Stoneywell, Leicestershire - Museums Association

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Stoneywell, Leicestershire

Lilly Crowther on the challenges faced by the National Trust in opening this arts and crafts house to the public
Lily Crowther
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Stoneywell is a romantic holiday cottage, built by the architect and craftsman Ernest Gimson for his brother Sydney in 1899. It remained in the Gimson family until 2012, when it was acquired by the National Trust.
 
Nestled in the steep valleys of the Charnwood forest, the house feels surprisingly remote. In fact it is conveniently close to the Gimson family’s base in Leicester and the more familiar industrial landscape of the East Midlands.

It is only the second National Trust building in Leicestershire (alongside Staunton Harold Church in Ashby-de-la-Zouch), and it serves as an important reminder that the arts and crafts movement was rooted not just in the rural idyll of the Cotswolds but equally in the manufacturing heartlands of central England.
 
The house is free from pretension – a comfortable family home and an escape from the modern world. Despite various alterations and extensions over the past century, it retains a strong arts and crafts character. Most of the furniture is original, made by the Gimsons themselves or by their friends and associates, including the Barnsley brothers and Dryad Metal Works. The whole ensemble feels rooted and well loved.

The National Trust has chosen to present the house as it was in the 1950s, when Sydney’s grandson Donald Gimson moved in with his young family. This entails dressing the rooms with postwar children’s games, crockery, electric bed-warmers and so on.

In a sense the choice of period was dictated by the fixtures and fittings: lots of the modern additions cannot be disguised, and it would be dishonest to present them as part of the original architecture.

However, the scattering of 1950s paraphernalia does not quite convince, given the power of the arts and crafts interiors. The history of the house is relatively short and straightforward, and newer features could easily be acknowledged while keeping the focus on the turn of the century.

Gardens and woodland

The garden and grounds are beautiful, and will clearly be a key part of Stoneywell’s appeal to visitors during the spring and summer. Even on a rainy February day, it was possible to enjoy the planting around the house, which was designed to offer year-round colour and interest. The paths are lined with rhododendrons, and the grass is thick with self-set spring bulbs.
 
The house was built from local stone, taken mainly from dry-stone walls in the vicinity, and it appears to grow organically from the rocky outcrops around it. The surrounding slopes shelter a walled kitchen garden, and on the highest point is a charming fort, which will surely appeal to visiting children as much as it did to the Gimson clan.

Extending beyond the gardens are several acres of woodland, which form part of the Ulverscroft Valley, a designated site of special scientific interest.

The challenges posed by Stoneywell, to visitors and the National Trust, are mainly logistical. Physical access is not easy, and there will be issues to address as the house welcomes increasing numbers of people in the coming months.
 
All visitors must pre-book, and places are limited to around 160 per day, but it remains to be seen how the system will cope when more than 20 people arrive each hour, and linger on in warmer weather.

The narrow lanes and steep hills are not conducive to parking on-site, so visitors must leave their cars 500 metres away and wait for a minibus, which shuttles them to Stoneywell. This works smoothly for most visitors, but a young woman arriving at the same time as me was travelling alone with a toddler and baby, and would surely have preferred to bring them nearer to the house in their own car-seats.

Those with mobility needs may also find the arrangement less than ideal. As for arriving by public transport, this is really only an option for hardy walkers or cyclists as the nearest train station is seven miles away, and the nearest bus stop two miles. Inside the house, access is still an issue.

There are several staircases, all picturesquely narrow, steep and winding, with loose rope handrails. As a heavily pregnant woman I found these somewhat alarming, and several elderly members of my tour group ascended on all fours. I was grateful not to be shepherding a small child up and down, or worse, carrying a baby.

Of course, this is simply the character of the building, and cannot be circumvented, but it will certainly cause difficulties for some visitors. Even in the tearoom, charmingly and sensitively converted from part of the original stable block, the only seating is on high banquettes and bar-stools.

Perhaps these are designed to discourage visitors from staying too long, since there are only a handful of tables and the room will probably be busy in the summer season.

Dedication

In order to maintain a steady flow of visitors through the small rooms and rambling layout of the building, everyone is assigned to a timed tour. It is obvious why this decision was taken, but it might not suit all visitors; a flexible combination of room guides and self-guided wandering would allow for a more personal understanding of the house, and perhaps enable less agile visitors to take a more cautious approach to the stairs.

Keeping Stoneywell running smoothly requires a high degree of organisation, cooperation and tact on the part of the volunteers, from those driving the shuttle bus and directing new arrivals, to the tour guides who make sure that their parties are on schedule. Their efficiency and helpfulness when I visited was admirable, especially given that the house had been open for less than a fortnight. But volunteering here in the longer term will require high levels of commitment and skill.
 
Stoneywell is an important and attractive destination, but there are challenges ahead for it to continue welcoming visitors and offering them a satisfying experience.

Lily Crowther is an independent curator and design historian

Project data
  • Cost: undisclosed
  • Main: funders (of the acquisition) Monument Trust; J Paul Getty Jnr Charitable Trust; Gimson family
  • Curator: Simon Chesters-Thompson
  • Architect: Rodney Melville and Partners (Stephen Oliver)
  • Restoration on house: Norman & Underwood (including stables)



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