Who is Rose Hatcher and what is the Workhouse Chapel?
Rose is best known for using silk fibres to create joyously colourful images of unlikely botanical specimens. But she also makes 'Rubbish' Jewellery, using beach finds or scrap salvaged from local sheds, all set off with semi precious stones, or vintage beads. Then there's the Weaving... and the Bookbinding... Writing... Photography... Alphabets... The trouble is that everything is so blooming interesting!
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Most creative folk find it troublesome to be confined within a 'box' or defined by a 'label' and Rose is no exception. Excursions into alternative artistic disciplines constantly reinvigorate her work and give new insight into other makers' working practices. This insight is invaluable when selecting new makers to take part in 'Handmade for Christmas', where skill and originality are paramount.
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Passionate about natural materials, the environment, finding new ways of re-using and recycling old things, words, shells... well actually the list could just go on and on, but you get the picture.
Since 2012 the Workhouse Chapel has been the creative workshop of textile artist, Rose Hatcher. It has also been the seasonal home of one of Dorset's best kept secrets, Handmade for Christmas. H4C is open open for all of November and December each year and showcases over 70 makers and artists from Dorset and surrounding counties. Despite the secrecy clause ;-), it is fast becoming one of Dorset's best loved and best attended Christmas events.
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The Workhouse Chapel in Bath Road, Sturminster Newton was built in 1891 to serve the Union Poorhouse. The facade of the Poorhouse is still visible on the Social Services building next door. The Chapel was built on land, and with money, donated by local wealthy landowners. The Clayton and Bell East window was added 7 years after the completion of the building as a memorial to the gentleman who donated the money.
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It was last used as a place of worship in 1969, after which it was used as a store, and then twenty years later as the Town Museum. When The Museum found warmer and brighter premises in the centre of town, it fell into disuse.
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In 2012 it was bought by Rose and Bob Hatcher, who added an in-keeping and architecturally sympathetic extension housing a kitchen and loo on the south side, and a mezzanine floor to the West end.
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