Hugh Birkett Arts & Crafts Cotswold School Dodecagonal Wall Clock

Hugh Birkett (Ex-Oliver Morel): A furniture maker and master craftsman who was heavily influenced by the work of Ernest Gimson, Romney Green and Edward Barnsley. He established his own workshop in 1949 in Solihull and then in 1966 moved to Moreton-in-Marsh in. He made very high quality furniture in the tradition of the Arts & Crafts Cotswold School and was a member of the Red Rose Guild of Craftsmen, The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society and The Crafts Centre of Great Britain

Sycamore: Sycamore is a softer alternative to maple and over time develops more of a golden colour with can make lovely fine textured creamy golden white furniture

The Cotswold School was a development of the Arts and Craft Movement started largely by Ernest Gimson and the brothers Sidney and Ernest Barnsley. The furniture is instantly recognisable with its simple lines, attention to the finest of details, and use of beautiful materials. Cotswold School designs were crafted from local materials using traditional tools and techniques and with decorative details derived largely from utilitarian elements: exposed joinery, unusual panels, interesting pulls and latches crafted either from wood or from metal using traditional smithing techniques, and close attention to form as well as to wood grain and pattern. Where decorative details were added they generally took the form of traditional embellishment such as exposed joints, chamfered edges and chip carved edge details.The style was embraced and developed by other designers and craftsmen including Gordon Russell, Stanley Webb Davies in Cumbria, Sid Barnsley's son Edward, Arthur Romney Green in Hampshire, Robin Nance in St Ives and Ambrose Heal are a handful of such men out of many. The best developed their own style within the established tradition