Pursuing an artistic career focusing on architecture wasn't in my blood, or so I thought, until

GEORGE SWINFORD- MASTER STONEMASON, COTSWOLD MAN, HOST TO BRITAIN'S ICONIC LABOUR POLITICIANS.

I moved back to the Oxfordshire border just over a year ago to get to know my father and his family properly. Now, some of you know, it sadly wasn’t a successful mission, but a remarkable story has come to light.

A few months ago my friend Ben Morley offered me a studio space on his land whilst I stay in the village of Filkins. Knowing I'd been fascinated by his home, what remains of a Jacobean Manor with additions from the tail-end of Arts & crafts period, he popped-in with a photocopy of a Country Life article about it. A fascinating article that covered the disastrous fire of the 1940’s which destroyed half the building. I discovered reading the article, that the master stonemason who crafted it, along with most of the beautiful village that I walked through everyday with Daphne, was called George Swinford. Country Life didn’t just fleetingly mention George, rather the article was all about the talents of George Swinford and his patron, the one-time owner of the house, Statesman Sir Stafford Cripps. Swinford was the maiden name of my Granny, my Father’s mother Honor who I sadly didn’t know growing up, but fortunately, just before she died, I visited her a few times. A gifted pianist, I get my blond locks from her.

George worked from the 1920’s for the Christian Socialist and Labour politician Sir Stafford Cripps; when Cripps and his wife Isobel moved to Filkins, Oxfordshire, the home of my paternal family, it was there Sir Stafford discovered my great uncle’s master stone-masonry skills.

George had a large successful business, overseeing at it’s peak, a team of over 30 men. Cripps allowed quarrying on his land of beautiful local Cotswold Stone, much of it was used to regenerate Filkins and the surrounding villages with Cripps' splendid social vision, they began reforming it. Now considered one of Oxfordshire's most gorgeous places to live, Filkins was created with the collaborative vision of both Cripps and Swinford. Both men became great friends and I’m fascinated to have read that Uncle George entertained Clement Attlee, George Lansbury, Herbert Morrison, and Pandit Nehru at the cottage which Cripps had given him.

ABOVE: Uncle George, George Lansbury, Sir Stafford Cripps and Joe Swinford, my Great-Grandfather, at the grand opening of a new village centre, Dec 28th 1935.

For the last 12 months, I’ve been busy critiquing every building I walk past on my route to the studio, examining stone-mullion windows, doorways, giant keystones, quirky details and exquisite carving, and of course I picked one, as we all do, that I’d quite fancy living in. I discover, now as someone who’s life is all about buildings, design and craftsmanship, that everything around me my Great Uncle George created. And, I recently learned when my Father briefly visited my studio, that the cottage I fancied was in fact George's house that Sir Stafford Cripps gave him with thanks for his talent.

I look out of my studio window now and I can see George’s cottage in the distance. I pop in to my friends house for the occasional catch-up glass of wine and see the inside of windows George crafted with his hands, lovingly, and designed with the intention to keep alive the great skills of men centuries before him.

I’ve been distanced from my family since age 15, as I went off to London and pursued a subject alien to them and difficult to grasp, the distance only got bigger. I don't feel so distanced now, and I think George would have been proud. That’s pretty damn cool!