("Estate Yard" according to the Appreciation)
(Not listed in 1974, but later listed as "Strangways Estate Yard"
(Not listed in 1974, but later listed as "Strangways Estate Yard"
Once known as "Up Barton", this range of buildings was one of several workshops used by the Estate's team of painters, carpenters and builders, and apparently also served as stables before it was converted to its current use, a conversion that was not without incident ~ knocking off for lunch after stripping old paint off the doors with blowlamps, the workers could not be found when the very new owners of no 20 noticed that the workshop doors had caught fire.
"Dansel" stands for Danielle and Selwyn Holmes, whose gallery celebrated its 25th anniversary in August 2004, when they told the story of the gallery in the Chesil Magazine.
"In 1979, Edward Green, who was Estate Manager in charge of lettings at the time, was advised that all the many buildings in need of restoration should not all be turned into residential accommodation, but some should be converted for business use to encourage local employment and to help keep the school open, showing that the village was alive and moving forward. The only other craftsman in the village at the was Roger Gilding, the potter, on West Street. Other than that there was the Post Office Stores, the antique shop on the corner, the butcher, the Swan Inn and the Ilchester Arms. There were no tea rooms or other gift shops. (In fact, the Flower Bowl had been in business for some time.) We were looking to move our existing workshop from Eype near Bridport as it was too small, and we were put in touch with the Estate by CoSIRA (the Council for small Industries in Rural Areas) and were given the opportunity to take on what used to be the old Estate Yard, to use as a woodworking workshop and showroom. It was converted by the Estate, which put big glass windows behind the existing old stable doors and knocked through walls to make one long space.
At first we just made furniture to commission, but soon realised that the many visitors to Abbotsbury wanted to buy smaller cheaper things so we soon put the offcuts to good use. We could not feasibly make enough different designs on our own, so we started selling other people's work. After discussions with the potter and then Greg Shepherd, who had started his glass engraving workshop at the Wheelwrights, we all decided we would only sell work in our own medium so as not to step on each others' toes. This has turned out to be a very good discipline as Dansel Gallery has now become one of thevery few 'only wood' shops in the country. Now more than 200 woodworkers are represented, probably the largest concentration of its kind in the country. The gallery houses a superb collection of high quality hand-made items from British designer-craftsmen with the emphasis on good design and high quality of finish. 40% of the craftsmen are from the South West, many of them from Dorset.
In 1990 the workshop was moved from Rodden Row to 10a West Street to allow more space for larger pieces of furniture to be displayed and to produce more work to sell to other shops around the country, until finally in 1998 the workshop left the village to go back to Eype where it all started, and where Selwyn still produces pieces for the gallery."