In the early 20th century the Sussex village of Ditchling became home to an important artistic group influenced by the arts and crafts movement. Few of these artists are household names, but they led a revolution in modern sculpture and typography, and created a whole new approach to the applied arts.
The original Ditchling Museum was set up nearly 30 years ago by two elderly sisters who had been associated with this group. The current director, Hilary Williams, arrived in 2004.
She soon recognised that the museum needed to refine its remit to concentrate on the artists who were drawn to the village, and to enlarge the exhibition space to show off the nationally significant collection of their work.
The resulting capital project faced several challenges: a difficult site, a tight budget, and the need to please a committee and exacting funders. It is a testament to the single-mindedness of those involved that the result – renamed the Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft – is one of the best small museums I have seen for a long time.
Harmonious result
The site combines several disparate buildings. A once-ramshackle cart lodge dating from 1795 now forms a new entrance, cafe and shop; the former Victorian school that housed the old museum has been refurbished to provide galleries, a reading room and a learning space. Connecting these buildings are new structures to accommodate the collections store and an introductory gallery.
The result, both inside and out, is a masterpiece of architectural detailing. The contemporary structures respect the local vernacular and the whole complex sits harmoniously in a picturesque setting beside the village pond.
Meticulous attention has been paid to materials and to the junctions between old and new. Glazed openings reveal vistas over the Sussex landscape and the church, reinforcing the connections between the objects on display and the location in which they were made.
The objects themselves relate mainly to the artists who founded a Roman Catholic community known as the Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic. Like a medieval guild as espoused by the arts and crafts movement, members lived and worked in close proximity in the village.
Beyond Eric Gill
The sculptor and typographer Eric Gill was the first to arrive in 1907. He is the best known of these artists, although perhaps not for the right reasons. His lifestyle (covered in Fiona MacCarthy’s biography) was controversial, with his religious and social concerns at odds with his sexual proclivities.
Nevertheless, his work, which is represented in the main gallery by beautiful carvings and examples of lettering, shows the enduring influence that he has had on art and design.
Among the other artists featured is Edward Johnston who, as well as designing the London Underground’s distinctive sans-serif typeface, established the modern calligraphy movement.
One of the museum’s founders, Hilary Bourne, is also celebrated as a weaver of international repute. Examples of her work range from textiles for the Royal Festival Hall in London to fabric for Charlton Heston’s costume in the film Ben Hur.
Punctuating the showcase displays are large objects on open display, giving a real sense of the craftperson’s labours. They include the silversmith Dunstan Pruden’s workbench with its worn surface, and a full-size loom.
Power of the press
The beefiest of these exhibits is the Stanhope printing press, formerly installed in the Guild’s workshops on Ditchling Common. It is placed as an “altar” in a chapel-like white room, reflecting the central importance of the press in the life of the Guild.
In cases nearby are examples of the secular and religious books and pamphlets printed on it, together with racks of type and tools of the printer’s trade used when the press itself is run on activity days for visitors.
Only when immersed in these displays does it occur to you that there is a refreshing absence of audiovisual content. Instead, you have as a backdrop simply the murmur of human conversation, giving space to imagine sounds conjured up by the objects before you: the tapping of the stonecarver’s chisel, the scratching of the typographer’s pen, the clatter of the loom.
Although the work of Gill and his contemporaries dominates the galleries, it is placed in context. The thread running through the museum is the tradition of men and women making tools and crafting objects with their hands.
The earliest item in the collection, a Mesolithic flint tool found in the area, is shown alongside another locally made object, a shepherd’s crook. The Guild perpetuated this existing craft-based tradition and left a legacy that continues to inspire creativity in the Sussex village today.
Reading room
The museum succeeds very well in portraying the lives of artists who shared the arts and crafts philosophy, or those such as Frank Brangwyn who just found the village an agreeable place to live.
What is less easy to interpret in depth is the underlying preoccupation with religion, politics and social justice that informed the approach to their work. This is not a problem for the general visitor but specialists may be hoping for more analysis. The well-stocked reading room helps to fill any gaps in this area.
The Guild would surely approve of the pared-back design evident throughout the museum. From the muted colour scheme to the leather satchels holding activity packs, everything is a model of good taste.
The learning space, opening out onto the garden, is an object lesson in how to create a room used by children in a way that is both practical and elegant.
Rigorous graphics
Unsurprisingly, the approach to typography, graphics and signage has also been rigorous. It would have been churlish not to use the Gill Sans typeface but, with a subtle refinement that will please typographers everywhere, here it reverts to the original metal face rather than the modern digital type.
Such small details make a difference. It is rare to find a museum that immediately feels so right and so confident in tone and in its setting. It demonstrates the importance of having a clear vision, continuity in both architectural design and interior fit out and, above all, respect for the underlying ethos of the collections.
Penny Ritchie Calder is a writer and museum consultant
The original Ditchling Museum was set up nearly 30 years ago by two elderly sisters who had been associated with this group. The current director, Hilary Williams, arrived in 2004.
She soon recognised that the museum needed to refine its remit to concentrate on the artists who were drawn to the village, and to enlarge the exhibition space to show off the nationally significant collection of their work.
The resulting capital project faced several challenges: a difficult site, a tight budget, and the need to please a committee and exacting funders. It is a testament to the single-mindedness of those involved that the result – renamed the Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft – is one of the best small museums I have seen for a long time.
Harmonious result
The site combines several disparate buildings. A once-ramshackle cart lodge dating from 1795 now forms a new entrance, cafe and shop; the former Victorian school that housed the old museum has been refurbished to provide galleries, a reading room and a learning space. Connecting these buildings are new structures to accommodate the collections store and an introductory gallery.
The result, both inside and out, is a masterpiece of architectural detailing. The contemporary structures respect the local vernacular and the whole complex sits harmoniously in a picturesque setting beside the village pond.
Meticulous attention has been paid to materials and to the junctions between old and new. Glazed openings reveal vistas over the Sussex landscape and the church, reinforcing the connections between the objects on display and the location in which they were made.
The objects themselves relate mainly to the artists who founded a Roman Catholic community known as the Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic. Like a medieval guild as espoused by the arts and crafts movement, members lived and worked in close proximity in the village.
Beyond Eric Gill
The sculptor and typographer Eric Gill was the first to arrive in 1907. He is the best known of these artists, although perhaps not for the right reasons. His lifestyle (covered in Fiona MacCarthy’s biography) was controversial, with his religious and social concerns at odds with his sexual proclivities.
Nevertheless, his work, which is represented in the main gallery by beautiful carvings and examples of lettering, shows the enduring influence that he has had on art and design.
Among the other artists featured is Edward Johnston who, as well as designing the London Underground’s distinctive sans-serif typeface, established the modern calligraphy movement.
One of the museum’s founders, Hilary Bourne, is also celebrated as a weaver of international repute. Examples of her work range from textiles for the Royal Festival Hall in London to fabric for Charlton Heston’s costume in the film Ben Hur.
Punctuating the showcase displays are large objects on open display, giving a real sense of the craftperson’s labours. They include the silversmith Dunstan Pruden’s workbench with its worn surface, and a full-size loom.
Power of the press
The beefiest of these exhibits is the Stanhope printing press, formerly installed in the Guild’s workshops on Ditchling Common. It is placed as an “altar” in a chapel-like white room, reflecting the central importance of the press in the life of the Guild.
In cases nearby are examples of the secular and religious books and pamphlets printed on it, together with racks of type and tools of the printer’s trade used when the press itself is run on activity days for visitors.
Only when immersed in these displays does it occur to you that there is a refreshing absence of audiovisual content. Instead, you have as a backdrop simply the murmur of human conversation, giving space to imagine sounds conjured up by the objects before you: the tapping of the stonecarver’s chisel, the scratching of the typographer’s pen, the clatter of the loom.
Although the work of Gill and his contemporaries dominates the galleries, it is placed in context. The thread running through the museum is the tradition of men and women making tools and crafting objects with their hands.
The earliest item in the collection, a Mesolithic flint tool found in the area, is shown alongside another locally made object, a shepherd’s crook. The Guild perpetuated this existing craft-based tradition and left a legacy that continues to inspire creativity in the Sussex village today.
Reading room
The museum succeeds very well in portraying the lives of artists who shared the arts and crafts philosophy, or those such as Frank Brangwyn who just found the village an agreeable place to live.
What is less easy to interpret in depth is the underlying preoccupation with religion, politics and social justice that informed the approach to their work. This is not a problem for the general visitor but specialists may be hoping for more analysis. The well-stocked reading room helps to fill any gaps in this area.
The Guild would surely approve of the pared-back design evident throughout the museum. From the muted colour scheme to the leather satchels holding activity packs, everything is a model of good taste.
The learning space, opening out onto the garden, is an object lesson in how to create a room used by children in a way that is both practical and elegant.
Rigorous graphics
Unsurprisingly, the approach to typography, graphics and signage has also been rigorous. It would have been churlish not to use the Gill Sans typeface but, with a subtle refinement that will please typographers everywhere, here it reverts to the original metal face rather than the modern digital type.
Such small details make a difference. It is rare to find a museum that immediately feels so right and so confident in tone and in its setting. It demonstrates the importance of having a clear vision, continuity in both architectural design and interior fit out and, above all, respect for the underlying ethos of the collections.
Penny Ritchie Calder is a writer and museum consultant
Project data
- Cost £2.3m
- Main funders Heritage Lottery Fund £1.4m, Foyle Foundation, J Paul Getty Trust, Sir Siegmund Warburg Voluntary Settlement, Wolfson Foundation
- Architect Adam Richards Architects
- Graphic design Phil Baines Studio
- Graphics contractor BAF Design
- Main contractor Westbridge
- Lighting Lightplan
- Furniture Another Country
- Display cases ClickNetherfield
- Museum storage design David Goodwin, Museum Storage Design
- Mountmaker Plowden & Smith
- Quantity surveyor Synergy Construction & Property Consultants
- Project management Jackson Coles
- M&E Bailey Gomm
- Structural engineer Price & Myers
- Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft offers a 50% discount to members of the Museums Association
