Arts & Crafts Movement in Dorset

The October speaker was Gordon Le Pard who spoke on “Arts & Crafts Movement in Dorset”. He explained that the movement was started because the Royal Academy only dealt with paintings and sculpture whereas William Benson a metal worker and George Hayward Sumner a graphic artist thought that the arts were much wider. They decided to hold an exhibition yearly in London starting in 1899 to show modern decorative or combined arts, but thought the title too long so it became The Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society. No manufacturers were allowed to exhibit, it had to be individuals who made it high quality design. In Dorset it was not the artists who were influenced first but the house designers. The movement liked to do work in Churches so that it was freely available for the public to see their work. Among other artist who worked on Cattistock Church was William Morris who did a stained glass window. Pugin did tiles for Rampisham Vicarage and the altar at Bothenhampton is definitely Arts & Crafts as it was in the exhibition. There are many other examples of the movement around Dorset.

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