Please click the Play button to listen to a brief audio clip about the history of the Courtyard Gallery.
A Transcript is also available further down the page.
Art at Courtyard Gallery
Historical Images
Audio Transcript
Courtyard Gallery opened its doors in 1986 and is a family-run independent business. It’s accessed through a passageway leading into a courtyard behind No 32. If you look back, you’ll see a date stone set in the wall. N.I.D. 1677, which makes it one of the oldest buildings in Appleby.
Formally a hay loft, the Gallery building used to host a ‘Dame School’ which closed in 1911. Some of the children’s graffiti can still be seen scratched into the sandstone. Initials are carved in the doorway, and behind the climbing hydrangea on the wall, you can make out a child’s drawing of a sailing ship. A Dame School was an early form of a private elementary establishment, providing children with a good foundation in the basics. In this instance it was run by a Miss Robinson, who lodged at Bongate Mill.
As was common practise in the town, many premises contained small shops and pubs. No. 32 was no exception. The front of the house was split into two shops, with a single entrance. As well as being a book shop and grocer’s run by a William Barnes, who had his own printing business in Town, it was also a butcher’s and a confectioner’s, run by a Miss Cussons. There is evidence of a pig shed in the corner of the Courtyard, where beasts would have been kept to be butchered and sold in the Shambles in the High St.
Art at Courtyard Gallery
More recently and up until 1984 the artist Anne McEntegart, whose work can be seen in the Dumfries Museum, used the Gallery space as a studio, producing wonderful paintings and prints. Her niece Shirley, the daughter-in-law of Ben & Winifred Nicholson the artists, inherited the property. She loved the idea that there would be a gallery on the spot of her Aunt’s studio. Now Roseanna Bellwood has her own studio on the premises creating etchings and monoprints.
To visit the Courtyard Gallery’s website: http://www.courtyardgallery.co.uk/
About the Speaker: Barbara Wright
Barbara moved to Appleby from Lancashire when her son Andrew opened Courtyard Gallery. She played an active part in the Appleby community as a member of St. Lawrence’s Church, serving for several years on the Church Council. She is also a Trustee of St Anne’s Almshouses.