Eric Gill and Pigotts

I fixed a headstone yesterday at Speen Baptist Chapel. In the same row sits Eric and Mary Gill's headstone, carved by Laurie Cribb. I was invited afterwards to a tour of Gill's former home and workshop known as Pigotts. I had never expected the place would be so completely unchanged from Gill's day. Sure there were a few additions, but nothing that takes away from the grand feeling of age that did so much to stimulate my senses. The freezing tiled floors, honed by the feet of many families and followers. There in the old Chapel (now a workshop) hangs a saw which is still used, bearing the initials EG. Everywhere one looks there are small but powerful reminders of another time in which Art was made for function and for the love of God. The current owners whose family have been there for almost 50 years have much to be proud of. Having been trained at the Cardozo Kindersley Workshop set up by David Kindersley, who in turn trained under Eric Gill, I felt I was somehow returning to my roots.