Boating has long been a pastime in Matlock Bath. "On a fine
summer evening, many parties go to regale themselves with a sail,
and loiter on the waters sometimes to a late hour" (Adam,
p.55 [footnote][1]).
"A sail by moonlight is deeply interesting" (ibid,
p.55[1]).
This postcard is from an oil painting by Henry
Hadfield Cubley, an artist who lived in Matlock Bath at the
end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century.
This version is a Christmas Greeting and was sent from Redruth
by J and W Menhennet to a Miss Martin in Penzance on 23 Dec 1905.
This may be the postmark, but the painting dates from quite
a bit earlier. Cubley has not painted the Switchback Railway
in the scene, which we know dates from 1889[2].
He may deliberately have omitted the structure, but it is more
likely that he painted this picture just before the Switchback
was erected, as he was living in Matlock Bath by 1887[3].
It is one of only a few of his paintings we are able to date with
any accuracy.
The Cubleys had a strong link to Holy Trinity and Henry was a
churchwarden[4]. He
was also known to be involved in fundraising. When a Concert was
held in the Baths Assembly Room in the early spring of 1888 in
aid of Holy Trinity Church Choir held the soloists included Matlock
Bath's Miss Edith Bryan (soprano) and Mr. H. H. Cubley (tenor)[5].
Biography of artist
A selection of the paintings by Henry Hadfield Cubley on this website.
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