The afternoon was devoted to contemporary woodworkers including the local firm Charles Taylor Woodwork responsible for numerous functional but carefully designed and beautifully made pieces for Marchmont including trestle tables based on one of Gimson’s designs. Adrian McCurdy who makes cleft oak furniture and decorative carved panels nearby in Jedburgh is very much part of the living Arts & Crafts tradition through his father Alec, a fine furniture maker who trained with Edward Barnsley at Froxfield near Petersfield. Another contemporary maker Nicholas Hobbs introduced us to his work culminating in his impressive pieces he designed and made for St Hugh’s Chapel, Lincoln Cathedral in 2017 – furniture that is full of meaning yet intensely practical. One of the highlights for many of us was the intensely personal and moving short film The Chair Maker: Lawrence Neal produced by Hugo Burge. The last in line from Gimson’s chair-making enterprise, Lawrence is now being supported to train two apprentices who will carry on the craft in new workshops at Marchmont. Some of Lawrence’s chairs and those of his father are in the regular use at Bedales and a new addendum to the film was a series of interviews with ex-students who treasure their formative experiences studying in the school’s library including the furniture maker David Linley, the Earl of Snowdon. Other attractions include the local reservoirs at Cropston and Swithland, with golf at Rothley and The Beacon. You are placed on two Sub Committees of the Secular Society and I ditto. The Conference was very firey. One speaker ventured to describe the clergy of today as ‘a horde of bandits’ and another as ‘lowering mankind below the brutes’. Nothing could better please our audience, to them it was about the most enjoyable evening they had had for some time.’ Sapperton Farm, (fn. 34) was a small 18th-century farmhouse to which a large, gabled, Cotswold-style south

Sitting room, a wonderful feature inglenook fireplace with open fire, exposed beams and wall light points.When his elder brother somewhat reluctantly arranged for the sale of the shares Gimson sent an account of his business. The letter is dated May 1904:

Gimson designed a compact capital city of 25,000 inhabitants that would be able to support itself based on neighbouring farms and small-scale industry. The city is entirely concentrated along the south bank of an artificial lake and centred on a wooded park containing Kurrajong Hill and Camp Hill, with the streets of the city radiating down from there toward the lakeside. Ernest William Gimson (21 December 1864 – 12 August 1919) was an English furniture designer and architect. Gimson was described by the art critic Nikolaus Pevsner as "the greatest of the English architect-designers". Today his reputation is securely established as one of the most influential designers of the English Arts and Crafts movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Josiah Gimson died in 1883 when Gimson was 18. The business was left to Ernest’s two half-brothers, Josiah Mentor and Arthur, his elder brother Sydney and his cousin Josiah. Like many of his Arts and Crafts associates, Charles Robert Ashbee worked across a range of different design disciplines, ranging from interior decoration to jewellery. He established the Guild and School of Handicraft in 1888 to help realise the potential of craftspeople working in the East End of London. This organisation specialised in metalworking, and in the late 1890s Ashbee and his associates began to design and produce silver tableware. Reacting deliberately against factory production, the Guild produced pieces whose hand-made status was emphasised by details such as visible hammer marks. Ashbee's designs were celebrated for their simplicity and focus, and his restrained aesthetic had a significant influence on contemporary silver design not only in Britain but also Europe and America.Dorothy Walker recalled one evening in 1899 when her mother, a committed Christian, got into a heated discussion with Gimson about religion and the possibility of an everlasting life. He was a tall, well-built man with a slight stoop, a large rather heavy face, except when he smiled, a brown moustache and wide-open contemplative eyes. His expression was that of a man entirely at peace with himself and all the world. His tweed suit hung loosely over a soft shirt and collar, with a silk tie threaded through a ring. Being summer he wore a panama hat instead of his usual cloth cap, but in all seasons he wore heavy hobnailed boots made for him by a cobbler in Chalford.’ What sort of person was he? Ernest William Gimson ( / ˈ dʒ ɪ m s ən/; 21 December 1864 – 12 August 1919) was an English furniture designer and architect. Gimson was described by the art critic Nikolaus Pevsner as "the greatest of the English architect-designers". [1] Today his reputation is securely established as one of the most influential designers of the English Arts and Crafts movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Lethaby, W. R.; Powell, Alfred H. and Griggs, F. L. Ernest Gimson, His Life & Work. Stratford-upon-Avon: Shakespeare Head Press.

A stunning Grade II listed thatched cottage nestling within the highly sought after Charnwood Forest. The area is particularly well placed for fast access into Leicester and the Endowed Schools at Loughborough, whilst junction 22 of the M1 motorway is at nearby Markfield. Annette Carruthers, Mary Greensted and Barley Roscoe discuss the life and legacy of Ernest Gimson on the 100th anniversary of his death … Sydney Gimson owned an iron foundry in Leicester and wanted a summer retreat in the idyllic countryside setting of Charnwood Forest where he, his wife Jeannie and their two children could escape from the noise and smoke of the industrial city. He turned to his brother Ernest, one of the most influential artists in the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Annette Carruthers, Mary Greensted and Barley Roscoe discuss the life and legacy of Ernest Gimson on the 100th anniversary of his death …

Comino, Mary (1980). Gimson and the Barnsleys:'Wonderful furniture of a commonplace kind' . London: Evans Brothers Limited. ISBN 0237448955. The leafy suburbs of Stoneygate and Knighton, south of the city of Leicester, were rapidly developed in the second half of the nineteenth century. Spacious villas with large gardens were built for wealthy professionals and industrialists. Isaac Barradale built a number of houses in the area in the 1870s and ‘80s including Carrisbrooke at 238 London Road and The Hawthorns at 12 Knighton Park Road for Wilmot Pilsbury, first principal of Leicester School of Art. Gimson would also have been familiar with Woodville in Knighton Park Road, the villa built by J B Everard for his own use in 1883. Everard was also the architect of the Vulcan Road Works for the family firm, Gimson and Company. As a young man William Arthur Smith Benson completed his training in the office of Basil Champneys, an architect who helped revive the late Gothic style favoured by the Arts and Crafts Movement. Through Champneys Benson was introduced to William Morris, who encouraged him to establish a small workshop for the production of turned metalwork. Unlike Morris, Benson fully embraced the potential of mechanical production and designed exclusively for it. A founder member of the Art Workers' Guild (established in 1884), Benson created a commercially successful range of oil and electric light fittings, and household utensils in copper brass, electroplate and silver. Following Morris's death in 1896, Benson became Managing Director of Morris & Co., for which he also designed furniture and wallpaper. Garden room, French door to the rear elevation with stunning views, wood strip flooring and further French doors to the side elevation.