Local artist Florence Mare’s paintings offer a rare glimpse into a lost Yardley, capturing the area in the 1930s before development changed it forever.

Florence Mare was a Yardley-based artist celebrated for her paintings of landscapes and local life. Born in North Wales in 1875, she settled in Yardley in 1920 with her husband and two children, living in a bungalow on Stoney Lane.

Mare led an unusual life for her time. She was among the first female students at the London School of Economics and worked as personal secretary to the Marquis of Salisbury. She was described as formidable and intelligent, with a “majestic and imposing nature” and a keen interest in feminism.

Remarkably, Mare did not begin painting until she was 55, using her daughter’s school paints. Her talent was soon recognised by a tutor at the Birmingham School of Art, who encouraged her to study.

Her paintings captured Yardley’s countryside and village scenes before the development of the modern estate around Blakesley Hall and Old Yardley Village, preserving a vivid record of a disappearing landscape.

Alongside her art, Mare supported charitable causes, particularly the Brick League which raised funds for Birmingham Children’s Hospital. She left Yardley in 1938 and died in Cornwall in 1970.

The exhibition is free to enter and is in the Visitor Centre at Blakesley Hall, which is fully accessible.