The Seasons mural at Myton School

The Seasons mural at Myton School

A mural depicting The Seasons, by Alan Sorrell, RWS (1904-1974), at the former Oken School (now Myton School). The mural itself is listed at Grade II; the school building is not included in the listing.

The mural is painted in oil paint directly onto prepared plaster. It measures approximately 52 feet (16 metres) in length and covers an entire wall, incorporating two sets of double doors to the hall beyond. The composition is entitled The Seasons and presents a complex, multi-layered narrative: reading from left to right, it depicts activities associated with the seasons, beginning and ending with Winter. Simultaneously, it encompasses four distinct phases of the day from sunrise to sunset, and traces the ages of man from youth to old age. The subjects were intended to be instructive to school pupils, teaching them about farming practices, landscape, and architecture, whilst also engaging their imaginations through fantastical elements such as a large dragon perched on a mountain top.

The mural is highly detailed and executed in Sorrell's characteristically muted polychrome palette. Naturalistic foliage and landscape form the setting for the depicted activities. The crowded yet expansive composition, filled with numerous figures inhabiting the foreground and middle ground, shows the influence of Renaissance painters Breughel and Benozzo Gozzoli, whose work Sorrell had studied extensively. The composition is continuous, with light changing progressively from left to right: thin, dawn light on the left transitions to brighter daytime conditions, ending in sunset on the right. Life-sized figures in the foreground embody the changing seasons, with additional activities depicted in the middle and background.

The leftmost section shows a rocky bay with strong winds and a small boat. A couple with a baby walk barefoot up the shore—the woman wears a shawl over her head and carries the infant. Cliffs rise behind them, and the composition accommodates one of the doorways, beyond which a lighthouse stands on the shore in the middle ground. Figures move among cottages with lit windows and smoking chimneys. This section leads into Spring, where a cloaked shepherd carrying a crook and a small lamb ushers sheep from a hurdle pen. A small girl dances and plays barefoot nearby, with spring flowers at her feet. In the middle ground, figures outside a nineteenth-century brick building gesture into the background, one directing a telescope toward a large dragon atop a vertiginous cliff above a smoking volcano. A stand of trees provides a naturalistic division between Spring and Summer sections.

Summer is depicted by a male figure with a scythe and a seated companion resting from harvesting grain. The field extends back through the scene with smaller mid-ground figures gathering cut stalks into stooks. Beyond lies a walled town with a massive Norman gatehouse approached by mounted soldiers carrying standards. Medieval gabled buildings and a church with a tall spire are visible. In the background, a calm bay contains a sailing ship, with hills rising beyond. To the right of the scything figure, a woman with a basket reaches up to pick apples from a tree in full green leaf, whilst a boy picks blackberries from a bush and a small girl tugs at her skirt.

The scene transitions to Autumn: an elderly man sits in a wattle shelter with a blanket over his knees, warming his hands at a small smoking fire; a sleeping dog lies at his feet. Behind him, women gather faggots of firewood beneath trees with yellowing and browning leaves. In the background, huddled figures cross a narrow bridge over a rushing stream, above which a tree has been felled in high winds. Autumn mist lies in the valley. Background action continues on a hilltop rising above the second doorway, where Autumn gives way to Winter: bare trees are being felled in a row with snow on the ground.

The final section, to the right of the second doorway, completes the cycle with Winter. A woman stands at an open gate in a picket fence, facing away from the viewer with her head covered by a fringed shawl. She watches a male figure with a stick walking away in the middle ground on a snowy path edged by bare trees, heading toward grey, snow-covered mountains.

In 2015, a false wall was constructed several inches outside the mural to protect it from potential damage. The wall is provided with ventilation grilles at intervals along its top and bottom. The false wall and the school building itself are not included in the listing.