The artisans

Chris King

MASTER CRICKET BAT MAKER | EAST SUSSEX

Understanding cricket players’ psychology has equipped Chris to make the best – and meanest – bats in the sport

Cricket is a sport steeped in ritual. Fans will be familiar with Steve Waugh’s lucky red handkerchief, or Jonathan Trott’s pre-batting rituals; some may even recall Neil McKenzie taping his bat to the dressing-room ceiling. But really, the mind games begin long before that – at the bat makers.

Chris King is a master bat maker (or pod shaver, as they’re traditionally known) at Sussex-based sports brand Gray- Nicolls, the oldest cricket bat maker in the world. He makes bespoke bats for both amateur and professional cricketers around the world, taking great care to accommodate the individual whims of different batsmen.

One of King’s longest-serving customers is former West Indies captain, Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Like so many batsmen, he insists on the bat face being a certain number of grains across (13 in his case), he likes his bat to have some “red” wood along the edge, and numerous other minute specifications. King might have to measure and weigh up to 800 clefts (roughly cut bat shapes – about 40 of which come from a single 15-year-old willow tree) to find the perfect one.

“I’m an appalling cricketer and rarely play,” says King. “But that helps, as cricketers pick up strange ideas about bats that have no logical foundation: it’s all nostalgia or hearsay. I don’t have that, so I can be objective when building them.”

Despite coming to the pod-shaving game relatively late – King trained as an antiques restorer before spending 15 years as a photographer – he quickly made a name for himself. “Bats had all started to look very similar,” he says. “I wanted to design a bat that looked aggressive, powerful, violent even… One the bowler would see and think, ‘Look at that thing! It’s going to punish the ball if I do this wrong.’” With that in mind, he designed the Nemesis, a stealth bomber of a bat with chiselled cheekbones and an unrivalled mass in the power zone. “You tend to find flamboyant players using it,” says King proudly. “Players not lacking a bit of confidence.”

Exactly the sort of players you want using your bats after only five years in the business.

Crosthwaite & Gardiner

HISTORIC CAR RESTORER | EAST SUSSEX

Restoring cars in the way it was done in the halcyon days of motor racing has made this duo the masters of spare parts

“Making ’em like they used to,” is the name of the game at Crosthwaite & Gardiner, one of the world’s leading historic car restorers. It’s likely that anyone racing a pre-war Bugatti, Auto Union, Lotus or Mercedes will have parts built at the company’s Sussex workshop, and if they’re competing at Goodwood, the chances are the C&G team will have built and fitted those parts. “They don’t make them [historic engines] any more,” the late John Gardiner once said. “So if we stopped, so would most historic racing.” Fortunately, Dick Crosthwaite and his son, Ollie, haven’t stopped. They and their engineers and mechanics continue to develop, even improve these car parts of old.

John and Dick started the business in 1969, with the former building the parts and the latter assembling them. “We were very lucky with our first customers,” says Dick. “The Honourable Patrick Lindsay [former head of the Old Masters department of Christie’s London] and a guy called Neil Corner were both very good drivers, and not short of funds. They always used to win, so everyone thought it must be because of the chaps doing their cars. Thanks to them, we got lots of great cars in.” Among these great restorations are a few noteworthy examples, not least Ralph Lauren’s Bugatti 57SC Atlantic Coupé and the Buckminster Fuller-designed Dymaxion. In the latter case, they built the whole car from scratch, at the request of the architect, Lord Foster. Meanwhile, at the back of the workshop, you’ll find the Crosthwaites’ private cache. The collection includes Coopers, Brabhams, Porsches and a wonderful 1934 Frazer Nash. “I started building that in 1973,” says Dick, pointing to a dusty E-type with a mechanic hanging from its bonnet, “but the furthest I’ve driven it is from one side of the workshop to the other. I’ve been there and done it – I’ve driven enough customers’ cars to know exactly what it’s going to be like. Besides, their cars always come first.”

Frank Baines

BESPOKE SADDLE-MAKER | WALSALL

He started by making two saddles a week in his kitchen. Now his company exports saddles to over 40 countries worldwide

Walsall is a town built on leather. In 1900, when the cavalry still rode horses into battle, 10,000 of the town’s inhabitants worked in the leather industry – and 7,000 of them were saddle makers. Such was the significance of the trade, Walsall’s football team even became known as The Saddlers. Today there are around 40 saddle manufacturers in the area. Some of the larger outfits have turned to machinery, but most still cut and stitch their saddles by hand.

Frank Baines has saddle-making in his blood – his family has been involved with the trade for almost 150 years. “My grandfather was a bridle-maker, and it was he who first sparked my interest. I did a six-year saddle-making apprenticeship straight out of school,” says Baines. “I then started the company with my wife and we now employ my son and his wife, and my daughter and her husband. It really is a family business.”

Frank Baines Saddlery is one of the UK’s leading producers of handmade saddles for dressage, jumping and eventing disciplines. The company exports its saddles to more than 20 countries worldwide, though it has taken them the best part of 40 years to get to this point. “My wife and I started making saddles in our kitchen at home,” says Baines. “We’d probably only make a couple a week at that stage. Now we send out around 100 saddles every month, and they’re all made-to-order.”

Baines’ workshop is a well-oiled production line. His leather-cutter, for example – whose job it is to scalpel out the 90 patterns for each saddle – has been with the company for more than 20 years. He passes on the patterns to the saddle makers – many of whom are also veterans of the trade – who arrange and sew together the facings, panels and gussets before stuffing them with flocking and stretching them over the tree (the skeletal wooden frame of the saddle). During the process, 15 metres of machine stitching, 850 hand stitches and 400 tacks go into the finished article.

Over the years, the company has picked up countless awards for its innovative approach to saddle-making, including winning the prestigious Best Made Saddle Competition, held by the Worshipful Company of Saddlers, on no fewer than seven occasions. These days though, Baines is more concerned with educating the next generation of saddlers, and continuing to perfect the contact between horse and rider.

“It’s all very well having these exotic leathers and fancy flaps – and we can do that,” says Baines. “But for riders to compete and be successful, the most important thing is, and always will be, the comfort of the horse.”

Westley Richards & Co

GUNSMITHS | BIRMINGHAM

Having built his first rifle at 14, Sam Banner knows his trade lock, stock and barrel. Now he’s the foreman in a company whose guns take seven years to build and are considered high art

A precocious Sam Banner built his first rifle – a Mauser 98 .257 – when he was 14. Not long after, his enthusiasm earned him a job at the oldest gun-maker in Britain, Birmingham’s Westley Richards & Co.

“I got into gun-making because my father owns a gunsmiths,” says Banner. “Then, when I was 16, I got the chance to work for a company that’s more like Rolls- Royce – which was certainly better than staying at home, working on Ford Mondeos.” He checks himself. “Actually, I’d say Westleys are more like Morgans – handmade in the Midlands with loads of soul.”

Westley Richards’ guns are considered high art; they take up to seven years to build and are decorated by an engraver who is booked up for the rest of his life. Yes, these are guns for sport – Ernest Hemingway would have attested to that – but they’re also exhibition-grade artefacts to treasure in lavish cases, as their price tags would suggest. “Our customers are buying something nobody else can have,” says Banner. “They always want something better than the last one, so they’re always raising the bar.” More often than not, this means decoratively – a recent commission asked for solid gold from muzzle to breach.

More often than not, this means decoratively – a recent commission asked for solid gold from muzzle to breach. At 27, Banner is one of the oldest gun-makers in the company, and as foreman he’s responsible for overseeing the different areas of production and modernising the process. “It’s an old trade, the skills are dying out,” he says.

“We now take on apprentices, so if you want to get into gunmaking, this is one of the only places you can really do it.” And what a place it is: the company’s new purpose-built factory – with leather workshop, subterranean shooting range and retail store – is one of a kind. “It’s a job for life, if you like it,” says Banner. “If not, you can always go and be a jeweller – lots of the skills are transferable.”

This article was taken from the Goodwood magazine, Winter 2017 issue

Words by Alex Moore Photography by Jake Curtis