Canadian reunites 152-year-old painting with pub

A man has brought a 152-year-old painting that sat in his Canada basement back to the rural British pub it depicts.

John Marrack, 74, a British national who lives in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, inherited the 1872 painting of the Claydon Greyhound pub near Ipswich from his late mother.

He decided to reunite the artwork with pub staff on his annual visit to family and friends in the UK, admitting that he "had to look up where Claydon was", as first reported by the East Anglian Daily Times.

Pub manager Rachael Howlett said staff were amazed by Mr Marrack's kind act.

"I inherited it from my mother who must have picked it up somewhere and transported it to the United States of America," Mr Marrack explained.

"It was then sitting in my basement in Canada and I thought about it before I looked up where Claydon was.

"As it happened, one of my cousins now lives in Woodbridge in Suffolk - just up the road from Claydon.

"I thought I should really repatriate it to the Greyhound pub, so I called them up."

Mr Marrack said his mother "would find all kinds of things" in junk shops and antique stores, but it was not clear where she found the Henry John Wykes painting.

He believes she may have purchased it as far back as the 1960s.

"I seem to remember hanging it on her wall somewhere before I inherited her stuff," he added.

Mr Marrack, who was originally from the south of England and has lived in Canada since 1974, said returning the painting was "a lovely moment".

"When I produced it, they looked at it and said, 'Oh my gosh, it looks exactly as the pub does now'."

Mr Marrack said he also discovered a painting in Florida of the Fastnet race of 1985 leaving the Isle of Wight - which remarkably had his friend's house in the background.

Ms Howlett said the painting, now hanging in the Claydon Greyhound, had "character" and had got pub-goers talking.

"I thought, wow, what on earth was it doing in Canada?" she said.

"I think he just found it really nice to find the pub it was painted of and give it to us.

"It's just nice that you can recognise it as the Claydon Greyhound.

"A few of my customers have asked if I am the lady in the bonnet in the painting - I'm not that old," she said.

Follow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email [email protected] or WhatsApp us on 0800 169 1830