Artisans of Dartmoor - Book - Page 67
THE UPHOLSTERER
Working in a Georgian coaching stable in Chagford, upholsterer
Stuart Coote reveals the secrets hidden within our seats
D
uring his 35-year career as an upholsterer,
Stuart Coote has found many strange things
down the back of his clients’ sofas. Coins and cutlery
from TV dinners, now that you might expect. Crochet
hooks and cannabis aren’t much of a surprise either.
But more unusual items include medals, newspaper
articles of 19th-century events, and a pair of saucy
knickers “concealed in a place they couldn’t be seen”,
presumably as a key turned unexpectedly in a lock.
“Taking apart people’s furniture gives a real insight
into the way they live – and often what they eat for
dinner,” says Stuart, as he cajoles a recalcitrant spring
into a chair seat. It’s also a chance to walk with the
ghosts of the past. In a tradition spanning centuries,
upholsterers have left secret messages to each
other from beyond the grave, signing their names
and writing messages on frameworks for the next
upholsterer to discover decades – or centuries –
later. On the back of one 1920s chair Stuart was
reupholstering, a frustrated craftsman had scribed,
“Couldn’t get symmetry right here.” Stuart’s cheeky
riposte? “I had no trouble.”
Stuart’s workshop is a lichen-freckled
granite coaching stable, which forms part of a
large Georgian estate on the outskirts of the
14th-century town of Chagford. Rising up behind
it are hilly pastures grazed by cattle and wild deer,
a sweet chestnut copse, and an arboretum dotted
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