The February meeting of Biddulph Historical Society took place on Monday 19 February when guest
speaker Kenn Griffiths gave an interesting talk on the life of Biddulph Moor artist Charles William
Brown.
Mr. Griffiths looked at CW Brown’s family, who lived at Robin Hill, Biddulph Moor and how his
parents came to live there, the early life of Brown and his siblings, his career in mining and his talent
for drawings, which earned him the title, “ The Potteries Primitive Artist”.
CW Brown (1882-1961) was the son of a miner and at the age of 12 he left school and started to
work, hired out to a local farmer. It was clearly a very hard up bring and children were expected to
work hard from a very early age. With a strict and authoritarian father, it was not an easy childhood.
After a month at the farm he ran away for a job in a pit.
However, 1895, there were 77 deaths in a flooding disaster at Diglake Colliery, a neighbouring pit.
Consequently all boys under the age of thirteen were banned from mine work and so he had to give
up his mining job and return to farm labouring.
He worked as a farm labourer for about 2 years before going back to the mines for higher wages.
In 1902 he married Beatice Bailey and in 1910 they moved into a terraced house in Etruria.
In 1929 Brown was a “deputy” mining manager and he gained qualifications which enhanced his
career.
In 1948 he retired and started writing his memoirs but his chief activity was his painting.
When he died in 1961, aged 79, “tea chests” of his paintings were bequeathed to the Potteries
Museum and Art Gallery in Hanley. He was self-taught and subject varied with landscape scenes
drawn from memory. He would paint common everyday things. For example, a match box on a table
by his painting box would do for a subject and even the paint box itself.
Arthur Berry discovered his work and commented “I was astounded by the range of his subject
matter” and was deeply impressed by his work.
Mr Griffiths, in his talk, captured the essence of the life and work of CW Brown. He illustrated his talk
with slides of CW Brown’s paintings. He went on to describe the talents of other family members.
He was thanked for a very informative talk which captured the social conditions of the time, by
Society Chairman Michael Turnock who reminded members that the next meeting was the AGM on
Monday 18 March which was followed by a Ray Johnson film entitled “WW2 Rear Gunner Gerard
Booth DFM”.