Ted and Hazel Coney featured in the book Some Shelford Lives

When interviewed Ted and Hazel were on the point of moving to Ely where he is to establish a new venture.

I’ve always been doing paintings about my travelling and our family life. The most significant painting was the one where I’ve made about forty drawings of lots of buildings in the village, particularly in Woollards Lane. I put these into a painting which is almost like a picture map with dotted lines showing everything coming to our house, 20 Woollards Lane; everything happens here. That was the idea of the painting. At least ten buildings either no longer exist or they’ve changed so much, like the ‘Corn and Coal Company’ and the newsagents. Some may be changed subtly.

I have done ‘Open Studio’ a few times, which is a thing that artists in the Cambridge area do, and it gave me the idea that I would run it as a little business. The idea is to have an ‘open studio’ Saturday and Sunday afternoons opening from June to September in high season. I’ll be charging people a modest fee to come in for a half hour tour of the paintings. But because there are over forty paintings I’ve worked out six different themes, so if you’ve enjoyed it, you can come back for a different viewing of different paintings.

The reason why we’re moving is because, as much as we love Great Shelford, it’s not on the footfall of any tourists, so it’s not the right place to do this. Whereas, where we’re hoping to move to in Ely, down Waterside near the Maltings, people are going there for the gallery, tea shop and the Marina. I’ve been on a business course and I’ve been doing all my homework, so it will be fun to embark on a kind of mini business, and see what happens. My paintings are not for sale, so it gives me a reason for keeping going. Each painting takes about a year with all the research. The climax of your visit will be to come into the studio to see the one that I’m working on at the moment. That’s the idea.