Nicholson was one of the most distinguished pioneers of abstract art in Britain. He spent several years with his wife Winifred Nicholson (q.v.) at Bankshead, a 17th century farmhouse built over a Roman mile castle near Lanercost Priory. There he painted views of Cold Fell and Tindale Fell. Winifred Nicholson (1893 - 1981) best-known for her flower paintings, and window views of the North Pennine fells, spent most of her life after the divorce in 1930 living at her father’s house at Boothby and at Bankshead. She was often visited there by the poet Kathleen Raine (q.v.)