Herbert Royle (1870-1958) landscape painter, was born in Patricroft, near Manchester, but lived from 1924 onwards at the Manor House in the hamlet of Nesfield, near Ilkley, where he also had a studio, an old army hut, on the hillside above his home. Although ‘Manor House’ suggests a grand residence, in fact during Herbert’s time there it had no electricity and water was obtained at the village pump.
Herbert’s father, James, owned a newsagent’s shop, and Herbert attended school near his home. Having an aptitude for art, he trained at the Harris Institute, Preston, and also took lessons from the artist, John Buxton Knight, at his studio in Drayton, Middlesex, and was strongly influenced by Knight’s style of work. One of Herbert’s first paintings as a student was bought by Judge Walton, later Lord Chief Justice of England.
In 1918 Herbert left Lancashire and settled in Wharfedale, initially at Bolton Abbey, then at Nesfield, a hamlet near Ilkley. As one of the ‘Wharfedale Group’ of artists, including his friend, Kershaw Schofield, Royle drew particular inspiration from the countryside near his home and often depicted the River Wharfe valley in his work, although he also painted many Scottish scenes on climbing and walking holiday visits to the Western Highlands. The villages of Beinn Alligin and Diaberg in Wester Ross contained many of his paintings that he gave the crofters in payment for his lodgings.