Rare surviving Arts and Crafts house to open to public for first time in Leicestershire

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

A rare survival of an Arts and Crafts family home opens to visitors for the first time in Leicestershire

A rare surviving example of a traditional Arts and Crafts house, with many pieces of original furniture, opens to the public for the first time on Monday February 2.

Stoneywell, in the Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire, was designed in 1898 and built the following year by Ernest Gimson, a leading light of the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Originally built as a holiday home for Gimson's elder brother Sydney and wife Jeannie and their children, the house remained preserved in its original Arts and Crafts style in the possession of Gimson family until late 2012.

A reaction to the excesses of Victorian industrialisation, the Arts and Crafts movement grew from a desire to revive the skill of traditional craftsmanship and to restore simplicity and honesty to how buildings and furnishings were made. Its leading light was William Morris, the writer, poet, designer, textile artist, socialist and thinker.

Stoneywell is a model of Arts and Crafts ideals. Constructed from rough-hewn local stone and surrounded by acres of gardens and woodland, the house is filled with many pieces of original Arts and Crafts furniture designed by Ernest Gimson himself and well-known colleagues of the period, including the Barnsley brothers.

Gimson was described by architectural historian, Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, as the greatest of the English artist-craftsmen. Having met William Morris when he was a young trainee architect he trained in London where he formed fruitful collaborations with Ernest and Sidney Barnsley and other key figures in the Arts and Crafts movement.

Caroline Taylor, Stoneywell’s Operations Manager, said she wanted visitors of all ages to be able to enjoy the house "as the Gimson family did".

"The house has changed little in all that time and we have chosen to present it as it was in the 1950s," she said, "when Sydney’s grandson Donald and his wife Anne moved here full time to bring up their young family."

A working model railway and children’s books and games from the 1950s help set the scene against the simplicity of the original Arts and Crafts interiors.

Outdoors, the garden and woodland retain their charm and character, with areas to explore including the lawns, tennis court, and an outcrop with its little folly which the Gimson children fondly called the Fort.

Stoneywell was acquired by the National Trust in late 2012 with help from the Monument Trust, J Paul Getty Jnr Charitable Trust, and the Gimson family as well as many Trust supporters. A programme of conservation and repairs was then undertaken to prepare the house and garden for visitors.

Stoneywell opens to the public on February 2 2015 for seven days a week until  November 30 2015. Due to its small size, all visits must be booked in advance see http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/stoneywell/

Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk//art/architecture-and-design/art515479-rare-surviving-arts-and-crafts-house-opens-to-the-public-for-first-time-in-leicestershire