Family carvery

As a rocking horse, Molly is one of the best and her striking presence is what first catches the eye as you enter a workshop and gallery where two men are now busy carving names for themselves. Joseph carves stone and John carves wood in a new son and father concern.

It’s not correct to announce this business the other way round. When 24-year-old Joseph Layton first had a mind to start up on his own, his father John – a surveyor by profession – was still the head of property and economic development at Harrogate council.

Then John, 57, had an offer of early retirement. And he saw an opportunity, at the premises which his son had acquired, to re-employ his old woodworking tools. So John swapped his business suit for a set of overalls and he has gleefully reverted to his original trade of joiner and cabinet maker.

The timing was perfect. The workshop, in a building which used to be the Pateley Bridge workhouse, needed months of refurbishing to get it shipshape. Two pairs of hands were better than one and so Joseph and John were able to get up and running faster than would otherwise have been possible.

The pair now share the space, Joseph with his stone chisels at the front and John with his wood chisels at the back. Both are outgoing and engaging types which helps because it’s open house here for anyone who wants to drift in and have a chat.

They are more than willing to share their passion for what they do. The conviction they impart to their discussion of their skills makes inspiring listening.

Joseph is determined to take his training as a mason a step further and is setting out to be a sculptor. Close to where Molly stands is one of Joseph’s latest works, a beautiful horse’s head cast in bronze recently delivered from the foundry. It’s called Grace and will be one of three studies of horses’ heads. The second, called Pride, is still a work in progress and sits in clay form on a shelf above his bench.

This equine theme from father and son is not planned however. Like everything else in this arrangement, it just happened.

At the back Vivaldi is playing loudly on a dusty old transistor and John is sanding down a cradle-like plinth which will be the stand for the next rocking horse. The two clearly enjoy each other’s company.

“Dad working there was not planned,” says Joseph and it’s his name that’s over the door. He took over this unit on King Street at beginning of this year and has opened in the middle of the worst recession in living memory and during the worst stretch of wet weather possibly ever. Despite that he’s upbeat. He’s following the path he always set his heart on.

“I’ve always loved using my hands and making stuff,” says Joseph. “I was interested in the art of drawing and in the sixth form I had a passion for clay work. But I decided to get a trade rather than go to college or university.”

As an apprentice mason he would travel one day a week from his home in Silsden to York College and after that he went freelance. He is continuing with architectural and monument jobs to help pay the bills – he and his father were shortly off to Keighley to sort out a headstone in a cemetery. Photographs of some of that work are also on show in his workshop gallery.

Joseph is just scratching his head at the moment over how to set about a new commission to incorporate a carving of a bassoon into a headstone.

But it’s art that grips his imagination. He plans a limited edition of 12 horses’ heads in bronze. They are not commissions and he concedes that Fine Art casting is very expensive using the traditional lost wax process.

“I’m just drawn to this idea by the power of a horse’s head,” he says. “I’m not a horsey person. I’ve never owned one. I’m also very interested in the heads of people and I want to concentrate on busts.”

The horses’ heads are naturalistic. The other studies of wildlife, such as a 1m high Eagle Owl in York stone, the product of two month’s solid work which has pride of place in the workshop, are more stylised.

“I’m not interested in the abstract,” he says flatly. Given that his work shows a keen interest in the rural and is populated by studies of kingfishers, hawks and snakes, it’s maybe surprising that he claims as an influence Art Nouveau, a distinctly metropolitan form of art where the sun rarely enters.

In this respect, Joseph is especially keen on Alfonse Mucha, a Czech painter and decorative artist from the early 1900s who was famous for his poster art, advertising chocolate powder and suchlike. But Joseph also cites Elisabeth Frink as one of his favourites and she was also big on horses.

“It’s a difficult market to make your way in,” he says. “But I’m passionate about it and if I don’t try now I never will. I’ve got my masonry skills to fall back on.

“It’s going all right. Someone came in with a labrador and said, ‘Can you do my dog’s head?’. But people just say it don’t they? You don’t know if they are going to come back and make it definite.”

Over on his carving bench is another working in progress, a peregrine falcon. It’s taking shape out of a block of sandstone which came free from nearby Hanson’s quarry. Limestone is what they are quarrying for there and the sandstone is surplus to requirements. The boss of the quarry dropped by Joseph’s workshop and asked ‘Do you want some?’

Peregrines are nesting in the quarry so Joseph is carving one which might go on the Hansons’ stand at the Pateley Show which concludes the Yorkshire agricultural season in September

“People have a prejudice against sandstone for some reason,” adds Joseph. “My favourite is the York stone that comes from the Queensbury quarry at Bradford. Another source of inspiration for me are the cathedrals and old buildings of Yorkshire. I like all sorts of art, a mixture.”

His father lives a 10-minute walk away. “I work about 30 hours a week, nearly every day and turn out whenever needed,” says John. “I enjoy it. I cut the profile of the rocking horses and it’s all done by hand, as traditional as you are going to get. A bandsaw will be our first investment.”

Molly, his first effort, was named by his grand daughter who comes in to ride her. Molly’s mane is proper horsehair and her tack is the real thing. She costs £1,750.

“There’s £800 worth of kit on it, including a leather saddle and proper stirrups,” says John. “I wouldn’t want to make it any cheaper.”

Prospective customers are urged to use the rocking horse, which with luck will stay in a family for generations, as repository for a time capsule. John has created a space in part of the hollow interior to post domestic mementoes or written notes.

“We thought what could we offer that’s a little bit different and came up with the idea that it can be a piece of family history. You can’t get at what’s posted inside again without drilling.”

Joseph is one of two sons by his first marriage which broke up. He also has two step daughters by his second marriage.

Working together with his son clearly brings satisfaction. “We are always bouncing ideas off each other – we had lot of discussions about the peregrine for example. I thought the sculpture should show the claws, Joe thought not.

Is there anything that might put a spoke in the smooth running of this son and father concern? John admits that there sometimes a bit of a battle of the radios. He’s at the back with Radio 3 or Classic FM turned up high. Joseph working at the front is more for Radio 1 and Chris Moyles. Men of such conviction can’t expect to agree on everything.

For more details about Joseph’s art email [email protected]