Fettled, smoothed and sworn at

Christmas joy at Sturminster Newton workhouse chapel

‘The workhouse was not just a building; it was the collective pain and suffering of those who found themselves trapped within its walls’
– Shadows of the Workhouse by Jennifer Worth, author of Call the Midwife.
If you hear the word ‘workhouse’ you probably think of Oliver Twist bravely telling Mr Bumble the Beadle: ‘Please sir, I want some more?’ – and being beaten and sold for his cheek.
That’s Charles Dickens of course – so is: ‘I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round – apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that – as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time.’
So, take a pinch of Charles Dickens’ most famous Christmas story and a huge helping of colourful, inviting creativity, put them all in an old workhouse chapel and you have … Handmade for Christmas, the perfect place to find something special for people you love (and even for yourself).

More than 70 makers
Silk painter and multi-talented maker Rose Hatcher bought the Workhouse Chapel, in Bath Road on the north side of Sturminster Newton, and organised the first Handmade for Christmas in 2012. This year is the 13th consecutive festive feast of crafts, arts, glass, jewellery, textiles and more by a record 70-plus makers from Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire, Devon and Hampshire – plus a few specially invited exhibitors from further afield.
Rose kept her Christmas shop going even during Covid and lockdown – in fact, she says, she actually enjoyed the unexpected good effects of the pandemic. ‘I loved it. It was heaven – there were no outside interruptions and I had time to work. I almost felt guilty.’
She still opened Handmade for Christmas, with just five customers allowed at a time, and this proved very successful, she says: ‘People came with the intention of doing all their Christmas shopping here.’
There are no constraints on numbers now, and visitors are welcomed not only with the warmth from a wood-burning stove, but also excellent coffee and biscuits. You can wander around and make your selections or talk to Rose or one of her ‘elf helpers’, led by glass artist Kate Osman, whose charming fishes are made from ‘rescued’ greenhouse glass.

‘Rubbish’ jewellery
With a former career in banking and finance, Rose has an unusual background for an artist, but she has clearly found her tribe – her own silk paintings, on a silk paper that is her unique product, and her ‘rubbish’ jewellery, made from bent nails, old chains, scrap metal and found objects, sit happily among the pottery mugs, stained glass Christmas tree hangings, handmade fabric hares, extraordinary metal sculptures made from old cutlery and kitchen equipment and colourful paper mâché.

Platters to prints
Handmade for Christmas is open every day until 4.30pm on Christmas Eve – jokily known as ‘husbands’ day’ because it can be remarkably busy with harassed men – often in wellies and arriving on tractors – seemingly having ‘forgotten’ that Christmas was coming!
The phrase ‘Aladdin’s cave’ is over-used at Christmas, but Rose, with Kate and fellow elf-helper Frankie, create such a warm, welcoming, brightly lit cavern of craft that the cliche seems entirely justified. Wherever you look, there are attractive, unusual, festive, fun, functional things, all sure to bring a smile to the face of the chosen recipient.
Objects come in all sizes – big pottery platters to show off your Christmas roasties, tiny red-ribboned porcelain stars for the tree or to decorate a special present, useful notebooks and sketchbooks with hard covers of old maps, mugs for hot chocolate after a cold Boxing Day walk, fine metalwork, animal paintings, goats milk soap and hand-printed cards …
‘Everything is handmade,’ says Rose. ‘I like to think that everything has been properly fettled, smoothed and sworn at by a real person!’

The Sturminster workhouse

Workhouses had existed for hundreds of years, but the ones we picture – excoriated by Dickens and social campaigners of the time – mainly date from the late 18th and early to mid-19th century. The Sturminster Poor Law Union was formed on 4th December 1835, and was overseen by a 22-strong elected Board of Guardians, representing its 19 constituent parishes – Belchalwell, Caundle Stourton, Child Okeford, Fifehead Magdalen, Fifehead Neville, Hammoon, Haselbury Bryan, Hinton St Mary, Ibberton, Lydlinch, Manston, Marnhull, Okeford Fitzpaine, Shilling Okeford, Stalbridge, Stock Gaylard, Stoke Wake, Woolland, Sturminster Newton and, later, Hanford.
The population within the Union at the 1831 census was 9,553 with parishes ranging in size from Hammoon (population 54) to Sturminster Newton (1,831). The average annual poor-rate expenditure for the period 1833-5 was £6,658 – or 13s.11d. per head of the population. The new Sturminster Union workhouse, for 150 inmates, was built in 1838 on the northern side of the town. The architect was Lewis Vulliamy, who also designed workhouses at Epping and Brentford.
The workhouse chapel dates from 1891 and was built on land given by the Pitt-Rivers family. Its construction was funded by Montague Williams of Woolland, and the fine east window was installed seven years later, donated as a memorial to his father, by Montague Scott Williams. It was dedicated by the Bishop of Salisbury. After the service the workhouse inmates enjoyed a ‘meat tea’. The old folk were also given tobacco, snuff, oranges and nuts. After it ceased to function as a chapel, and before Rose and her husband bought it, it had various uses, including some years as the local museum.