Young chairmakers taking hotseat at new arts hub at Marchmont House in Borders

Two young chairmakers are preparing to open a workshop at Marchmont House in the Borders, in a move billed as saving and providing a promising future to a “great tradition of the arts and crafts movement”.

From left: Sam Cooper and Richard Platt open the workshop on 1 July. Picture: Marchmont House.

Lawrence Neal, said to be the last UK craftsman earning his living from making rush-seated ladderback chairs, had been looking to retire from his workshop in Warwickshire, after half a century, and had no successors.

But his legacy, as the keeper of furniture-making practices dating back to the 19th century, is now secure, with 20-somethings Sam Cooper and Richard Platt on 1 July opening the Marchmont Workshop, which has been designed and equipped to continue the craft.

Hugo Burge at Marchmont House. Picture: Colin Hattersley Photography.

After completing two years as apprentices, they will be the sixth “generation” to make chairs to specific designs handed down from the likes of Ernest Gimson, Edward Gardiner and Philip Clissett.

Platt, who has made the likes of guitars and turned wooden bowls as a hobby, sees the new venture as much more than a business. He said: “We are very aware that we’re not just chairmakers, we are custodians. Our aim is to reinvigorate this craft – to teach people about its history and encourage others to take it up.”

They carry out every part of the process, from sawing the logs and cutting the rushes through to the final finishing and building of the frames and weaving the rush seats.

The pair will specialise in ten types of side and armchair, plus three types of rocking chair, each one learned from Neal and with its own particular story. However, they intend to innovate, experimenting with woods such as sycamore and beech that are prolific in Scotland, with an intended emphasis on sustainability.

Values

Rush-seated ladderback chairs were popular with the arts and crafts movement “because they embodied its values of fine traditional craft-making, inspired by nature and offering practicality, simplicity and beauty”.

Cooper, who has loved carpentry since secondary school, said he was very keen to turn his interest into a career, so when the apprenticeship came up “it was a dream come true”.

The duo already has orders from Truro to Edinburgh and has been shortlisted for the 2020 Heritage Craft Association Trainee of the Year award.

The apprenticeships and workshop were set up by Hugo Burge, Marchmont’s director, who has restored the mansion, near Greenlaw, with his father Oliver, aiming to make it a home for artists and makers. Hugo’s fondness for the chairs dates back to his days at Bedales School where the arts and crafts library is furnished with the items.

He said: “Many of the great names of the arts and crafts movement and British design created their own version of the rush seat chair – including Mackintosh, Lutyens, Voysey, Morris, Heal and Russell.”

He added: “When I discovered that Lawrence Neal was planning to retire and had no successors, I thought it would be a tragedy if this understated craft, with such a long history, was to be lost.”

Marchmont has around 150 antique rush seat ladderback chairs, and the workshop opening is the first in a series of estate buildings being refurbished to create seven units for artists and makers.

SCOTSMAN.COM

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