The name of Ditchling used to be synonymous with Eric Gill, but since he was outed as an abuser of his own daughters the association has become an embarrassment. Obliged to quietly drop its most famous name, Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft has been exploring less controversial connections. Its latest show, about Bourne and Allen, is a tribute to a forgotten creative partnership that casts a fascinating sidelight on the contribution of women’s traditional crafts – and lesbianism – to British modernism.
After the Festival Hall put them on the map, they were approached to weave the fabrics for Ben-Hur
Hilary Bourne was a Ditchling girl. Sent from India before the first world war to board at Dumbrells School in the East Sussex village where she was later joined by her widowed mother and sisters, she was just 13 when she learned to spin, in 1922, at the Gospels weaving studio of Ethel Mairet, a veteran of Gill’s artistic community.
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