Telephone: 01372 386453 E-mail: info@fireandiron.co.uk
- Open Wednesday to Saturday 11am - 5pm - Free entry and parking -
Fire and Iron is known across the world as the place to see and buy the very best metal artworks by leading international artists working with iron, steel, stainless steel, gold, silver, platinum, palladium, titanium, copper, bronze, brass, tin, aluminium, pewter and zinc.
In the beautiful outbuildings of a Grade II* Listed house, delicate jewellery is exhibited alongside opulent beds and life-size steel animals. The emphasis is on quality and ethics. Fire and Iron has been featured many times on television and radio, and in the national press.
Fire and Iron Gallery was founded in 1982 as part of Rowhurst Forge / Richard Quinnell Ltd (established 1932), in response to a global resurgence of interest in forged iron as a creative medium. Its aim was to showcase the work of British blacksmiths and to provide a platform for the promotion of a national craft showing small sparks of life after decades of decline. Throughout the nineties and noughties, owner Lucy Quinnell expanded the scale and the scope of the gallery to incorporate other disciplines within the field of art metalworking…
…Today, Fire and Iron represents 200 British and international makers working in technically diverse ways with iron, steel, stainless steel, aluminium, zinc, copper, bronze, brass, tin, pewter, silver, gold, titanium and scrap metal.
Special exhibitions and demonstrations complement extensive permanent displays. From jewellery to sculpture, commissions are undertaken by Fire and Iron’s exhibiting makers, and also on site by Lucy, her husband Adam Boydell and son Tom Quinnell, who together form an award-winning team specialising in public art projects, private commissions and studio pieces.
Fire and Iron is set in the picturesque outbuildings and gardens of a Plantagenet and Carolean house with parts built in 1346 and 1632 on an ancient occupied site, and is very proud to be a green company.
About Us
Lucy Quinnell owns the Rowhurst Forge site and manages Fire & Iron and the Quinnell School of Blacksmithing, and she has iron in her blood. Lucy's family has been involved in English ironworking since the 1500s. Her grandparents and parents were all involved in blacksmithing, and her grandfather founded the forge on the Fire and Iron site in the 1930s. In 1989 Lucy's father Richard Quinnell was awarded the MBE for his part in the revival of what had been, for many years, a dying craft. During his career, Richard and his team produced some of the most significant twentieth century ironwork in the UK and overseas, including the gates to Shakespeare's Globe in London, the coat of arms for the British Embassy in Rome, the Ivegate Arch in Bradford and the gates to the National Ornamental Metal Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. Richard and his late wife Jinny founded the British Artist Blacksmiths Association in 1978.
Lucy studied at Epsom School of Art & Design and Exeter University before returning to the family business after the early death of her mother, where she pursued a dream of creating a space where artist blacksmiths could show their work to the general public and to professionals in associated fields.
Thirty two years on, Lucy has developed Fire and Iron Gallery into a lively exhibition space where leading artists and makers display and sell their work, and where tens of thousands of visitors come each year to see, enjoy, purchase and commission* great metalwork. Special exhibitions complement the permanent displays, and demonstrations take place in a purpose-built arena. An outdoor sculpture trail is an additional feature in dry summer months, and Fire and Iron was the overall winner in the Business category of Surrey Wildlife Trust's Wildlife Garden Awards 2016.
*We love commissions, and please see our 'Public Art & Commissions' page for typical examples of our work. We have created thousands of unique pieces for our clients, BUT PLEASE DO REMEMBER THAT WE ARE A VERY SMALL TEAM AND THAT EVERYTHING IS INDIVIDUALLY DESIGNED, MADE AND FINISHED BY HAND. WE HAVE A WAITING LIST FOR MOST TYPES OF COMMISSION, SO PLEASE DO CONSIDER THIS - WE ARE NOT FOR THOSE NEEDING SPECIAL COMMISSIONS IN A HURRY!
Lucy is married to blacksmith Adam Boydell, who trained at Herefordshire College of Technology and then with Brian Russell in County Durham. Together, Lucy and Adam have produced many commissioned artworks for public and private spaces. Their work to date includes the Amesbury Archer (Amesbury, Wiltshire), ITV's Avenue of the Stars (Covent Garden, London), the Allen Court Arch (Dorking, Surrey), the 'Gingko' panel for the International Pillar of Friendship at the 'Enginuity' museum (Ironbridge, Shropshire), trophies for the Sir Michael Caine Drama Awards and the new wall sculpture on the façade of the Leatherhead Institute.
Lucy and Adam have a passion for 'education through doing' and work frequently with young people and community groups to produce finished artworks. In 2008, Lucy won a gold medal for Fire and Iron's first RHS garden at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, and she has gone on to design and produce ironwork for five more gardens - solo or in collaboration with other garden designers.