The Battle of the Boggarts

"Battle of the Boggarts" may have inspired the larger 1957 painting “Men of Straw” owned by Nottingham City Museums & Galleries.

Richard picks up the roller motif here that he first used in his 1936 work Cornish Landscape with Roller.

It is night time… when all the scary things happen! Perhaps that childhood fear never quite leaves us, and Dad has enjoyed revelling in these goings-on. Our Mother was reading Worzel Gummidge aloud which sparked the idea for this riot. The windows of the farm cottage in the background are eyes wide with horror but there is huge glee here in the violence and sheer mess! The hay-loader though full of lethal spikes looks somewhat like a party game. The whole picture is designed to be frightening and yet fun at the same time. [PB]

A "boggart" is variously described as a shapeshifter fairy or ogre of households or fields that takes the form of the viewer's worst fear.