User talk:MarkdPugh

Kenneth Goodwin Pugh
Tribute to Ken Pugh

Although Ken was born in North Wales at the home of his grandparents, his early years and his school years were spent at Mansfield where his parents lived. His mother evidently recognised something of his artistic bent and encouraged him to attend a local art school where he was able to develop his talent. He left home to spend two years as a National Serviceman in the Royal Airforce, where he was given the responsible job of maintaining aircraft because, as Ken said, he knew one end of a screwdriver from the other.

After completing National Service in 1955 he spent 3 years at Loughborough College of Education, studying Design and Technology. He was awarded a string of first-class passes with Distinctions in Handicraft. It was during his time at Loughborough that his interest in the design and making of furniture developed.

1958 he was appointed to teach Design and Technology at Abbeydale Grammar School for Boys in Sheffield, and also worked as a part-time evening lecturer teaching Furniture Design at the Sheffield College of Art. He also took and passed the City and Guilds course in Cabinet and Chair Making, and the Advanced Diploma in Furniture Design, again being awarded passes with Distinctions. Tese were very busy years for him.

While working in Sheffield he lived in lodgings from Mondays to Fridays but because his landlady did not want him there at weekends, he returned to his family home in Mansfield. From there he would often travel to Nottingham to attend the Saturday night Dance in the Sherwood Rooms where, amongst the young women there, he met Margaret, who travelled from Castle Donnington to the dance and who became one of his regular dancing partners.

In 1964 Ken moved to King Alfred’s College, Winchester to take up the post of Lecturer in Design and Technology. At his interview for the post Ken was asked if he was married and replied ‘No, but I am going to be married soon’. Margaret knew nothing of this intention at the time, but he and Margaret were indeed married before the end of the year. They bought a house in Alresford. Katherine arrived in 1966 followed by Mark in 1969.

Once settled in at King Alfred’s Ken undertook further studies, gaining an Open University BA and a Southampton University MA. Shortly after the completion of this study Ken and Margaret suffered a blow, the effects of which only those who have suffered a similar experience can begin to comprehend, when Katherine died in a road accident. Despite the numbing grief of the first few weeks after this event Ken and Margaret decided that they would not let this tragedy destroy the family life they had established, and to their great credit they fought their way through and out of this crisis.

Ken continued to teach at King Alfred’s College until his retirement in 1987. In his later years it gradually became evident that he was experiencing problems of motor control, and something over 2 years ago, without drama or emotion, he told my wife and I the terrible news that he was suffering from a progressively debilitating and untreatable terminal condition. Margaret looked after him at home until his needs were such that he had to go into care. At this point I would like to express on behalf of Margaret and the family their gratitude for and appreciation of the help and support they received in so many ways from friends, neighbours and nursing staff during this very trying time.

Ken was obviously a devoted family man, settled with his chosen life-partner Margaret, thrilled by the arrival of his two children, delighted by Mark’s success in becoming an architect, by Mark’s marriage to Sarah and by the arrival of two grandchildren, Leo and Avril. Ken became, in the best sort of way, paternally proud of his family.

Ken liked things in all areas of his life to be done properly and in an organised way. On one occasion Ken dismantled his workshop – a fairly large and hefty wooden structure - in order to treat all the panels, bolts and screws with preservative, and I offered to help him re-erect it. I speak now as the sort of person who, when there is weeding or planting to be done, often spends time in a fruitless search for either of my two garden trowels, one of which is coloured bright orange so that it can easily be spotted lying about in the garden. I arrived in Ken’s back garden to find the various panels of the building neatly stacked in the correct order of assembly. A few feet away from the base of the structure was a large piece of cloth on which were laid all the tools in order of size, a row of large bolts and a row of smaller bolts, all with nuts loosely screwed on them, a hammer, a can of preserving wax and a cloth. My job was to hold the panels in place while Ken did the technical business. I watched him go straight to each implement he wanted, use it and return it to its appointed place on the cloth. Not once did he stand with that bewildered look familiar to so many of us that expresses the wordless question of despair, ‘Where is the object that I had in my hand two minutes ago’, and the job was completed far more quickly that I could have imagined. Later that week I started to redecorate one of our bedrooms and tried to replicate Ken’s methods. Sadly, after 15 minutes I was surrounded by the chaos which usually afflicts me when doing such jobs. I realised that it is not enough to have the intention to be really well organised – one has to have the ordered mind, the discipline and the determination to see it through –and these qualities Ken had.

Ken was a committed and influential teacher. He often said that he loved his job at King Alfred’s College, where he had the opportunity to pass on to students some of his knowledge and skills. Anyone who looked at the yearly exhibition of practical projects presented, often as beautiful forms of furniture designed and made by Design and Technology students, could have no doubt about the success of the teaching done by Ken and his colleagues. Some of his students became very successful and were openly appreciative of Ken’s teaching and influence. Roger Muscroft who now lives and teaches in Hong Kong wrote, ‘Ken was a formative influence in my life and a constant contact. That I am still teaching kids to make dovetail joints is part of his legacy’.

Kevin Stamper, a former student who now runs a successful internationally known business in modern bespoke furniture, wrote in an article for Woodworker Magazine that the most important personal influences on his work and development were from Ken Pugh and Brian Kirk.

Ken was in fact, an outstanding craftsman, and although visitors to Ken’s home saw some of the beautiful things had made, and understood  that he must be ‘pretty good at woodwork,’ I believe that few people understood just how good he was, and this was partly because he never promoted his own talent.

When Ken was a student at Loughborough, the external examiner for handicrafts was Edward Barnsley, one of the most important British furniture makers and designers of the 20th century. Edward Barnsley learnt his craft in the workshop founded by his father Sydney Barnsley and Ernest Gimson. These two, at the start of the 20th century were the most influential figures in the development and promotion of furniture in the Arts and Crafts Style, Gimson and his work having been given written recommendation and approval from William Morris himself.

Edward Barnsley was thus in direct line of artistic heritage from the founder of the Arts and Crafts movement, and to uphold this tradition of fine workmanship he founded a study/workshop centre at Steep, overlooking Petersfield, where outstanding apprentices could be taught the principles of good design and the techniques of furniture construction. One day in the early 1970s Edward Barnsley arrived without warning at the Pugh family home and tried to persuade Ken to join the teaching staff at the Steep workshop training centre. Barnsley probably had met Ken at Loughborough on only 3 occasions when he would have had to interview Ken and examine his handicraft work in order to confirm the Distinction awards which Ken seemed to pick up each year. And, based upon the examination of Ken’s work and these brief encounters, Edward Barnsley was prepared to offer Ken a position in one of the most elite furniture making groups in the country. Ken decided not to accept this tempting offer, but this event is significant of the standing of Ken’s work. I discovered the full implications of these events only recently –I think that we can add Modesty as another of Ken’s qualities.

Ken also delighted in presenting diverse things in an attractive way. For example, I remember a buffet meal in the Pugh home where the cutlery was laid on a side table in an immaculate fan shape. The problem for the guests was that no-one wanted to be the first to destroy the pattern. Ken’s family history was not only a masterful piece of research but was beautifully presented in the form of a book bound by Ken himself. His front garden was a model of economic design with a careful balance between the open spaces and the shrubs and flower beds. He would write the address on an envelope and the greeting on a card with meticulous attention to the writing and its placement on the paper. I could continue to give examples but time forbids.

It was said of Ken that he was a perfectionist, but he was not a slave to this ideal. We visited Pallant House shortly after its refurbishment and enlargement. On the wall of the entrance hall was a large slab of marble into which was carved information about the refurbishment. I happened to spot one letter which was less perfect than the others and said to Ken, ‘Would you have let that pass if it was your work?’ Ken replied ‘Every strike that you make with a chisel into stone or wood is an act of faith. Sometimes the material responds in its own way and you go along with it and make the best of it.’  It occurred to me that this statement could well be related to his  philosophy of life.

I think that perhaps we could sum up Ken as a man of various and exceptional talents and high professional ideals, respected and admired by his students and loved by his family.

Kevin Stamper, Ken’s former student whom I mentioned earlier, recently sent a letter to the family. He wrote, ‘I remember Ken as a very kind and thoughtful tutor who was prepared to spend many hours with his students. I can honestly say that without Ken’s guidance I would not be in the position I am now. He made me look at the world through opened eyes to see the design potential in the most mundane objects, and taught me the skills to translate those ideas into new designs. At a time of plastic mass production he convinced many of us that the skills needed to make an item by hand were worth pursuing and preserving – a conviction even more valid today, and one which I hold true.’ I think that this is a fine tribute and a fitting epitaph to Ken’s life work and influence

Script By Ernest Piper 14 May 2014 MarkdPugh (talk) 12:23, 17 May 2014 (UTC)

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