Episode 15. Alec Hunter

SYNOPSIS

What Julian Litten terms the ‘stardust’ of Conrad Noel’s theatrical ritualism attracted many creative talents into the orbit of Thaxted Parish Church. One-time resident of Thaxted’s Market Cross, an imposing 14th century house, and the first Squire of the Morris Ring (1934-36), was such a figure.  The Hunter family provides a direct link to the Arts and Crafts movement from which the folk-dance revivalists drew much inspiration. Alec’s parents, Edmund Arthur Hunter (1866-1937) and Harriette Dorothea Butler (1868-1958) moved to Haslemere in rural Surrey to absorb artisan traditions from the Peasant Art Movement, but quickly established St. Edmundsbury Weaving Works in 1902 before settling in Letchworth Garden City in 1908.  The interview explores the influences that Alec Hunter imbibed from his parents, including William Morris medievalism, guild socialism, Theosophy and mystical Christian ritualism, as expressed in the New Jerusalem mural he painted in the drawing room of Market Cross. 

GUEST

Richard Hunter is the grandson of Alec Hunter and has long been fascinated by the lives and designs of his great-grand father Edmund Hunter and his grandfather Alec. Richard has created a website to share with a wider audience their legacy of unique, vibrant and original handwoven textiles and designs.  Above all, their work displays an extraordinary originality of subject and subtlety of texture, colour and detail.

RESOURCES

Further information about the Hunter family can be found on the website curated by Richard Hunter. To access the website Google “Edmundsbury” .

Richard’s interview with Simon Machin was recorded at the historic Thaxted Guildhall on 25 February 2020