Browse Exhibits (7 total)
This is the story of the infamous murder of James Wyndham of Oakridge, shot dead by his son Frederick in 1893. The story is told using contemporary newspaper and other reports.
John Masefield, a regular visitor to the area, captured these events in his poem 'No man takes the farm'.
The war memorial in the form of a fountain and water supply was presented to the village and unveiled by Earl Beauchamp in 1918, Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire.
This is the story of how it came about and of the brave individuals which it commemorates.
In 1896 a plan of the Stroud joint hospital board to house smallpox cases in the old parish pest-house at Oakridge angered local people who rioted and burned down the building!
The plan was subsequently abandoned and instead the board built an isolation hospital at the Wittantree near the Stancombe cross-roads.
Alfred Powell was was the architectural pupil of John Dando Sedding, working in the 'crafted Gothic' tradition inspired by John Ruskin. His wife, Ada Louise Powell was the daughter of an artist, and studied embroidery, calligraphy and illuminating. Together Alfred and Louise Powell became celebrated as pottery designers for Wedgwoods.
Together they collaborated on the revitalisation of the arts and crafts, rejecting industrialisation and designing furniture decoration, embroidery and ceramics, and encouraging a communitarian spirit in the South Cotswolds.
Fred Gardiner was born in Waterlane, one of five brothers and two sisters whose father was a builder.
Fred Gardiner was apprenticed to Ernest Gimson, one of the leading practitioners of the Arts and Crafts Revival movement which flourished between 1860 and the 1930s and was led by the artist and writer William Morris.
The Cotswolds was a hub for the movement, which sought to reintroduce traditional values of craftsmanship in an industrial age.
Alfred Bucknell was the son of William Bucknell and grandson of Billy Bucknell, blacksmith and wheelwright in Tunley. Alfred, who moved to Waterlane, started his career at Sapperton with Gimson after his potential for metal working had been spotted by Alfred Powell.
From 1903, Alfred Bucknell and Gimson worked together at Sapperton making items such as furniture fittings, latches, candle sconces, firedogs and ecclesiastical fitings in brass, iron, polished steel and silver.
After Gimsons death Alfred set up independently as a wheelwright and smith at home in Waterlane and was later joined by his son Norman who continued and built on the tradition for quality and design established by his father.
Join us as we travel from Ashmead's Mill east along the canal to Sapperton Tunnel using photographs mainly from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.