Artist of the Week - Septimus Keen - Images from the village

There is still no explanation for the curious spheres that appeared buried on the outskirts of Septimus Keen.

Many of the days top scientists and psychics gathered to examine them and exchange theories and inevitably comparisons were drawn with the famous `Land Spheres' of Yorkshire's Black Meadow despite the lack of luminosity from those at the village of Septimus Keen.

Resident photographer Septimus Keen - who has featured in previous posts - provides the evidence for much of what is known about the strange and secretive daily life in the village of Septimus Keen. Her images and radical feminist views make her possibly the most significant resident after that of founder Septimus Keen himself. 

Here is a self portrait of Septimus with another of the village's more well known residents who before being invited to join the commune had performed for Princess Alexandra at Windsor Castle with a young Charlie Chaplin and The Eight Lancashire Lads. 

After Marcus Swift chose the village of Septimus Keen to recover from his near fatal crash on the Bexhill Seafront there was a brief craze among younger residents for assembling a convoy of sidecars and heading off into the countryside for picnics. This was brought to an end when a collision with the gates of Stonyhurst school drew attention to the unconventional commune and Septimus Keen was forced to ban all petrol driven vehicles from his village just as he had done Newspapers a few years earlier. 

This heavy handed approach to maintaining the village's integrity and survival was certainly one of the factors in the beginning of the end for the village of Septimus Keen.

Recently recovered from box of junk thrown out during a house clearance these four plates record the very first spring the inhabitants enjoyed at Septimus Keen. The sense of playful excitement and experimentation that were hallmarks of the early years is evident in this charming collection of images.