We thought we’d share a little bit about Ernest Gimson with you, the man behind Stoneywell.
Described by his contemporary W.R Lethaby as“A thinker, an explorer, a teacher” he became one of the most inspiring and influential architect-designers of the British Arts and Crafts Movement.
Ernest was one of a large local family who moved to New Walk, Leicester when he was a young child. His father, Josiah Gimson, founded and ran the engineering firm at the Vulcan Works, adjoining the Midland Railway.
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; the latter then steering him to his subsequent career. Ernest decided to move to London to continue his architectural training, whilst his brother, Sydney, followed their father into the family business.
The family would have known Charnwood Forest well. It was a very popular recreational place for people who lived in Leicester, for walking and camping, and from the late 19th century, cycling too. Some built weekend and holiday huts: Sydney, however, decided he wanted a house here for his holidays.
So he instructed his brother, Ernest, to design him one. Building work began in 1898, and the following year Sydney and his wife Jeanie began staying there – their joint initials and the date 1899 being inscribed into the huge stone lintel of the inglenook.
Ernest Gimson employed Detmar Blow (who was also an important architect of the Arts & Crafts movement) as Foreman at Stoneywell and he was in charge of the building team.
A sketch of Detmar Blow by Welsh painter Augustus John
Blow is said to have been hugely charming and good fun, although he was to come to a sticky end when working for Bendor, Duke of Westminster after he was found guilty of defrauding the Dukes Grosvenor estate.
He chose each stone of Stoneywell’s giant chimneystack. He’d spot a suitable one in someone’s field or at the side of the road, and then send a wagon over to “liberate it”. There’s even a story of his “accidentally” knocking down a boundary wall, then graciously offering to rebuild it, having removed and replaced the particular stone he’d had his eye on all along.
Each stone for the chimney was lovingly hand picked
Ernest moved to the Cotswolds in 1893. There, at Sapperton, he collaborated a great deal with the Barnsley brothers, Ernest and Sidney (a confusing number of Erns & Sids in the Arts & Crafts world!) who like him designed and made some of Stoneywell Cottage’s furniture.
This magnificent oak table was made by Sidney Barnsley and the ladderback chairs were crafted by Ernest Gimson
All the time, however, he and his workers remained true to William Morris’s ideal that:
Nothing should be made by man’s labour which is not worth making, or must be made by labour degrading to the makers.
F.L Griggs, a celebrated etcher and collaborator with the Sapperton craftsmen, stated that
“There can be no doubt, I think, That Ernest Gimson was a great creative genius, and in temperament and in all he did a very English genius”
Find out more about Ernest Gimson