ERIC GILL, DURATION, AND THE DITCHLING MUSEUM

Eric Gill, Spoil Bank crucifix and chapel; paper and ink, 
1919. Collection of Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft. 
Photo, Tessa Hallmann

I wanted to go to the Ditchling Museum in the Sussex village of the same name, when I learned of its association with the artist Eric Gill. I'd become interested in Gill years ago when I learned letterpress printing under the auspices of the Annis Press at Wellesley College. There I became acquainted with Gill as the designer of beautiful type fonts, Perpetua and Gill Sans, so I assumed that the Ditchling Museum would focus on letterpress printing and book arts. It turned out to be the tip of the iceberg. I had known that Gill was also a celebrated stone- and print-maker, but that he had been a magnet for artists who followed him to establish a rural Catholic artists community I hadn't known. What he founded—and abandoned—in Ditchling was both a locus, movement, and inspiration for three generations of brilliant British craftsmen.

In the early years of the last century, overlapping with the arts and crafts movement of William Morris, Gill was a student at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, where he studied lettering with Edward Johnston, who would later design the famous London Underground typeface. The two became friends, as Gill did with printer Hilary Peplar. Both Johnston and Peplar moved to the village of Ditchling after Gill moved his family to live a way from the hectic, industrialized world, in 1908.

Guild rules. Text by Eric Gill, lettered by Joseph 
Cribb. 1920s. Author photo.

In 1920, after Gill’s conversion to Catholicism, Peplar, under Gill's leadership, joined engraver Desmond Chute and apprentice letter-cutter Joseph Cribb, to found the Guild of St. Joseph and St. Dominic, a fraternal community for responsible workmanship and self-sufficient living, dedicated to the Dominican life. Within the Guild grounds—with its chapel, studios, and school—printing, stone-cutting, and calligraphy were pursued, and soon weaving, silversmithing, wood carving, and painting too, as more artists moved to Ditchling to join the Guild, attracted both by Gill and the other artists and by the ideals of the life. 

The Guild lasted until 1989, when the property was sold and the buildings razed. Some relatives of the original families are productive artists in the traditions of their grandparents' art forms, living nearby and active in the preservation of the Guild's materials and heritage. On my visit, I met the grand-niece of Eric Gill's brother, Macdonald, who is soon to publish a book on Mac's extraordinary maps.

"Disruption, Devotion, and Distributism," the current show marking the centennial of the founding of the Guild of St. Joseph and St. Dominic, uses every inch of a small museum's space and draws on the breadth of its permanent collection to introduce the heart of Guild's aesthetic, spiritual, and social aspirations. Central in the early days was Hilary Peplar's Stanhope printing press with which he founded St. Dominic's Press. The press was not about fine printing, and Gill's contributions were not typographic (he designed is famous types after he left Ditchling). The array of titles below indicate that the ethical life of Dominican Tertiaries (lay affiliates of the order) was a major part of founding community's work. Gill wrote and Peplar produced pamphlets to give guidance on all aspects of acceptable living, even down to the "UnChristian Apparel favoured by Females" in the Welfare Handbook, Dress.

Welfare Handbooks, 1919-1923; paper and ink. Printed by St. Dominics Press. Photo by Tessa Hallman.

When Gill left in 1924, it was abruptly and had something to do with his colleagues' knowledge of the dichotomy between his ideals and his deeds. Fiona McCarthy's 1989 biography revealed to those of us who weren't there then that Gill had sexual relationships with his sisters, daughters and a dog, on top of being generally overbearing. In the years since McCarthy's biography, Gill's reputation has naturally suffered tremendously, yet his work is remains. Some demanded the removal of his Stations of the Cross in Westminster Cathedral (work on which excused him from serving in World War I) after the revelation of his incest, but the work's merits assure its place despite some outcries. (Illustration right: Eric Gill, Stations of the Cross, panel 3, 4'6," ca. 1915. Westminster Cathedral. Photo from Cathedral website.) 

Philip Hagreen, "Trying to Make Ends Meet," 
wood engraving, 1940s. Reproduced 
by kind permission of the estate of 
Philip Hagreen. Photo courtesy of the 
Ditchling Museum.

Then, too, the Guild survived Gill's sins and flourished on what he had built, as "Disruption, Devotion, and Distributism" amply demonstrates. The show illustrates how each of these principles shaped the Guild not only at its founding but as it continued even after Gil's removal to Capel-y-ffin, Wales, where he established another Catholic workshop. In this show we see prints by Philip Hagreen, who came to Ditchling to study letter cutting and wood engraving, left for Wales with Gill, but returned after a few years on his own. In the current show, there are several of his Distributist woodcuts, decrying the effects of industrialism. These were made in the 1940s, two decades after the Guild's founding. Despite Gill's early departure, the work and faith of early Guild members remained deeply committed. Socially, Hagreen was a Distributist, a champion of returning people to rural settings where they could produce their own food and provide for their own modest basic needs, independent of the degradations of larger economic movements—capitalism or communism alike.

Ethel Mairet, "Vegetable Dyes," 
1924, 4th ed.Wood engraving 
by Eric Gill; printed by St.
Doiminic's Press. Collection 
of Ditchling Museum. 
Author photo.

Valentine KilBride, gold vestment 
detail, 1920s; silk. Collection of 
Ditchling Museum. Worn in
the Guild chapel. Photo courtesy 
of Ditchling
Museum.

Longevity and duration seemed to me to be two of the most outstanding features of the Guild, aside from the brilliance of its individual artisans and their commitments to traditional, honest workmanship. Ethel Mairet—who, because of her gender, never became a member of the Guild—was a major force in Ditchling's creative community, a weaver who literally wrote the book on the sources and use of natural dyes. She attracted Valentine KilBride who learned from her and became a Guild member in 1924, soon setting up shop for himself and specializing for years in liturgical vestments. In time, his daughter, Jenny, became a weaver. She become the first female Guild member in the 1950s, and she is still living in Ditchling, active in dying and silk weaving in 2019.

Another case of duration and longevity within the context of honest workmanship is in the silversmithing of the Pruden family. Dunstan Pruden attended the same arts and crafts college as Gill. As an ardent Catholic, Pruden became interested in Gill's writings. After they met, Gill obtained Pruden a major ecclesiastical commission, one that helped establish his reputation. In the 1930s, Pruden moved to Ditchling and joined the Guild, specializing  in liturgical pieces. Pruden's grandson, Anton, is still silversmithing in Ditchling, using the traditional methods that Dunstan plied.

Dunstan Pruden, "Cavalry Group," brass, 1973. Collection of Anton Prudent. Author photo.

Visiting a show like "Disruption, Devotion, and Distributism"—a show that aims to clarify those founding principles of the Guild—is both illuminating, inspiring, and confusing. The Guild endured for over sixty years, with a mixture of transitory and stable resident artists. There is nothing intrinsic in this show's artifacts to indicate the passage of time. It makes sense: Given the continuity of devotion to traditional methods, simple living, and the integrity of work, it's natural that the work from 1920 and 1950 might not look very different. A jacket woven by Ethel Mairet was undated, as was a gown Valentine KilBride woven and dyed for Mairet. But when? 1920s? '30s? Displayed nearby were samples by Mairet's students, Barbara Allen and Hilary Bourne, who wove the textiles for the film Ben Hur and the curtains for the Royal Festival Hall in the 1950s. Does the eye date them? The dyes are exceptional in all.

Ethel Mairet, Jacket of hand-spun,
hand-dyed cotton. Undated. Ditchling
Museum. Author photo

Hilary Bourne and Barbara Allen, Woven
Cloth woven for Ben Hur, 1959. Brora wool.
Ditchling Museum. Author photo.

The Ditchling Museum, like the Guild it memorializes, is small and very special. I think that the current show needs the fourth "D," for "Duration," because it seems impossible to characterize the place and its spirit without imagining a shuttle moving through time. Eric Gill and his few colleagues set the place in motion, and the original members were profoundly influential in setting out principles that held fast for the duration. As far as I understand, if there was disruption within the community, the greatest was from Gill himself. 

Our most congenial and 
enthusiastic Ditchling host and 
guide, Larry Yates.

David Jones,  "Our Lady of the Hills," ca. 
1921. Oil on canvas.
Photo by Tessa Hallman

The devotion of the Museum's staff; the relationship of those who keep the Museum and Guild memories alive today; the works of art and the reputations of the artists: None of  these show signs of failing. While it's a complicated place with many individuals and relationships, a history of comings and goings, and many art forms, it's worth the work to know this place. If I lived nearby, I'd have an on-going relationship. I'd see each new show. I'd speak with the current generation of relatives and neighbors who come by. Immersion seems to be the way to appreciate a place at once vast and intimate. 

If you look up the Ditchling Museum on a travel site, reviewers focus curiously on the excellence of the coffee and pastry. I didn't try them, and I'm sure they are great, but I urge you beyond.
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You may also be interested to read:
https://theguild.000webhostapp.com/g12.htm
https://www.apollo-magazine.com/eric-gills-fall-from-grace/
https://distributistreview.com/the-thomist-inheritance-and-the-household-economy-of-father-vincent-mcnabb/
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2006/jul/22/art.art
https://www.academia.edu/1628468/The_Guild_of_St_Joseph_and_St_Dominic