered, on the top of the moor, a group of natural boulders into which several people had carved their names. What stood out for me was the fact that one of the inscriptions read “David Hartley, 1770”.
I doubted very much that this was indeed his autograph, because the habit of cutting names or initials into rocks seems to have taken off only in the second half of the nineteenth century. It struck me that there were two ways of reading it. It could be seen as a memorial to Hartley by somebody who regarded him sympathetically, or it could be seen simply as a “forgery”. In view of his role in the falsification of the currency this struck me as amusing and interesting. I painted an image of the rock with his name and date, (incidentally, using the medium of acrylic paint, with the addition of a great deal ion texture gel, to simulate the surface of the stone) and added the shadow of an observer (me!) falling over the rock. This was also, of course, pure invention …. pure falsification! I rather liked the finished product, and it was in fact exhibited in Richmond (Surrey). After that it rather fell from view, and it was only with the production of the current TV series that I remembered it, and dug it out of my racks. On reflection, I rather like it, and I think that I will put into the forthcoming Sheffield Open. Its play with multiple levels of false claims to factual status is interesting, and is worth thinking about apart from its current relevance.