AT the April Meeting of the Shipston Arts and Crafts Society, Helen Bratt-Wyton, the House Steward of Wightwick Manor, spoke about ‘William Morris and Wightwick Manor’. Morris was the most influential designer of the nineteenth century who saw no distinction between the applied arts and the fine arts. His influence extended over many fields: in architecture, his house ‘The Red House’, Bexleyheath, Kent, was specially designed by his friend Philip Webb, and in its interior decoration other friends including Edward Burne-Jones were involved. The same group of friends decorated the interior of the Oxford Union in 1857. After 1861, Morris lead the firm, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co, reorganised in 1875 as Morris & Co; its influence stretched across furniture and all aspects of interior decoration. Even in its most ubiquitous pieces, everything was handmade, even in the prolific decade between 1875 and 1885.

Wightwick Manor was designed in 1887 with a major addition in 1893 for the Theodore Mander by Edward Ould of the Chester architectural practice, Grayson & Ould, as an aesthetic house. The aesthetic movement was more concerned with how thing look, in contrast to the Arts and Crafts Movement which is concerned with how things are made. The house contains many pieces by Morris and his circle, including the recently acquired preliminary drawings of the fox, rabbit, lion, and raven for the Forest Tapestry, a major piece of embroidery. Embroidery was another of the specialities of Morris & Co.

The next meeting is on Tuesday June 16 2015 when Alice Foster will speak on ‘Grayson Perry’s Tapestry’ at the Catholic Church Parish Centre, Darlingscot Road, Shipston. All are welcome.