Stoneywell, Arts And Crafts Splendour in Rural Leicestershire

A National Trust adventure was long overdue and, now most of the properties have reopened after their winter break, we headed to the East Midlands to explore a property my friend Aril had alerted me to. Be warned, this post is very image heavy!

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 so he turned to his brother Ernest, one of the most influential artists in the Arts and Crafts Movement. The house remained in the Gimson family for over 100 years until it was purchased by the National Trust in 2013, and has been lovingly restored to show how the family lived and worked.  It opened to the public in February 2015.

Built between 1897 and 1899, from stones found in the immediate vicinity, Stoneywell gives the impression that it is an organic part of the landscape. The house is built on a slope and visitors have to walk around the house in order to get to the front door. The roof was originally thatched but following a fire in 1938 it was re-roofed in second-hand slates from nearby Swithland, a slate mine that ceased trading a couple of years earlier. To echo the contours of the hill on which the house is sited, the rooms, windows and roofline slope downwards and the ground floor in on three levels.The fireplace and doorway have slate lintels "rescued" from abandoned slate quarries. The stone walls were constructed using dry stone walls already on the site and clay from the immediate area. 

Stoneywell was the largest of a group of five cottages in Charnwood, one for each of the Gimson siblings. Rather than employ contractors, Gimson collaborated with a fellow Arts and Crafts architect, Detmar Blow. Following the principle that an architect should be able build what he designs, Blow had begun practical building alongside stonemasons in North Yorkshire. Ernest Gimson had suggested that it could be built for £500, whereas the final bill came in at £920. The cost over-run was not the only frustration experienced by Sydney. At the same time as building the Charnwood houses, Detmar Blow also had other commitments in Wiltshire and Suffolk. These used new techniques to preserve the stonework of ancient decayed walls, under the guidance of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), and during 1898 both Sydney Gimson and the SPAB secretary wrote to Blow complaining about the absences from their project, highlighting the problem of such a hands-on approach to architecture.

Ernest Gimson (1864 - 1919)

Described by his contemporary W.R Lethaby as “a thinker, an explorer, a teacher” Ernest Gimson became one of the most inspiring and influential architect-designers of the British Arts and Crafts Movement. His father, Josiah, founded the Vulcan Works, an engineering firm in Leicester but, unlike his older brother Sydney, Ernest chose not to pursue a career within the family business.

The family were very prominent in the Leicester Secular Society. It was following one of their meetings, at which William Morris had spoken, that the 19-year-old Ernest met and greatly impressed Morris; it was Morris that steered Gimson to his subsequent career. He decided to move to London to undergo architectural training. From there he moved to The Cotswolds, founding an Arts & Crafts community in Sapperton with the Barnsley Brothers, designing and making wooden furniture following traditional craft principles applied to new designs using clean lines and unadorned surfaces. Many of his pieces remain in the house today including the ladder back chairs in the kitchen and several of the beds. The Barnsley brothers made the dining table and kitchen dresser.

He and his workers remained true to William Morris’s ideal,

Nothing should be made by man’s labour which is not worth making, or must be made by labour degrading to the makers.   

 

Although the Gimsons were keen gardeners, the gardens are more wild than cultivated although our guide told us that they were particularly keen on rhondedendrons with over 120 species growing in the grounds. Stoneywell Wood is an area of ancient woodland adjoining the house and gardens. Just under 10 acres of the wood belong to Stoneywell, which, along with 5 acres of garden are open to the public. 

To minimise the impact of tourism on this beautiful part of the Midlands, visits to Stoneywell have to be pre-booked. There's a shuttle bus to take you to the property and, as the weather was glorious, we opted to find our own way back, ambling along the country lanes in the sunshine. 

The guided tour was absolutely wonderful with Mick, our guide, passionate (and incredibly knowledgable) about Arts and Crafts design. We loved that we were encouraged to touch the furniture and to look inside cupboards. We were even given a sneak peak in the kitchen, normally out of bounds to visitors, as he knew we'd be as excited by Ernest Gimson's coat hooks as he was!

 

After a glorious couple of hours we ate our car picnic and drove back home - a journey of just over an hour and, buoyed up by our adventures, booked ourselves a cheeky week away before the festival season kicked off. 

If you're still with me after that epic post have a fabulous weekend & see you soon!

Updated for my pal, Kezzie who wanted a close-up of my outfit! I wore a vintage Dollyrockers gauzy cotton maxi dress (bought from Second to None back in 2009) and a 1960s leather coat (a gift in 2011 from Lucy in Liverpool, who sadly no longer blogs).