The seven artistic wonders of the Midlands to put on your bucket list
In the latest instalment of her fifty treasures of the British Isles series, Charlotte Mullins takes a look at what's to be found in the Midlands.
Breaking the Ice (Age)
Creswell Crags, Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border
Mother Grundy’s Parlour and Robin Hood Cave can be found here.
In a set of caves on the Nottinghamshire to Derbyshire border are some of the oldest British carvings in existence. The caves carry Victorian names, such as Mother Grundy’s Parlour and Robin Hood Cave, but the reindeer, birds and horned bovids incised on the walls date to the end of the last Ice Age. During the peak of the Devensian period, ice sheets a mile thick crunched their way across the northern half of Britain, but, about 16,000 years ago, this ice retreated and hunter-gatherers returned. They lived in caves and occasionally left behind markings on the walls that remain visible. The carvings date from 13,000–14,000 years ago and there are 90 in total, as well as several bone fragments engraved with horses and bison (now in the British Museum in London).
Heart of stone
The Church of St Mary and St David, Kilpeck, Herefordshire
These small stone trusses, known as corbels, can be found in The Church of St Mary in Kilpeck.
St Mary’s Church in Kilpeck was built in about 1140 and has a semicircular apse and Norman nave. However, it is not its interior that makes it notable today. Holding up the roof and exterior wall beams are dozens of small stone trusses known as corbels, all carved with a wide range of people and animals. There are horses and pigs, a ram’s head and floating fish, moustachioed men and figures caught in the jaws of performing bears. And, tucked in a corner, is a Sheela-na-Gig. Found all over Europe, Sheela-na-Gigs are naked women whose spread legs reveal enlarged vaginas. They may be related to Celtic fertility goddesses or associated with the ancient pagan spring festival that celebrated rebirth (and became Easter).
A game of risk
Portrait of Abd al-Wahid bin Mas’ud, University of Birmingham, Birmingham
London was a teeming multicultural centre for global trade by the end of the 16th century. It was also at the heart of Elizabeth I’s growing empire. Ireland had been colonised and the Queen had set her sights across the Atlantic, but the troublesome Spanish kept jeopardising her plans with their attacks and interventions. In this portrait by an unknown artist, we are shown Abd al-Wahid bin Mas’ud, an ambassador from Barbary (northern Africa), who had travelled to London to ask for the Queen’s help in dealing with the Spanish. His king wished to attack Spain and called on Elizabeth for support, but she refused. Bin Mas’ud stayed in London long enough to have his portrait painted. Visitors such as him may have been the inspiration behind Shakespeare’s play Othello, first staged in 1604.
A trick up his sleeve
Antonio Verrio, The Heaven Room, Burghley House, Lincolnshire
A heavenly sight.
Antonio Verrio was born in Puglia, Italy, and found initial success in Toulouse, France, but it was in England that he made his mark on history. Summoned by Charles II in 1676 to decorate his new apartments at Windsor Castle, he went on to complete 15 ceilings and four staircases before Charles died in 1685. The Italian remained loyal to the Stuart cause and initially refused to work for William III. Instead, he was employed by John Cecil, 5th Earl of Exeter, at Burghley House, Lincolnshire. Verrio’s Heaven Room is an incredible feat of Baroque trompe l’oeil, with classical gods and goddesses weaving between ornate Corinthian colonnades and a winged Mercury and leaping horse appearing to hover impossibly overhead. It’s hard to see where the painting ends and the room begins — door lintels supporting floral displays turn out to be two-dimensional and the heavily corniced ceiling is also pure paint.
Let there be (candle)light
Works by Joseph Wright of Derby, Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derbyshire
'A Philosopher Giving that Lecture on the Orrery, in Which a Lamp Is Put in the Place of the Sun' by Joseph Wright of Derby.
A young Joseph Wright moved to London to study, showing his portraits at the Society of Artists, but he soon returned to Derby, where he spent much of his career. It was here that he painted the scientific ‘candlelight’ paintings that became his most famous works. The Derby Museum and Art Gallery now holds the largest number of his paintings in the world, including A Philosopher Giving that Lecture on the Orrery, in Which a Lamp Is Put in the Place of the Sun (exhibited in 1766). In a darkened room, Wright lights up the orrery, a machine tracking the orbits of the planets around the sun — and illuminates the enraptured faces of all who gaze upon it. (The painting is currently on display at the National Gallery, London WC2, in ‘Wright of Derby: From the Shadows’, to May 10, 2026, when the show will transfer to Derby.)
Risen from the ashes
Coventry Cathedral, West Midlands
The new church at Coventry Cathedral took six years to build.
On November 14, 1940, German bombs devastated Coventry — all that was left of the cathedral was a smoking, roofless shell. By 1954, work had begun to rebuild it, following an architectural competition won by Basil Spence. He chose to situate the new building next to the ruins, rather than over them, and employed leading artists to enhance his resolutely modern design. Graham Sutherland’s 75ft tapestry behind the altar shows Christ in Glory in the Tetramorph; Elisabeth Frink designed the eagle lectern; John Piper’s Baptistery window illuminates the interior; and John Hutton’s etched glass screen allows angels to float over the ruins of the old cathedral. The new church took six years to build and was consecrated in May 1962.
Unappreciated in his time
The Wall, Anwar Shemza, Birmingham Museums Trust, Birmingham
'The Wall' by Anwar Shemza.
Anwar Shemza was a successful artist in Pakistan before he decided to further his studies at the Slade School of Fine Art in London in 1956. His former standing was not recognised in the British capital and he lost his confidence, taking solace in the galleries of the British Museum. It was here that he connected with Islamic art and, fusing this with his admiration for the watercolours of Paul Klee, created a distinctive new style that, in 1958, led to his early key painting The Wall. Despite his later success with his ‘Magic Carpet’ and ‘Chessmen’ series, he moved to Stafford in 1961 with his wife, the British artist Mary Taylor, and took a job as an art teacher. The rehabilitation of his reputation began in earnest four years after his death, when The Wall was chosen to feature on the cover of the catalogue for the important exhibition ‘The Other Story’, held at the Hayward Gallery in London in 1989.
You can see our previous instalments on the North of England, the East of England, London, Wales, Scotland and Ireland by following the links.
This feature originally appeared in the December 31, 2025, issue of Country Life. Click here for more information on how to subscribe.
