ACMS Events - 2021
The following lectures were presented during 2021
Dr Anne Anderson – Idyllic Arts & Crafts Gardens – a haven for our troubled times Online. 17 January 2021
Olive Maggs – Surrey Women Mural artists. Online. 17 March 2021
Sarah Sullivan – Arts & Crafts Village Halls in Surrey 20 October 2021
Carolyn Smith – The influence of the Italian Renaissance on Arts & Crafts gardens Online. 18 November 2021
The following visits and events were held during 2021
Weirs Barn, Hartley Wintney – 19 May 2021
Annual General Meeting – 25 May 2021
Goddards – 25th Anniversary – 17 June 2021
Vann – 15 July 2021
A Trio of Sussex Churches – Findon, Clapham and Patching – 18 August 2021
Gravetye Manor, Sussex – 15 September 2021
Christmas lunch, The Elvetham, Hartley Wintney – 5 December 2021
LECTURES
“ Idyllic Arts & Crafts Gardens – a haven for our troubled times” Dr Anne Anderson
The Coronavirus pandemic encouraged many commuters to protect their well-being by tending their gardens. This echoed Victoria nostalgia for a pre-industrial countryside and rural way of life. Artists like Myles Birket Foster and Helen Allingham painted idyllic images of cottages and gardens. Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll blended both. Dr Anderson’s talk will be vividly illustrated by local examples.
Watts chapel
Anne Anderson is Associate Professor at Exeter University, a tutor at the V&A and Arts Society lecturer. Her specialist knowledge is the Aesthetic Movement, Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau and Modernism. Previously, she taught on the Fine Arts Valuation degree at Southampton Solent University.
Surrey Women Mural Artists Olive Maggs
Three women mural artists in Surrey represent the nineteenth century passion for mural decoration and the rise of women artists: Anna Lea Merritt at Blackheath, Mary Watts at Compton and Kitty Milroy at Upper Hale. Olive Maggs’ fully illustrated lecture will examine the style, techniques, materials, similarities and differences of their murals.
Olive Maggs BA, PGCE, MA is an art historian and lecturer having taught and examined Art History for many years. Working on a freelance basis she has contributed to the Watts’ Adult Lecture programme on a number of occasions and specialises in the history of women artists, in particular in the nineteenth century. In 2012, she curated an exhibition on Anna Lea Merritt and published a book on the murals of the same artist.
Arts & Crafts Village Halls in Surrey Sarah Sullivan
20 October 2021 7.30pm at the Arbuthnot Hall, Shamley Green
Only seven Village Halls in the whole of Surrey are statutorily listed, two of which are by Edwin Lutyens. Why are so many under the threat of demolition with their sites being sold off?
We will explore the hidden and overlooked little gems that have paid such an important role in times of emergency and are a community asset to our Surrey villages. With over 10,000 Village Halls throughout the UK, with over 80,000 volunteers to keep them in use, it seems unthinkable that they are disappearing, when most were given for the use of the local community and often named as a memorial to a loved one.
Win Hall, Dunsfold
Taking a trip to explore the quirky and more unusual examples relating to the Arts and Crafts Movement., Sarah will examine original designs and experiments by the leading architects of the day that are so undervalued today and overlooked, even by Historic England. Examples include:
Tilford Institute by Edwin Lutyens, 1893
Arbuthnot Hall by Charles Harrison Townsend, 1904/05
Merrow Village Hall, Guildford
Winn Hall, Dunsfold, 1915
Milford Village Hall by Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott ,1925
Sarah Sullivan last lectured to the Society in 2017 on the subject of ‘Messrs Underwood of Dunsfold: Lutyens’ favourite Builders’. Sarah works as a historic buildings and conservation specialist. She is a key member of the Society’s Recording Committee. She also responds on the Society’s behalf to planning applications that affect Arts and Crafts buildings.’
The influence of the Italian Renaissance on Arts & Crafts gardens Carolyn Smith
La Gamberaia
Italian influence on garden design was profound. Carolyn will discuss the impact of Italian gardens such as those of the Medici near Florence on English garden history. She will trace this through examples including the seventeenth century garden at Wootton near Dorking, to the early twentieth century Arts and Crafts period.
She will examine how the interest in Italian gardens was revived through works such as Edith Wharton’s ‘Italian Villas and their Gardens’ of 1904 and look at the Edwardian gardens of Cecil Pinsent in Tuscany as well as many Arts and Crafts gardens closer to home, including those of Gertrude Jekyll.
Carolyn Smith, Chairman of The Arts and Crafts Movement in Surrey, read history at University College London, specialising in architectural history. She has a particular interest in garden history and was a member of Surrey Gardens Trust’s recording committee for many years.
VISITS AND EVENTS
Weirs Barn, Hartley Wintney
Wednesday, 19th May 2021 2.30pm – 4.30pm
Last visited by ACMS in 2004 ( bizarrely also on Wednesday 19 May!), we are returning to one of north east Hampshire’s most lovely Arts and Crafts Gardens and we shall see how it enhances the notable Arts and Crafts house that it surrounds. The Barn at Hartley Wintney is where architect Robert Weir Schultz converted a former barn to his own home in 1899, adding a wing in 1911. By kind invitation of the owners, Mr and Mrs Lyons, we shall view Weir Schultz’s achievement. In your own time, you may also like to look at the village hall in Hartley Wintney, 1898 by T.E.Collcut or visit nearby West Green House, dating from 1720. Here, Weir Schultz remodelled the south front of the house and also designed the formal parterre garden.
Weirs Barn
Annual General Meeting
25th May 2021
Owing to Covid restrictions and following legal advice, the Annual General Meeting will be held at the home of the Chairman, Carolyn Smith with the Treasurer, Brian John and a member, Christopher Smith, in attendance
Celebration of the 25th anniversary of the society
To be held at Goddards, Abinger Hammer, Surrey
Thursday, 17th June 2021 2.30pm to 4.30pm
Prosecco, soft drinks and cake to be served
A vist to Vann, Hambledon, Surrey
Thursday 15 July 2021 2.00pm – 4.00 pm
ACMS’s last visit to Vann was in 2006. ‘The story of Vann..is of an old house extended by an Edwardian architect. For Vann was made into a family house for his own family by the Arts and Crafts church architect W.D Caroe’ (Robert Gradidge The Surrey Style). The late sixteenth century house and seventeenth century barn were in a very poor condition when the Caroes began their restoration in 1908. Timothy Brittain-Catlin cites Vann as ‘the outstanding example of an old-and-new house’ in his recent book The Edwardians and their Houses. ‘The building looks as if it were too-good-to-be-true rural English yeoman architecture’. By kind invitation of the owners, we shall view the exterior of the house and five acre garden. The latter includes a Bargate stone pergola designed by Caroe and a water garden originally designed by Gertrude Jekyll in 1911.
Vann
A Trio of Sussex Churches – Findon, Clapham and Patching
On Wednesday, 18th August we have the unique opportunity to be the guests of Mr Michael and Mrs Georgina Drakeford, long time members of ACMS who now live in Sussex and to visit the three churches in their parish of Findon.
These churches, nestled in the South Downs to the north of Worthing, are mediaeval in origin. Each has very distinctive Arts & Craft features.
In the morning, we will visit The Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Clapham restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1873/74 who also designed the font and screen. But perhaps most importantly the church’s reredos consists of patterned tiles supplied by Morris & Co, with figures of the four archangels above the altar. It is one of only two surviving tiled reredoses by the company and probably owes its existence to local admiration of the other one, which is at nearby Findon. This church is well known for its unique three bell ring, being the oldest in the country and a myriad of brasses and monuments dating from the 13th century.
Clapham angel
We then move on to the nearby village of Patching and the church of St John the Divine – restored by Henry Woodyer in 1888/89 when he gave the church its present appearance, heightening the top stage of the tower, on which he placed a tall broach spire and adding a vestry and south porch and designing a new pulpit and screen.
A light lunch follows, provided by Michael and Georgina at their lovely home , the lunch element of the ticket price being donated towards the Clapham church’s current stonework restoration project.
After lunch we will visit the third of their three parish churches – St John the Baptist at Findon – again restored by Sir George G Scott – in 1866/67. The reredos also incorporates tiles by Morris and Co, depicting six angels playing musical instruments.
Following this visit we shall have the opportunity for a walk to the nearby hill named Cissbury Ring with its ancient history and views to Lancing in the South and the Isle of Wight to the west. Hopefully, weather permitting, a lovely way to end the day.
Gravetye Manor, Sussex
Wednesday, 15th September 2021 2.30pm
Gravetye Manor was the home of William Robinson (1838-1935) from1885. By this date Robinson had already written ten books and founded at least five periodicals. The most well known of the latter were The Garden and Gardening Illustrated. Gertrude Jekyll wrote gardening articles for The Garden and was influenced by Robinson’s forthright views on planting, best exemplified in his book The Wild Garden, published in 1870. ‘William Robinson was considered the prophet of wild gardening and an unswerving advocate for the cultivation of hardy plants at a time when bedding-out with tender annuals was the accepted practice in British gardens (Judith Tankard, Gardens of the Arts and Crafts Movement.). Robinson purchased Gravetye Manor, built in 1598, and over the course of the rest of his life transformed the garden, building walls, terraces and pergolas set in a thousand acres of woodland and fields. ‘Today, Gravetye is a monument to William Robinson’s ideals.’(Tankard).
The house is now an hotel and can only be visited as a guest or by taking lunch or afternoon tea. We will have a tour of this historically important garden followed by afternoon tea in the oak gazebo.
Gravetye Manor
Christmas Lunch, The Elvetham, Hartley Wintney, Hampshire
Sunday 5th December 2021 12.30pm – 4.30pm
After a year’s hiatus, we are returning to The Elvetham, just over the county border in Hampshire. This stunning nineteenth century building is surrounded by 4,000 acres of estate with 35 acres of gardens. In 1840, the original house visited by Elizabeth I was burnt down. A new house was built on the same site by Frederick, 4th Baron Calthorpe. Samuel Sanders Teulon (1812-73) was commissioned to interpret many of his ideas and the house was rebuilt between 1859 and 1862. ‘Built in a High Victorian Gothic style, described by Mark Girouard as ‘acrobatic Gothic’, in red brick with stone dressings and with stripes and decorations in black brick, the Hall combines both single and two-storey blocks and a tall entrance tower’ – (Historic England listing). In 1901, the carriage porch was built and the Library and Oak rooms were built a decade later in 1911. In 1953, Elvetham Hall was sold to ICI. In 2001, The Elvetham was acquired by the Dare family who are the principal owners. The house is now a popular wedding and entertainment venue.
This year’s event will continue the popular format of an illustrated presentation reviewing the year’s visits and lectures with a preview of events for 2022, as well as a raffle and a display of the 2021 Photographic Competition entries (details for entering the competition have already been circulated). Lunch will be served in the beautiful Morning Room with a splendid ceiling and fireplace. It overlooks the terrace and gardens.
