There are eight tours in the book, Petit’s Tours of Old Staffordshire, however these can be grouped into four regions for display and exhibition: Greater Ashbourne and Dovedale; Tong and Shifnal regions in East Shropshire; Stafford and surrounds; and Lichfield and surrounds. This excludes the Black Country pictures covered in the second theme.
Therefore we start a few more from the Greater Ashbourne and Dovedale pictures, and a couple each from Stafford and Shropshire. The first group from Derbyshire appear to have been completed during the 1830s and especially a three month painting trip in 1838 to Norbury, Ashbourne and Dovedale, when he was consciously experimenting.
1. Factory near Mayfield. This is now Mayfield Yarns. It straddles the river Dove and is recognizeable today
2. Norbury Church. Petit painted this and Ashbourne church multiple times, seemingly experimenting with capturing effect just before his first major trip to the continent in 1839
3. Ashbourne Church. Unlike Norbury, despite painting this inside and out numerous times, this church did not get included in his publications on church architecture.
5. Near Norbury, tree study, March 1838.
6. Stafford, 1830s
7. Tong Church, c1842
9. White Ladies priory, 1845