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24
Mar 2024
30 years of creativity at Pateley Bridge arts and crafts hub
It’s 30 years since a small group of artists, makers and designers moved into a cluster of buildings just off Pateley Bridge High Street.
The newly-created hub aimed to provide individual workshops for craftspeople to grow their businesses while being part of a wider collective and shared experience.
The premises, on the site of the former workhouse complex in King Street, was owned and used by the district council to house everything from bin lorries to rat catchers. But they were just what jewellers Ian Simm and Debby Moxon had been looking for.
'We found a space that was just the right size'
Ian and Debby were already part of a creative hub based at the Duncan Craft Workshops, a former Otley wool mill that was being converted into offices.
At just the time the group was beginning its search for a new home, the council was looking for its first tenants for the converted municipal buildings. It was a perfect match. Ian said:
Three decades on, and King Street Workshops are widely known as a place not only where local craftspeople can flourish, but also where visitors and customers can see them at work. Ian said:
Makers at work
Ian and Debby create handmade jewellery for commissions as well as selling pieces from their workshop and in galleries and craft shops across the UK.
They are one of the few jewellers in the country to specialise in heat-treating, marking and texturing titanium, a dull grey metal which, when heated, transforms into a spectrum of lovely colours.
Their business, Moxon and Simm, is the last of the original King Street group, after glassblowers Andrew Sanders and David Wallace retired last year. As craftspeople have moved on over the years, new ones have seized the rare opportunity to be part of this rarely-found type of creative hub.
Alongside Debby and Ian, there is currently the ceramicist Fiona Mazza, mosaic artist Ruth Wilkinson, furniture maker Augustus Stickland and sculptor Joseph Hayton.
Joseph moved in 13 years ago and has found the workshops suit his business perfectly. His current unit is large enough for the specialist equipment he uses, as well as giving him space to display his work. He said:
Sculptor Joseph Hayton in his workshop.
Like most businesses, those at King Street Workshops took a bit of a hit during the pandemic but the customers and tourists have returned. Joseph said:
Joseph mainly works to commission, with projects ranging from stone lettering to garden sculptures in stone or bronze. He has customers from the local area, across the UK and, occasionally, abroad. He is currently working on a very large ornate fireplace for a property in Rome. He added:
Ian, Debby, Joseph and the others will be celebrating three decades of the King Street Workshops at the beginning of June, inviting people to watch them at work and view displays of their creations.
The gallery on the site will also host a retrospective of sculptor Roy Noakes, who lived in Nidderdale in his later years.
Photo: Some of the craftspeople currently based at the King Street Workshops, from left, Augustus Stickland, Fiona Mazza, Ian Simm, Debby Moxon and Joseph Hayton.
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