William Morris's views on craftsmanship and functional simplicity produced radical changes in English furniture design. Morris believed that the beauty of an object depended on the suitability of its design to its purpose and on the skill of the maker - anything made purely for ornamental purposes would be a failure.
Influenced by Morris's ideas, groups of craftsmen came together in what was almost a revival of the medieval guild system. Their ideas were simplicity of design and the highest possible standards of craftsmanship. They took pleasure in the timber for its own sake and when making furniture they often made no attempt to conceal methods of construction. One of the most important of these groups was the Cotswold School whose members showed deep interest in traditional country-made furniture; Gimson and the Barnsley's were the founders of this group.
Ernest Gimson (1864-1919) was born in Leicester, England, and trained as an architect at Leicester School of Art. In 1984 he met William Morris and was profoundly influenced by his ideas. Morris disliked the hideous results of mass-production. He believed that the machine bred ugliness, debased design and debased the lives of industrial workers - salvation lay in a return to craftsmanship.
In 1986 Gimson went to London as architectural assistant to John David Stedding, to whom he had been introduced by William Morris. In London, Gimson made friends with other young architects, the two brothers Ernest and Sidney Barnsley. Ernest (1863-1926) worked as an assistant to Norman Shaw, whilst Sidney (1865-1926) was also with Stedding. In 1983 the three men abandoned the rituals of Victorian society and moved from London to the Cotswolds, to what they conceived to be the values and virtues of an older and simpler way of life. At Pinbury Park, on the Bathurst Estate in Gloucestershire, they started working as designer-craftsmen, gradually acquiring a mastery of the constructions and the techniques of traditional furniture-making.
In 1895 Sidney Barnsley married Lucy Morley and their daughter, Grace, was born in 1986. Their son, Edward, was born on 7th February 1900. In 1903 Gimson and the Barnsley brothers, with their families, moved from Pinbury to houses they had built in the nearby village of Sapperton.
As at Pinbury, it was Sidney who especially concentrated on deisgning and making furniture and he continued to do this at Sapperton until his death in 1926. Unlike his brother and Ernest Gimson, he never employeed other craftsmen to make up his furniture designs. By contrast, Gimson turned out much more work because he was aided by assistants. Of the three, Ernest Barnsley practiced more as an architect.
The work of Gimson and the Barnsleys at the beginning of this century placed the role of the artist -craftsman in furniture-making on a new footing and their influence on other professional craftsmen, teachers and students has been considerable. Of course, Sidney's son, Edward, was one of those who was deeply influenced and his work as designer-craftsman and teacher during this century has ensured not only the continuity of the Gimson/Barnsley achievement but also its evolution. If the traditional English craft of furniture-making was almost swallowed up by the growth of industrial production in Victorian times, then the dangers posed by 20th century mass-production has been no less. The work of Edward Barnsley and nowadays the Edward Barnsley Workshop has ensured, and will continue to ensure, that there is still a place in our society for individual craftsmen and their hand-made products.