Unlocking the Court Barn Archive

A Christmas catalogue and the Campden School of Arts and Crafts

By Helen Hargest

I have long been a “fan” and more recently, a friend of Court Barn in Chipping Campden, a small but perfectly formed space, showcasing craft and design treasures from the Arts and Crafts movement onwards. Since January 2019, I have been volunteering in the Archive; appraising and listing boxes of deposited material onto spreadsheets, and discovering a treasure trove of information relating to Chipping Campden, the Guild of Handicraft Trust and the establishment of the museum. To date, I have listed correspondence involving the Hart family and their workshop, and the setting up of Court Barn. Other boxes contain items relating to the history of Court Barn, the Arts and Crafts movement and its influences.

I have particularly enjoyed listing the contents of two boxes containing material on the Guild of Handicraft and its members, and the Campden School of Arts and Crafts. I have found a Christmas season 1907 sale catalogue for the Guild of Handicraft Ltd, listing special silverware and jewellery items for sale due to the closure of the Guild’s shop in London.

Items relating to the Campden School of Arts and Crafts include the Minutes of Campden School of Arts and Crafts from February 1946 to 1961, and Reports on the work at Campden School of Arts and Crafts between 1904 and 1909, published by the Essex House Press. There are programmes detailing the exhibitions and reviews of the students’ work and on a more personal note, 2 student tickets owned by Harry Warmington who according to a pencilled note on the reverse of one of the rickets, won “2^nd prize Handicraft” on 28 March 1918.