Bromsgrove Guild
Other names: Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts in 1898, Bromsgrove Guild Limited (registered as a limited company on June 1922)
Foundation date: 26 November 1898
Dissolution date: 1966
Function: Designers, manufacturers
Policy: Walter Gilbert described the aims of the Guild in 'The Craftsman' magazine (1903): 'The members of the Guild are individuals who have advanced beyond the limits of ‘professionalism’, that they might adopt the more prolific method of thinking and working in their media. These men and women, while they stand pledged to co-operation and mutual support, have individual studios and workshops altogether independent. Each department is financed and controlled separately by the guildsmen of the same department who train their apprentices: choosing and employing only those who are capable of developing the main idea of the master craftsman.'
History or description: The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts was founded on the 26 November 1898. It grew out of the Bromsgrove School of Art which moved to new premises in 1895. In February 1898 Walter Henry Gilbert was appointed Headmaster. The School's Committee hoped that Gilbert's expertise in metal work would attract students to the school. They also wanted a 'guild of technical art' that would 'develop into a significant commercial enterprise, where skilled craftsmen could find well paid work'. It is unclear whether the idea to found a Guild came from Gilbert, or was already in the minds of the Committee.
Work on the Guild began in November 1898, and in 1899 a cottage and land was purchased in Station Street. Gilbert also negotiated with the art school to use some of their rooms in the Crescent. The Guild was established through a formal partnership between Gilbert, William Whitehouse (a local landowner) and the firm Crouch and Butler (Birmingham-based architects). The Guild premises were built in 1899 by John Bowen 'to plans drawn up by Crouch and Butler'.
In the early years of the Guild its members worked from individual workshops and studios in Bromsgrove, Birmingham, London, etc. Walter Gilbert organised the work from the central premises in Station Street, Bromsgrove, which was the location of the main metalwork department.
Richard Tapp ran the woodshop that produced furniture and later became the woodcarving shop. This was located at Moat Mill, Bromsgrove. In 1901 the guild bought equipment for jewellery making and rented an enamelling shop in Bromsgrove where gem and fine metal work was produced. The Guild also set up a plaster workshop in Puddle Wharf, Stoke Heath, which was run by Henry Ludlow.
George Percy Bankart joined the business in partnership with Henry Ludlow in 1899. In 1903 the plaster workshop was expanded and an associated lead workshop was established. The lead shop was initially based in rooms rented from the Bromsgrove School of Art and then later moved to Station Street. At this time the Guild bought the shop from Ludlow and Bankart. The Guild participated in the 1900 Paris Exposition and was awarded nine medals.
In 1901 the metal workshop was expanded. By 1902 representatives of the Guild were based in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Newcastle and the West Country. They also frequently exhibited their members’ works in Liverpool, Leeds, Bolton, Bristol and London at the 1903 Arts and Craft Exhibition Society exhibition in London.
In 1905 the Guild was commissioned to work on Aston Webb's project to provide railings and gates enclosing Buckingham Palace. The Guild's employees designed and made the gates and the Queen Victoria Memorial. The project was completed in 1908.
By 1905 the satellite workshops in Birmingham were supplying stained glass, leaded glass, embroidery, cartoons and painted designs. All other work, including mosaic and furniture making, was being completed in Bromsgrove. A year later Archibald John Davies established a glass workshop in Bromsgrove.
The Guild executed numerous medallic works in the early 1900s although only one medal was cast, the rest being struck. In 1907 Ernest Cowper set up the Guild's new foundry in Station Street. Walter Gilbert and Louis Weingartner produced the Guild's garden statuary commissions from the workshop in Weaman Street, Birmingham, from c. 1913 onwards.
In December 1921 it was resolved that the company would reform as a limited company and this was registered in June 1922.
During the 1920s the metalwork department was producing decorative pieces in a wide variety of materials (bronze, iron and lead) as well as name plates and memorial tablets. The Guild also offered modelling, carving and woodwork, stained glass, and mural decoration. It opened branches in Belfast and New York. Towards the end of the decade the firm became involved in the production of standardized goods including: signs, gates, rails, casements, canopies, memorial plaques, ecclesiastical objects, sundials, pendant light fittings, etc.
The Guild’s fortunes were adversely effected by depression during the 1930s. In its final twenty years (c. 1946-1966) the company was managed by George Whewell. By this stage the firm had lost much of its specialist expertise leading Whewell to sub-contract many of the Guild’s post-war commissions. As a result the size of the workforce steadily declined until there was only a skeleton staff.
For a detailed history of the Guild and its aims see Jenny Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), pp. 9-52. See also Marlene Goodwin and Townshend, 'The Workers at the Bromsgrove Guild' in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999) pp. 53-69. There is an extensive list of Guild commissions in the West Midlands (alphabetically by location) in Marlene Goodwin and Thelma Lammas 'A Gazetteer of Bromsgrove Guild work in the West Midlands' in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999) pp.91-125.
Employees, Students & Members
Numbers: 150
Period Start: 1907
Period End: 1907
Works
Dates are usually the year a work was exhibited so may differ from date of production.
New entries have been made each time a work was exhibited due to a lack of evidence about the state, medium or edition shown.
Exhibited Electric Light and Water Fountain
Locations
Business located at Station Street Bromsgrove | View on map
1899 - 1930
Original location of the Guild and the main metal-work department.
Institutional and Business Connections
Associated with Crouch and Butler
1899
Founders of the Guild in partnership with Walter Gilbert (sculptor) and William Whitehouse (land owner). The firm were responsible for securing many of the Guild's early commissions. See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), pp. 11-12.
Bought out Lead Workshop (Bromsgrove Guild)
1905 (Circa)
No date is given but the lead works was presumably sold before one of its owners, George Percy Bankart, left the firm in 1906. See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 13.
Collaborated with Bromsgrove School of Art
1898 (Circa)
The original idea for a Guild came from members of the Art School Committee and Walter Gilbert who was emploed as Headmaster of the Art School in 1898. When the Guild was established Gilbert negotiated with the Committee for use of the 'upper floor and half of the ground floor of their technical workshop in the Cresent, Bromsgrove'. See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 11.
Worked with Woodshop (Bromsgrove Guild)
1899 (Probable)
Produced furniture and carried out wood carving for the Bromsgrove Guild. See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 11. In 1911 the shop was bought by the Guild from Richard Tapp (p. 34).
Worked with Lead Workshop (Bromsgrove Guild)
1899 (Probable)
Worked with Plaster Workshop (Bromsgrove Guild)
1901 (Circa) - 1919 (Circa)
The plaster workshop closed in 1919. See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 34.
Worked with Glass Workshop (Bromsgrove Guild)
1906
See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 25.
Associated People
Apprenticed Edwin Lacey
1914 - 1917
Lacey was an apprentice of modelling and plasterwork. He left the Guild to work for the Stratford Guild and later the Allied Arts and Crafts Guild. See Goodwin and Townshend, 'The Workers at the Bromsgrove Guild', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 66.
Directed by Walter Gilbert
1898 - August 1918
Founder of the Guild in partnership with William Whitehouse (land owner) and Crouch and Butler (Birmingham Architects). Gilbert directed the firm from 1899 onwards: See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), pp. 11-12. Gilbert worked on various commissions including the metal light fittings for the Unitarian Memorial Church, Wallasey, Cheshire, a Guild comission (p. 14). On the 1 July 1906 Gilbert and Whitehouse disolved their partnership and on the 9 July William McCandlish became Gilbert's new partner.
In September 1918 Gilbert became an employee of H. H. Martyn's of Cheltenham where he acted as assistant manager of the sculpting and architectural decoration business (p. 37).
Directors included William McCandlish
9 July 1906 - 1947
See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 27 and p. 49.
Employed Sidney Harold Meteyard
Meteyard worked on stained glass commissions for the Guild in Walter Gilbert's studios in Weaman Street, Birmingham. No specific dates are given, however, this was probably between c. 1913 and 1930. See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 35.
Employed Celestino Pancheri
Came to work in the Guild's woodwork shop from Paris (where he was living). See Goodwin and Townshend 'The Workers at the Bromsgrove Guild', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild' (1999), p. 62: no dates are given.
Employed Henri Alphonse Pillon
Recruited in Paris and worked as Charles Bonnet's mould maker and caster. No dates are given, however, Pillon's comissions included the Britannia clock, Selfridges, London, and the bronze elephants, Taj Mahal, India. See Goodwin and Townshend 'The Workers at the Bromsgrove Guild', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild' (1999), p. 63.
Employed Henry George Rushbury
1912
Apprenticed to A. J. Davies in the stained glass workshop. See Goodwin and Townshend 'The Workers at the Bromsgrove Guild', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild' (1999), p. 58; no dates are given, however, in 1912 Rushbury moved to London.
Employed Albert Edward Lemmon
1927
Townshend notes that Lemmon 'completed a lengthy Bromsgrove Guild contract in Scotland before 1914'. He resumed his position at the Guild after serving in the war, and retired in 1927. He was subsequently appointed principal of the Bromsgrove School of Art. See Goodwin and Townshend 'The Workers at the Bromsgrove Guild', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild' (1999), p. 58.
Employed Arthur Clarke
1935
Joined the stained glass workshop and worked under A. J. Davies and Harry Hodgetts. Left the Guild in 1935. See Goodwin and Townshend 'The Workers at the Bromsgrove Guild', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild' (1999), p. 60.
Employed Benjamin Creswick
1899
Carved wooden figures for the Unitarian Memorial Church, Wallasey, Cheshire, a Guild comission. See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 14.
Employed Bernard Sleigh
1899 - 1900 (Presumed)
Painted the communion table, pulpit and choir stalls for the Unitarian Memorial Church, Wallasey, Cheshire, a Guild comission. Also painted decor for the Guild's exhibits in the British Pavillion of the Paris Exposition in 1900. See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 14 and p. 16.
Employed Mary J. Newill
1900 (Presumed) - 1906 (Circa)
Produced two needlework panels for the Guild's south bedroom in the British Pavillion of the Paris Exposition in 1900. See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 16. Goodwin and Townshend note that Newill was working in her own studio in Birmingham in 1906 and teaching at the Birmingham School of Art in 1920; however, how long she continued to work for the Guild is not known (see 'The Workers at the Bromsgrove Guild', p. 53).
Employed Joseph (Josef) Anton Hodel
1900 (Circa) - 1904 (Circa)
Worked on 'many of the Guild's early projects' with his Swiss partner Louis Weingartner, including a comission for the architect Sir Aston Webb to produce a silver trowel and bronze and silver casket for King Edward VII to use when laying the foundation stone at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 13 and p. 19.
Employed Georgie Evelyn Cave Gaskin
1900 (Circa) - 1923 (Circa)
Worked on the 'painted decor' for the Guild's south bedroom in the British Pavillion at the Paris Exposition in 1900. See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 16. Gaskin made the silver candlesticks for a Bromsgrove Guild commission - a private chapel at Mansfield Court (work on the chapel was carried out between 1902 and 1923). See Goodwin and Townshend, 'The Workers at the Bromsgrove Guild' in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 54.
Employed Ernest Jeffries
1902 - 1904 (Circa)
Began working for the Guild in 1902 and was paid a regular wage by them from 1904 onwards. See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 18. Jeffries worked in silver and enamels (p. 55).
Employed Louis Weingartner
1902 (Circa) - 1921
Worked on various commissions including one in 1902. Moved to Bromsgrove in 1904 and became the Guild's chief designer, sculptor and metal worker. Weingartner also produced a model of the great lock that was comissioned for the Buckingham Palace project in c. 1905-1908. See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 19. Weingartner left the Guild in 1921 to work for Martyn's of Cheltenham (p. 39).
Employed Arthur Joseph Gaskin
1902 (Circa) - 1923 (Circa)
Gaskin made a silver enamelled crucifix for a Bromsgrove Guild commission - a private chapel at Mansfield Court (work on the chapel was carried out between 1902 and 1923). See Goodwin and Townshend, 'The Workers at the Bromsgrove Guild' in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 54.
Employed Weisz
1905 (Circa)
Worked in Birmingham as a jeweller before moving to Bromsgrove to work for the Guild. See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 25.
Employed Amy Walford
1905 (Circa)
See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 25.
Employed Archibald John Davies
1906
Director of the Glass Workshop. See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 25.
Employed Joseph Sanders
1906 (Circa) - 1914
Townshend notes that Sanders worked with A. J. Davies and Henry Rushbury in the stained glass workshop. He left to serve in the war in 1914 and subsquently established his own studio in Lancaster. See Goodwin and Townshend 'The Workers at the Bromsgrove Guild', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild' (1999), p. 58.
Employed William Cowper
1906
Metal worker for the Guild from 1906 onwards; no end date is given. See Goodwin and Townshend 'The Workers at the Bromsgrove Guild', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild' (1999), p. 64.
Employed Ernest Cowper
July 1907 - 1934
Set up the Guild's new foundry in Station Street, Bromsgrove. Also acted as Director of the Guild and retired from this post in 1934 (no start date is given). See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 29 and p. 46.
Employed Frederick Osborne
1914 (Circa) - 1919 (Circa)
Trained as an apprentice modeller and plasterer. Townshend notes that Osborne 'was probably responsible for much of the plaster work carried out until the plaster department closed down in 1919'. See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 34.
Employed Charles Bonnet
1917 (Circa)
Modeller from Barcelona. Worked on the plaster panels of birds and fruit for Dodford Church and was assisted by Leopold Weisz. Carried out various Guild commisions including modelling the lead statue 'Hygiea' for 'Chequers' in 1917 - the garden of Lord Lee's mansion in Buckinghamshire. No start or end dates are given, however, Bonnet eventually left Bromsgrove and settled in New York. See Goodwin and Townshend 'The Workers at the Bromsgrove Guild', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild' (1999), p. 63.
Employees included Richard Tapp
1899 (Circa) - 1908 (Circa)
Ran the Guild's woodshop from its foundation. See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 12.
Employees included George Percy Bankart
1899 - 1906
Joined the Guild to run the plaster workshop with Henry Ludlow in 1899. The plaster works were expanded in 1903. Bankart modelled designed and executed plaster and lead work (in the lead workshop) until 1906 when he left Bromsgrove worked independently in London. See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 13.
Employees included Henry Albert Payne
1900 (Circa) - 1909 (Circa)
Created a plaque for the Guild in 1900 and carried out several other commissions in the early 1900s. See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 12 and p. 13. Goodwin and Townshend note that 'it is probable that any stained glass made by the Bromsgrove Guild before the arrival of A.J. Davies, was by Payne': see 'The Workers at the Bromsgrove Guild', p. 55.
Employees included Henry John Ludlow
1901 (Circa) - 1919 (Circa)
Employees included George Herbert Whewell
1910 - 1966
Began as an office clerk and went on to become secretary, director and then chairman of the Guild until it closed in 1966. See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 33.
Employees included Michael Hewan Crichton
1919 - 1951
Became the Guild's chief modeller and 'he alone was responsible for all of the modelling of medals, medallions, figures and memorials until he left the firm in 1937'. Although Crichton letf the firm to return to Edinburgh, he continued to 'model medallions and other small items' for the Guild until 1951. See Townshend 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts', in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), pp. 39-40.
Employees included Godfrey Alfred Beachim
1924 - 1932
Responsible for the 'intricate moulding on the doors of the I.C.I. building on London's Milbank'. See Goodwin and Townshend, 'The Workers at the Bromsgrove Guild' in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), p. 64
Members included George Percy Bankart
Members included G. P. Bradley
Members included Joseph (Josef) Anton Hodel
Members included Georgie Evelyn Cave Gaskin
Members included Arthur Joseph Gaskin
Members included Walter Gilbert
Teachers of metal work included Thomas Harrington
1902
Taught art metal work at the Guild 'because the classes at the School [Bromsgrove School of Art] were not considered to be of a high enough standard by Walter Gilbert'. See Goodwin and Townshend, 'The Workers at the Bromsgrove Guild' in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', (1999), pp. 64-66; no end date is given.
Worked with Alfred Bertram Pegram
Forrer notes that the artist 'works in conjunction with the Bromsgrove guild'. No dates are given, however, the artist may have been active in 1930 when Forrer's 'Dictionary' was published. See vol. 8, (1930), p. 118.
Descriptions of Business or Institution
Listed in The London Directory, 1930 Post Office/Kelly London Directories
1930
p.200
Listed as 'Art Metal Worker'
Sources
A Directory of Scottish Craftsmen and Builders Country Life
27 September 1913
p. ix
Catalogue of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition 1900
1900
p. 73
Catalogue of the Spring Exhibition, The City Art Gallery, Leeds 1906
1906
Cat. No. 443, p. 79
The Bromsgrove Guild. An Illustrated History, 1999
1999
pp. 1-450.
The London Directory, 1930 Post Office/Kelly London Directories
1930
p.200
Citing this record
'Bromsgrove Guild', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/organization.php?id=msib4_1241533221, accessed 19 May 2022]
