ABOUT WILD SIDE ORIGINALS

by Kate McHale

Wild Side Originals are drawings and paintings inspired by a field in Bollington in the northwest of England, and its surrounding countryside.

We moved to our cottage in 2012 and fell in love with the brambly field on the other side of our garden fence. One of my children christened it the ‘Wild Side’ and the name stuck.

Two years later, by a random stroke of luck, we met a man in a pub who turned out to be the son of owner of the field. He put a word in for us and a couple of months later, the Wild Side was ours.

The brambles and gorse remain a great habitat for small mammals and nesting birds but now the native trees and meadow flowers are flourishing too.

My collection of hand-reared ducks and chickens wander about in peace, our neighbour’s sheep keep the grass short for us, the badger comes and goes, as does the fox and the heron and it’s fair to say we are constantly delighted by it.

Our cottage is in the Peak Park Fringes just beneath Bollington’s famous White Nancy monument on Kerridge Ridge - so you’ll see some of the rivers, hills and views from around here in the pictures too.

At the moment, all proceeds are going to my oldest son who’s fundraising for an amazing Conservation expedition to Borneo in 2022 with Camps International. So if you like what you see and want to buy anything, you’ll be contributing to a fantastic project. You can find out more about his trip at https://gofund.me/12826dbd