FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSERS

Somehow, in my young mind, there formed a confusion and a muddling of the two words ‘Trespasses’ and ‘Trespassers’.

The 1960s was a time when ramblers were asserting their ‘right to roam’ across the footpaths of England. There was considerable resistance from landowners and ‘Trespassers will be Prosecuted’ signs were a common sight. Some ramblers doubtless took their rights too seriously or ineptly read maps and strayed from the straight & narrowly prescribed path…

…anyway - when we had those ‘hands together, eyes closed’ moments at Chislehurst Road Primary school I would always wonder at the line: ‘Forgive us our trespasses…..’

Why - WAS there need for special intercession for errant walkers I would wonder?

Had they committed some especial sin by misreading their Ordnance Survey?

It was a notion that stuck and lodged in the dusty ‘Nonsense Corner’ of my imagination…. until I came upon the idea for this image.

What WAS awaiting those who intentionally strayed from the footpath?

Might there just be someone waiting to greet them and lead them on the next stage of their journey?

This was an idea that came to me in 1978 and, happily, was scribbled down in the briefest of ways.

I am now returning to my old notebooks and looking over all the ideas I’ve sketched and jotted down over the years - but never, at the time, had time to draw up into finished pieces. Too busy earning money to bring up baby and repair the roof.

Now that, at last, I have that time I-  have begun to execute the best of them - those that actually still raise a smile – some can even still make me laugh out loud.

Because of the nature of these pieces I’m putting two dates on them - for this it is: 78 26 (Bloody Hell! It’s had to wait nearly 50 years to get drawn!).

At this stage I’m not intending to make these pieces commercially available as prints - I’m drawing them up simply for my own amusement. I know that goes against the grain in this era of hyper monetisation and over self-promotion - but I really belong to an age gone by.

I’m greatly enjoying this new project – and I hope, too, that some others might see the humour in these pieces too.