Stoneywell Cottage and crafts

Sorry for the late post! I got carried away last evening, watching craftspeople at work on ‘The Great Pottery Throwdown’! If you're really interested, there's a wikipedia page which analyses all the series of this programme! I’ve also been watching craftspeople on another television show, which has a local connection …

My first and indeed only visit to Stoneywell, the arts and crafts cottage in the hills around the Charnwood Forest, created by Ernest Gimson for his brother, was way back in April 2015, although I had been following its fate since 2012, as a friend of mine was a friend of the owner, so we were aware that plans were being made. And so it was that in spring 2013, the National Trust announced that Stoneywell cottage and grounds had come into its possession, and the house and estate was opened to the public in February 2015.  

I hadn’t realised I’d visited quite so long ago, nor quite so soon after the place opened, but I do remember having a lovely time looking around the wonderful house and beautiful gardens. You can see some photos of my visit on one of my earlier blogposts, but the reason for today’s post is that I have been watching a wonderful programme on the television for the past couple of weeks, which involves craftspeople being given a mentor and trying to improve their crafting skill and techniques, and help with either starting their business or improving their business skills.

Why has this reminded me about Stoneywell, you ask? Well, that’s because the programme is filmed at Stoneywell, so not only is it great to see the craftspeople at work, and follow their development, it’s also a treat to see the house and gardens from angles that wouldn’t normally be possible. And what better place to film craftspeople at work, than Stoneywell, with its history and associations with the Arts and Crafts movement.

 

The programme is called ‘Make it at Market’, and to date has featured people working in all types of craft – glassblowing, pottery, woodturning, furniture upcycling, willow weaving, blacksmithing, stone carving, machine embroidering, painting, and more! One person was even creating shaving brushes: I wonder if she knew there was one on display in the house when I visited in 2015?! Actually, I wonder if it is still there?!

This, of course, has reminded me about many local craftspeople in our own town and nearby, whose work can be seen at various events, or in various places. Below are just a few examples.

On a visit to an exhibition at Nanpantan Hall in May last year, I was lucky enough to see the willow work of Maggie Cooper, which I’d also seen the previous year at a similar event at the hall:

 

I believe there were several generations of the Porter family, blacksmithing in Loughborough, who at one time had their smithy close to the Cross Keys pub, now, of course, the Phantom. I can’t quite remember if these gates pictured below were made by the Porters or the Burrell family, around about 2018:

 

And, of course, the town and locality boasts many talented potters, many of whom display and sell their work at what has now become the annual pottery market in the Market Place, usually sometime in May! I've written earlier about the 2014 market and the 2021 market.  

The creative work of many other talented local craftspeople is often showcased in the Town Hall Sock Gallery, occasionally artists’ workshops open to the public ,like the Albert Street Artists based on Southfields Road, and creative work can also be seen around the town, like Barry Bulsara’s mural at the back of Hospital Court close to the cinema, the swan maze in Queen’s Park, created by local sculptor David Tarver (which is possibly moved within the park to create space for the Hope Bell), and The Signaler in The Rushes by John Atkin.

Mural by Barry Bulsara

Swan maze by David Tarver (1931-2014)

Signaler by John Atkin

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posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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Thank you for reading this blog. You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2023). Stoneywell Cottage and crafts. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2023/01/stoneywell-cottage-and-crafts.html  [Accessed 23 January 2023]

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Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne 

William Morris and Ladybird Books connections

Last week on the blog I focussed on hurricanes, inspired by my visit to the ThinkTank in Birmingham, and I promised I'd share my other discoveries from the Mint Cemetery and Winterbourne House. The latter has become even more relevant over the last week, but I can't for the life of me work out what connections I found between Loughborough and the Mint Cemetery! Well, here's a few pictures anyway:

The Mint Cemetery (aka Warstone)

A familiar name, but no relation to Loughborough's family

The catacombs

War grave

When we'd finished at the cemetery, we walked back through the jewellery quarter, and along the route saw a few 1920s and Art Deco buildings. If you're interested in Art Deco - and Loughborough has plenty of it! - don't miss the exhibition in the public library at the moment, which focusses on Loughborough's Art Deco buildings.

The Art Deco Electric Cinema from New Street station

An Art Deco building with familiar tiling

A 1920s building. Crittall windows, perhaps?

The walk to Winterbourne house also took us along the canal - which of course reminded me of Loughborough - which ran within feet of the railway line. 

Winterbourne House is a most exciting Arts and Crafts house, built around 1903, to the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement that was started by William Morris. The owner of Winterbourne, John Sutton Nettlefold, was instrumental in improving housing for the people of Birmingham and described as a pioneer of town planning. He was appalled by the Birmingham 'courts', where lots of dwellings were clustered around a central yard, with no access to any kind of garden, but with plenty of open sewers. There were quite a number of similar areas in Loughborough, although many have now been demolished or replaced.

One of Loughborough's extant Courts

Nettlefold (1) was also a believer in the idea of the 'garden city', and providing open spaces amongst new housing developments: Shelthorpe is our local example (more about this in 'Secret Loughborough'). 

Gateway to Shelthorpe!

As well as housing, Nettlefold was also involved in a company called Kynoch who made gun cartridges, for hunting, and apparently Annie Oakley, when touring England with Buffalo Bill, paid tribute to Kynoch's production of ammunition! You would be right in thinking that Buffalo Bill and his group came to Loughborough, in 1903, although I don't think Annie was on that particular trip (a little more in 'Secret Loughborough'). 

As well as the footprint and architectural design of Winterbourne House, much of the interior decoration also reflected the fashions of the time, with period furniture, little Arts and Crafts features and walls covered with patterns of the time. The garden of Winterbourne House was designed by Nettlefold's wife following the ideas presented by Gertrude Jekyll. 

It wasn't until last week that I made another exciting discovery, which links Loughborough to the likes of Winterbourne House, when I watched a television programme about renovating an Edwardian property (3). This was hosted by George Clarke (an architect hero of my youngest child), who actually came to Loughborough to visit the former Ladybird factory on Beeches Road - lovingly named Ladybird House - which is now home to what is known as Anstey Wallpaper Company. Now, I was aware that the company had taken over many other wallpaper designers/manufacturers, but hadn't realised that they actually had an archive (2) of block prints used in the printing of paper, going back to the 1860s and the time of William Morris! From the shots shown in the programme, the archive looked immense - and exciting! I now feel inspired to go back to the Leicester Print Workshop and take some classes in block printing - not that I could ever produce anything as stunning as William Morris, and other proponents of the Arts and Crafts movement! 

Grand Designs Show, 2009

Of course, one of the most striking Arts and Crafts houses in our area is Stoneywell Cottage, designed by Ernest Gimson, now owned by the National Trust. I feel another visit coming on ...

Stoneywell Cottage

(1) Please note that although this website is an interesting history, it does suggest that John Nettlefold's wife, Margaret, was the daughter of Arthur Chamberlain, whereas the information presented in Winterbourne House says that she was the daughter of Joseph Chamberlain. Whilst I am keen to share the work of other local history groups, I am concerned about this information, but deem the rest of the information on the site to be of interest. If I had time, I would check these claims out for myself, but sadly I don't, and they are only vaguely related to the focus of my blog. Feel free to do a bit of digging for yourself - and let me know the outcome!!

(2) There is a separate page for the archive, although it appears not to have a different url. In order to access it click 'Design' from the lefthand menu, which will open up 3 sub-options from which click 'Archive'.

(3) Hurry!! Only 16 days left to watch!! Series 6, Episode 2.

You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follow:

Dyer, Lynne (2020). William Morris and the Ladybird Books connection. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2020/01/wiliam-morris-and-ladybird-books.html  [Accessed 26 January 2020]

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I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne  

Ernest Gimson and Andrew Carnegie

You may be wondering why I am writing a blogpost about Ernest Gimson and Andrew Carnegie, and what on earth these two people might have had in common. 

Both questions are easy enough to answer, but let's start with the latter!

Andrew Carnegie died on August 11th 1919: Ernest Gimson died on August 12th 1919. Thus, August 11-12 is the centenary of the deaths of Gimson and Carnegie, both of whom have a strong connection to our area.

As a librarian by day, and a customer of libraries for the past 55 years, the name Andrew Carnegie has been familiar to me for most of my life. However, it wasn't until I did my Leicestershire your guide training in 2012-2013, and on our exam walk one of my fellow tour guides mentioned our public library, and that he himself had been awarded a Carnegie Scholarship to study at university, that I started to wonder about Carnegie, the man and the frequency with which his name seemed to appear.

So, Carnegie, born in Scotland in 1835, emigrated to the United States with his family when he was in his very early teens. He began working as a bobbin boy in a cotton mill, followed by a stint as a telegraph messenger, then telegraph operator, then superintendent with part of the Pennsylvania railroad. With his steady job, Carnegie was able to trade in shares, and to cut an enormously long story short, he made a very large fortune in the US steel industry. At one time, Carnegie was allegedly the richest man in the US, but, of course, by the time he died he had given away much of his fortune.  

Probably one of the most familiar things associated with Andrew Carnegie are the many public libraries in the UK that bear his name, which includes Loughborough's own! Ours was designed by local architects Barrowcliffe and Allcock, was constructed in 1903-5 and, like many others, is a listed building. I think the first library in Loughborough was a subscription library down on Baxter Gate, which was only available to those who could afford to pay the subscription. The first free public library was on the corner of Ashby Road and Green Close Lane.

Carnegie's connection with these libraries is that he donated some, if not all of the money towards the cost of the buildings. Seems like the idea of match funding has been around far longer than the Heritage Lottery Fund, since Carnegie would only donate the building costs as long as the local authority paid to equip the building and for maintenance costs.  It's possible that Carnegie's strong feeling about the education and welfare of less fortunate children was influenced by his own experience, particularly when Colonel James Anderson made his own personal library available once a week to working boys. 

Not only did Carnegie donate money to the building of libraries - in the UK and the US - he also funded a range of other buildings, like museums (e.g. the Melton [Mowbray] Carnegie Museum), concert halls (e.g. the Carnegie Hall in New York), educational institutions like Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, the Carnegie educational scholarship as mentioned above, and the Carnegie Medal for children's literature in the UK.

Some Carnegie libraries in the UK are now under threat, as council budgets contract, for example in Abergavenny where a recent plan was to erect a mezzanine level in the market hall for use as a library, while other libraries are being renovated (like Harrogate public library) while others remain as they are, like ours.

Kendal Carnegie Library

Loughborough Carnegie Library

Moving on to Ernest Gimson, we find that he was born in Leicester, son of Josiah Gimson, the engineer and iron founder who owned the Gimson Engineering Company which in turn owned the Vulcan Works. Ernest Gimson was in training to be an architect with the well-known Leicester architect, Isaac Barradale, when he heard William Morris, a leader in the arts and crafts movement, deliver a lecture at the Secular Hall in Leicester. So influenced was he that Gimson moved to London to work as an architect and designer, following Morris's ethos. 

Together with his friends and colleagues, the Barnsley brothers, Gimson moved to Gloucestershire where they worked until Gimson's death in 1919. During his lifetime, Gimson built three homes for his close relatives in Leicestershire, one of which became a home for Donald Gimson, and is our local Stoneywell Cottage, up at Ulverscroft. It's now run by the National Trust and really worth a visit. It's a lovely cottage, full of arts and crafts furniture and decoration, with lots of local slate.          

And there I must leave you for the week!

Below are some useful and interesting websites with more information:

Andrew Carnegie: pioneer, visionary, innovator.

Restoration of Harrogate public library, 2019 and before restoration. 

Statutory Listing for Harrogate public library

Listing for Abergavenny public library

One proposal for a replacement library for Abergavenny (the Morrisons store has been built but not the library: there have been other proposals which include creating a mezzanine floor in the market hall to house the library, but the link is not currently working).

You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follow:

Dyer, Lynne (2019). Ernest Gimson and Andrew Carnegie. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2019/08/ernest-gimson-and-andrew-carnegie.html [Accessed 11 August 2019]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne   

Picnic in Queen's Park and more

Last Saturday saw the 39th annual Loughborough Picnic in the Park, organised by Charnwood Arts. The day was so wet and windy that there was talk of cancelling the event, until Fearon Hall came up trumps and the picnic was transferred to the 'the urban village in the heart of the Loughborough' and the whole kit and caboodle moved in!

It was a bit of a squash, but the many and varied stalls were set out in the main hall, and performances took place in the upstairs space and one of the downstairs rooms, while some things still took place outside the hall, at moments when the weather permitted. It was crowded and noisy inside, but everyone who was looking after a stall, and everyone who visited seemed to be having fun! At one point Queen Victoria and her consort, Prince Albert popped in to enjoy the festive occasion of their 200th birthday!

The rain has been such that at the end of this week, into this weekend, and Queen's Park is pretty waterlooged, with ducks paddling on the paths, the swan maze having an added dimension and the grass drowning. The park is riddled underneath with little streams that meet up with the Wood Brook in various places (I did find a map once, but, of course, I can't find it now). 

Last Sunday I spent the day in Birmngham, singing with the CBSO and a number of community choirs and individual singers. We had quite a long break, and so off I went in search of Loughborough connections! Near the venue was an arts and crafts house called Winterbourne House and botanic gardens, so I popped in to have a look to see if it were anything like Stoneywell Cottage, the house in Charnwood that Ernest Gimson designed for one of his brothers. Of course, it wasn't. In fact, it was totally different! Stoneywell is constructed of the local stone, and Swithland slate, whereas Winterbourne is of red brick construction. There was, however, an interesting use of slate for sculptures in the garden, upon which quotes had been carved. Inside I learned that Annie Oakley who had come to Britain with Buffalo Bill praised the firm owned by the owner of Winterbourne House for their ammunition.

The extensive gardens were beautiful and I was keen to see if the greenhouses and orangery might have a connection to share. Of course, they didn't! No Messenger conservatories here! In an area so close to the city of Birmingham where at one time there were extensive factories and foundries, it was always going to be the case that any ironwork would be produced there!

Back on the University of Birmingham campus, on my walk round I spotted a lovely building that reminded me of Towers on our own university campus, allbeit a little smaller! 

During the week I headed off to the New Walk Museum in Leicester to catch the Mods exhibition. Wow! That was fabulous! I was rather taken with the pinball machine they were auctioning off for charity, as it reminded me of my misspent youth!! And the beautiful scooters reminded me of the bike show in Loughborough market place, which I blogged about last year. Also on display was a bit of Loughborough memorabilia.

This weekend I spent Saturday in Market Harborough and Foxton, attending wedding celebrations. The connection with Loughborough that I was immediately aware of was me, as I had my wedding meal at Foxton Locks a few years ago!! And then, as I was walking around the village hall, I spotted some photographs which included some familiar names (Guy Paget, of the Ibstock Pagets, Hazlerigg, and Colonel Martin) and on the way home, we drove along a road in the village called Swingbridge Street, and over the swingbridge which crossed the canal, which, of course, reminded me of Loughborough's own Swingbridge Road.

The happy couple!

Today I managed to dodge most of the rain showers and headed down to the market place to see the cars on show - and what a show!!! Loads and loads of vehicles of all shapes and sizes, and so many people too!!

To round off the day I walked over to Rosebery Community Centre (formerly St Peter's Community Centre) to view artworks created by local folk. Talented artists showed a huge variety of their work, from pottery to jewellery, paintings to wirework, and tyedye to printing. 

Gosh, a busy 10 days! And as if that weren't enough, I got myself a new car! Oh, and preview copies of my new book arrived through the post for me! 

You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follow:

Dyer, Lynne (2019). Picnic in Queen's Park and more. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2019/06/picnic-in-queens-park-and-more.html  [Accessed 16 June 2019]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne