Children to learn all about Thomas Chippendale

Now a new website has been launched to help engage primary school children with the work of furniture maker, Thomas Chippendale, who was born in Otley.

The new website has been jointly funded by The Chippendale Society, the Heritage Lottery Fund, Leeds Art Collections Fund, the Friends of Nostell Priory, Harewood House Trust, Burton Constable Foundation and Temple Newsam House. It was launched this week in the Gallery at Temple Newsam, in Leeds.

Staff at some of Yorkshire’s country houses, Harewood House, Nostell Priory and Temple Newsam, in West Yorkshire and Burton Constable Hall, in East Yorkshire, have been working with children from primary schools to develop activities that can be used during school visits to these houses and in the classroom. During this time, the children have ‘carved’ motifs from clay, ‘gilded’ using silver foil and made marquetry fans.

Jan Bryant, education officer at Nostell said: “This project has helped those children involved make links with their own lives and also those of peple of the past.”

The website is available at www.chippendaleactivities.org