The Hart Silversmiths in Chipping Campden

Every visitor to Britain should make a visit to Chipping Campden, a small but historic market town in the north Cotswolds. As well as the picture-perfect High Street, with its evocative buildings in the local honey-coloured limestone dating from the 14^th to the early 19^th centuries and the row of almshouses on Church Street leading up to the imposing St James’s Church, there is the Silk Mill in Sheep Street, a reminder of Campden’s industrial heritage and a centre for craftsmanship in the 21^st century. As you approach the mill, you can see the stream and the water wheel that powered the mill up to the mid-19^th century. In its final incarnation before the 1850s the mill had been used making silk ribbons. It remained empty for nearly 50 years until 1902, when it became the focal point of a new enterprise – the bold move in 1902 of C R Ashbee’s Guild of Handicraft from London’s East End to Chipping Campden. This was undoubtedly one of the most idealistic and romantic stories of the British Arts and Crafts movement and one which still has an impact today. Harts Silversmiths on the first floor of the Silk Mill is the one surviving workshop of that story still in operation.

The History

The Guild of Handicraft was set up in the East End in 1888 by the idealistic architect-designer, C R Ashbee. He was inspired by the medieval idea of a closely-knit group of craftsmen working for the greater good of the community and he employed young men without any art school or workshop training from one of the poorest areas in London. Ashbee himself worked alongside his Guildsmen and even translated the important technical book by the Italian Renaissance metalworker, Benvenuto Cellini, into English for the use and inspiration of his silversmiths. He had established an international reputation by 1900. That year Ashbee was the only British designer invited to take part in the Vienna Secession exhibition apart from Scotland’s Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The Guild flourished with extensive workshops at Essex House and a prestigious shop in London’s West End.

George Hart was born in 1882 in Elephant and Castle in south London, the youngest of four boys. The three who survived infancy were all good with their hands. George was encouraged by his siblings to try his hand at woodworking and he taught himself metalworking at home. His work – mainly repoussé pieces in brass and copper – were good enough to exhibit and win prizes at an exhibition at Hitchin in Hertfordshire in 1901. The exhibition was judged by Ashbee who invited the nineteen-year-old to join his Guild. George and his older brother Will, a woodworker, joined together. At that time Ashbee was aiming to broaden the experiences of his workforce and introduce them to something other than the overcrowded streets of the East End. In 1898 he had written to his wife Janet saying that ‘to train up little children or fine craftsmen in London is a cruelty unmentionable.’ and they would organise weekend jaunts out of London for the apprentices including George Hart to Tintern Abbey on the Welsh borders and on boat trips on the rivers Severn and Wye. When the lease to the Guild premises was about to expire in 1902, Ashbee began considering his next move.

The introduction to the Cotswolds came via one of the Guild’s supporters, the banker Rob Holland Martin whose family home was Overbury Court near Tewkesbury. On his first visit to Chipping Campden Ashbee was captivated by the spectacular setting of the town but he also realised the possibilities provided by the empty silk mill for workshops and semi-derelict cottages for housing. Over the summer of 1902, the Guildsmen and their families, some 150 people in all, moved to the town which then had a population of about 1500. George and Will Hart moved to Chipping Campden with their stepfather Wentworth Huyshe and soon became firmly rooted in the community.

When Ashbee’s Guild folded in 1908, the Harts were among the handful of Guildsmen who decided to stay on in Chipping Campden. George Hart took over the silversmiths’ workshop in the silk mill and in 1912 registered the ‘GofH’ mark to himself. This was the start of a new silversmithing dynasty in Chipping Campden. He took on apprentices – Harry Warmington, a local youth, was his first apprentice together with George’s stepbrother Reynell Huyshe, while his two sons, George and Henry also trained as silversmiths. George Hart managed to survive difficult years after the First World War by taking on a second occupation as a tenant farmer through the 1920s, while creating some of his finest work such as the magnificent processional cross for Gloucester Cathedral in 1924. This piece was used at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.  

Hart Silversmiths Today

Visiting the silk mill today is a bit like stepping back to 1902 when Ashbee’s Guild first came to Chipping Campden. Mounting the wooden stairs to the first floor you come to the former Guild of Handicraft silversmiths’ workshop now occupied by George Hart’s grandson, David, his son William and nephew Julian, and Derek Elliott who served his apprenticeship with David. It is easy to imagine what it would have been like in the early years of the 20^th century. Some of the equipment and tools have remained the same and on some of the benches are old photos and catalogues. Both David, Derek and William are Freemen of the Goldsmiths’ Company while Julian is in the process of applying for his. They use Ashbee’s work as an inspiration for some of their work but also develop their own classic designs and pieces for specific commissions. They are recognised as amongst the finest silversmiths working in Britain today.

All four men are very aware that they are part of both an important tradition that is known and respected worldwide and intimately linked to the town and community of Chipping Campden. The silversmiths work mainly to commission but also produce items for sale at the workshop as well as at the museum of craft and design, Court Barn in Chipping Campden. They welcome visitors to the workshop and are happy to show some of their treasures. The large collection of drawings has now been digitised and is carefully preserved in Gloucestershire’s archives but copies are available to be browsed through. David and his team are happy to use the original designs as inspiration for new work but are also ready to discuss new designs with clients.

The workshop also holds a plethora of historic information. There are also old catalogues, photographs and the original visitors’ book for the silk mill with a multitude of interesting signatures including that of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright, a friend of Ashbee’s who visited Chipping Campden in 1910. Harts Silversmiths are a real inspiration for the crafts in the 21^st century – protecting a great tradition and continuing to make useful and beautiful pieces that make us all aware of the importance of the unique relationship between a maker and client, and good design and hand skills.