OIL paintings are not a subject that occupies this feature page very often, but perhaps they should. Because a new book has been published which shows Worcestershire and Herefordshire to be awash with publically owned works of art.

Most are not on show, but stashed away in the vaults, hopefully increasing in value. At which point they could be sold off to fill in a few potholes in the road, improve rubbish collections or put a few more bobbies on the beat.

I jest, I hasten to add. Although the thought of all this artistic wealth sloshing about to no obvious purpose does seem a trifle negligent. The tome that reveals just who has got what is the less than snappily titled The Public Catalogue Foundation Oil Paintings in Public Ownership – Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire. It comprises nearly 300 pages, includes more than 1,700 paintings drawn from 77 collections and weighs a ton – almost.

Among the bodies that have squirreled away the goodies are Worcestershire County Council, Worcester Guildhall, Worcester City Museum (obviously), Hereford Police Station (less obviously), Malvern Library, Bewdley Museum, Bromyard Community Hospital, Tenbury Wells Town Council and West Mercia Police Force headquarters.

The PCF (Public Catalogue Foundation) was obviously working from a very old map when it compiled the book, because in the Worcestershire section it includes Dudley, where the collection of the local museums service includes several nudes and a rather fetching painting of a lady tennis player. Obviously the Maria Sharapova of her day.

In his preamble, founder and chairman of the PCF Fred Hohler enthuses: “In Worcester, unexpected works by Nathaniel Sichel, Charles Napier Hemy and Stanhope Forbes coexist with others by Gilbert Spencer, Laura Knight, Duncan Grant and Bernard Meninsky and the Guildhall alone justifies a visit. But the real surprise is the utterly unexpected treasure store held by Dudley Museums Service.

“In its range and quality this is a collection of astonishing merit and deserves wide recognition. In fact little of the collection at Dudley had been photographed before the start of this project.”

Good for Dudley then and a winning forehand volley from the borough that everyone apart from the PCF knows has been in the metropolitan county of West Midlands since 1974.

The influence of Constable is clearly seen in the works by Worcester-born artist Benjamin Williams Leader at Worcester City Museum.

Mr Hohler said: “Leader’s paintings epitomise the English love of depicting their landscape as a rural idyll. A theme echoed by the works of another Worcester resident, composer Edward Elgar. Worcester City Museum contains an important selection of Leader’s work, displaying a great understanding of the nuances of English rural landscape. Also featured highly are the works depicting early 20th-century landscapes and interiors. This part of the collection represents the start of Modernism in British art, one of the highlights being Stanhope Alexander Forbes’ Chadding on Mount’s Bay (1902), showing children chadding (fishing) for herring.”

It’s good to see images once again of many of Worcester’s well-known names from the past. There is the long-serving town clerk Bertram Webster, in office for 25 years, the colourful character Frank Barnes, Mayor’s officer at the Guildhall for the same length of time, ace flyer Sheila Scott and Britain’s most famous white-faced clown Percy Huxter, who lived in Henwick Road and became a legend with Bertram Mills Circus.

Smaller collections make a sizeable and important contribution to the catalogue, including those at Worcester Porcelain Museum, Alexandra Hospital, Redditch, and the Elgar Birthplace Museum. Almost every town can boast a local artist and Leominster had an artist of great talent, John Scarlett Davis. Relatively unknown in his lifetime, his works now sit in major collections, including Tate Britain, and there are several examples in this book.

The Public Catalogue Foundation, which is a registered charity, has three aims. First, it intends to create a complete illustrated record of the nation’s collection of oil, tempera and acrylic paintings in public ownership. Second, it intends to make this accessible to the public through a series of affordable catalogues and, as soon as possible, through a free website. Finally, it aims to raise funds for the conservation and restoration of oil paintings in the care of participating collections.

It is estimated that there are some 200,000 oil paintings in public ownership in the UK. This includes works in museums as well as paintings in council buildings, universities, hospitals, police and fire stations. However, at any one time some 80 per cent of these are in storage or in locations without routine public access. The PCF aims to make this art available to the public, to be seen and appreciated. So you can once again recall the ebullient Frank Barnes, who would welcome tourist parties to the ornate Guildhall ballroom with the phrase: “This, ladies and gentlemen, is where the Mayor holds his balls and dances.” Priceless.

l The Public Catalogue Foundation Oil Paintings in Public Ownership – Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire costs £25, published by the PCF and available from the participating art collections, good bookshops and thepcf.org.uk