Stoneywell Cottage
The first photograph in the guidebook to Stoneywell Cottage, the Arts and Crafts house opened to the public by the National Trust in February, is of a young boy sitting astride the roof ridge waving his cap, while a couple of adults are comfortably having a conversation in a nook of the roof a little lower down. It’s a fitting image for a house that looks on first view as though it’s been plucked from a children’s story, with its massive chimney stack, pointy gables and undulating roof.
Until 2012, when it was sold to the National Trust, it remained in the family of Sydney Gimson. It was designed for him by his younger brother Ernest, described by Nikolaus Pevsner as ‘the greatest of the English architect-designers’. It still has all the accoutrements of a family home: drystone fort (built by Sydney’s sons) on a rocky outcrop, swing still hanging from a huge hornbeam, more trees ideal for climbing, tennis court laboriously levelled from the hillside, bell by the back door to summon children from play. There are echoes of its past life everywhere.
The dining-room table incorporates a shove-halfpenny board
Tucked into a corner of the ancient Charnwood Forest, a dozen miles from Leicester, Stoneywell Cottage nestles into a grassy bank in its tiny valley amid heath and woodland. Named for the wood alongside the garden, Stoneywell seems to emerge from the earth – which was the intention of its pre-eminent Arts and Crafts designer, Ernest Gimson. In 1898, he was commissioned by his brother Sydney, director of a Leicester engineering company, who had spent childhood weekends camping in Charnwood Forest and wanted a summer house there. In a cluster of three cottages – the other two for oldest brother Mentor and sister Margaret – Stoneywell is the only one lived in ever since by Gimsons.
By the time Stoneywell was completed the following year, it had cost twice as much as the original estimate, but that was because of the infinite care taken and the individuality of the craftsmanship. For a house that looks so natural, its construction was precise and painstaking. Gimson had chosen his friend and fellow architect Detmar Blow as the mason in charge. He was meticulous about the use of local stone – much of it gathered from the grounds or from the local quarry – but if he saw a suitable piece in a wall on his journeys round Leicestershire, he would discreetly back a cart into the wall, extract the prized piece for Stoneywell, and then rebuild the wall.
One of the main bedrooms. Centre: Staircases lead to intriguing nooks and crannies.
At Whitsun in 1899, Sydney took his family to Stoneywell for the first time, and they would adjourn thereafter for the summer, and in due course so would his son. The last of the family, Sydney’s grandson Donald – who in 1953 moved in full-time with his wife Anne – left in 2012 to live with his son in Bristol, and the National Trust has spent the years since in careful conservation, reinstalling the fireplace found in the wood store and tracking down an apprentice of Ernest Gimson, Lawrence Neal, who made two chairs to supplement furniture left behind by Donald. This included rush-seated elm chairs made by Ernest for the long oak dining table, incorporating a shove-halfpenny board and also serving for table tennis. In a nearby cupboard are the net and bats.
Stoneywell is delightfully cosy and quirky. With its zigzag plan following the contours of the land and six different floor levels, it’s deliberately different from a normal house. The ground floor is on three levels, each window framing a particular view of garden or countryside – and, of course, window seats for admiring them. Each detail is individual, from door latches to inglenook, with its tiny window and small slate shelf protruding from the enormous slate lintel over the fireplace. A mason had been about to chisel it off when Detmar Blow said, ‘No, it’ll serve for Sydney’s smoke shelf.’
Stoneywell’s sitting room and
Two staircases at different ends of the house lead to nooks and crannies upstairs. Some bedrooms lead one from another and some – yet more delight for children – have windows leading straight into the hillside. The five-sided spare room features the oak double bed made for Stoneywell, in which Donald, as he used to announce when he escorted visitors, was conceived, ‘so my mother always said’. There are ladder-like steps down to another bedroom and twisty stairs up to the one under the eaves – known as Olympus as it was the highest point.
Originally the dining room served as the kitchen but in the 1950s Donald and Anne decided to add a state-ofthe- art (for the 1950s) kitchen in what had been the scullery, larder, coal store and earth closet, equipped with mod cons. (It’s not currently open to visitors.) Before then, laundry had been done in the wash house, now the cafe, where the fire still glows under the old copper and there are flapjacks made to a Gimson recipe on the menu.
From left: Stoneywell’s pre-eminent designer Ernest Gimson at the house. Views can be enjoyed from cosy window seats.
In spring, between the cafe and the house, is an immense drift of daffodils from those originally planted by Sydney. Behind the house can be seen the work of Donald and especially Anne, who were keen gardeners. Anne used to spend all day in the garden in the summer, and the evidence of her years of effort is everywhere, right down to the roses that she doggedly cultivated despite the unsuitability of the soil. Curving flower beds edged with stones contrast with the bilberries and broom of the heath area before the front door. It seems a particularly fitting ‘front garden’ for such an organic house.
Donald has been closely involved in the refurbishment and returned often ‘to advise and admonish’, according to Simon Chesters Thompson, curator and author of the guidebook – and to celebrate his 90th birthday. One time he stood on the dining table declaiming: ‘This house must be used!’ It surely will be.
Stoneywell Cottage, Whitcrofts Lane, Ulverscroft, Leicestershire, is open from February to November. Visits must be pre-booked: 01530-248048, www.nationaltrust.org.uk/stoneywell – The Stoneywell Cottage guidebook costs £4.
National Trust Images by James Dobson
Until 2012, when it was sold to the National Trust, it remained in the family of Sydney Gimson. It was designed for him by his younger brother Ernest, described by Nikolaus Pevsner as ‘the greatest of the English architect-designers’. It still has all the accoutrements of a family home: drystone fort (built by Sydney’s sons) on a rocky outcrop, swing still hanging from a huge hornbeam, more trees ideal for climbing, tennis court laboriously levelled from the hillside, bell by the back door to summon children from play. There are echoes of its past life everywhere.
The dining-room table incorporates a shove-halfpenny boardTucked into a corner of the ancient Charnwood Forest, a dozen miles from Leicester, Stoneywell Cottage nestles into a grassy bank in its tiny valley amid heath and woodland. Named for the wood alongside the garden, Stoneywell seems to emerge from the earth – which was the intention of its pre-eminent Arts and Crafts designer, Ernest Gimson. In 1898, he was commissioned by his brother Sydney, director of a Leicester engineering company, who had spent childhood weekends camping in Charnwood Forest and wanted a summer house there. In a cluster of three cottages – the other two for oldest brother Mentor and sister Margaret – Stoneywell is the only one lived in ever since by Gimsons.
By the time Stoneywell was completed the following year, it had cost twice as much as the original estimate, but that was because of the infinite care taken and the individuality of the craftsmanship. For a house that looks so natural, its construction was precise and painstaking. Gimson had chosen his friend and fellow architect Detmar Blow as the mason in charge. He was meticulous about the use of local stone – much of it gathered from the grounds or from the local quarry – but if he saw a suitable piece in a wall on his journeys round Leicestershire, he would discreetly back a cart into the wall, extract the prized piece for Stoneywell, and then rebuild the wall.
One of the main bedrooms. Centre: Staircases lead to intriguing nooks and crannies.At Whitsun in 1899, Sydney took his family to Stoneywell for the first time, and they would adjourn thereafter for the summer, and in due course so would his son. The last of the family, Sydney’s grandson Donald – who in 1953 moved in full-time with his wife Anne – left in 2012 to live with his son in Bristol, and the National Trust has spent the years since in careful conservation, reinstalling the fireplace found in the wood store and tracking down an apprentice of Ernest Gimson, Lawrence Neal, who made two chairs to supplement furniture left behind by Donald. This included rush-seated elm chairs made by Ernest for the long oak dining table, incorporating a shove-halfpenny board and also serving for table tennis. In a nearby cupboard are the net and bats.
Stoneywell is delightfully cosy and quirky. With its zigzag plan following the contours of the land and six different floor levels, it’s deliberately different from a normal house. The ground floor is on three levels, each window framing a particular view of garden or countryside – and, of course, window seats for admiring them. Each detail is individual, from door latches to inglenook, with its tiny window and small slate shelf protruding from the enormous slate lintel over the fireplace. A mason had been about to chisel it off when Detmar Blow said, ‘No, it’ll serve for Sydney’s smoke shelf.’
Stoneywell’s sitting room andTwo staircases at different ends of the house lead to nooks and crannies upstairs. Some bedrooms lead one from another and some – yet more delight for children – have windows leading straight into the hillside. The five-sided spare room features the oak double bed made for Stoneywell, in which Donald, as he used to announce when he escorted visitors, was conceived, ‘so my mother always said’. There are ladder-like steps down to another bedroom and twisty stairs up to the one under the eaves – known as Olympus as it was the highest point.
Originally the dining room served as the kitchen but in the 1950s Donald and Anne decided to add a state-ofthe- art (for the 1950s) kitchen in what had been the scullery, larder, coal store and earth closet, equipped with mod cons. (It’s not currently open to visitors.) Before then, laundry had been done in the wash house, now the cafe, where the fire still glows under the old copper and there are flapjacks made to a Gimson recipe on the menu.
From left: Stoneywell’s pre-eminent designer Ernest Gimson at the house. Views can be enjoyed from cosy window seats. In spring, between the cafe and the house, is an immense drift of daffodils from those originally planted by Sydney. Behind the house can be seen the work of Donald and especially Anne, who were keen gardeners. Anne used to spend all day in the garden in the summer, and the evidence of her years of effort is everywhere, right down to the roses that she doggedly cultivated despite the unsuitability of the soil. Curving flower beds edged with stones contrast with the bilberries and broom of the heath area before the front door. It seems a particularly fitting ‘front garden’ for such an organic house.
Donald has been closely involved in the refurbishment and returned often ‘to advise and admonish’, according to Simon Chesters Thompson, curator and author of the guidebook – and to celebrate his 90th birthday. One time he stood on the dining table declaiming: ‘This house must be used!’ It surely will be.
Stoneywell Cottage, Whitcrofts Lane, Ulverscroft, Leicestershire, is open from February to November. Visits must be pre-booked: 01530-248048, www.nationaltrust.org.uk/stoneywell – The Stoneywell Cottage guidebook costs £4.
National Trust Images by James Dobson