As chair of Newport & Carisbrooke Community Council, I was delighted that we agreed to host John Constable’s painting “The Cornfield” in our new offices at 64 High Street.

The event took place as part of the National Gallery’s Constable Visits programme.

As well as being a beautiful painting, it is a connection to our national history. The scene from Suffolk would have been one familiar to many on the Isle of Wight at the same time.

Awareness and understanding of our history is something that the community council is keen to promote. We are developing a heritage area in our offices to help with that. At present it has an Enfield 8000 electric car designed on the Isle of Wight in the early 1970s.