Artwork captures the past
This watercolour painting, by Michael Charlton, is of the Harcourt House dated 1981. Michael (1923-2008) was a well-known Salisbury illustrator and art teacher and was instrumental in the campaign to create Salisbury Art Centre at St Edmund’s Church in the 1970s.
The watercolour depicts a view of Harcourt House which was the nurse training school between 1953-1992. The viewpoint is taken from Elizabeth Gardens and it looks towards the junction between Harcourt Terrace and Mill Road in Salisbury. Nurses are seen walking towards their next lesson, in uniforms of the time, including white hats, lab coats or a cloak.
The painting was donated to the library which was named after Dorothy Boulter. Dorothy was a nurse tutor at Harcourt House between 1959 – 1972.
Pictured is Dorothy in 1971 for the bi-centenary celebration of Salisbury Infirmary standing with a group of trainee student nurses dressed in yellow. Also shown is Dorothy teaching in an outdoor classroom during the summer. See more teaching images of Harcourt House
