A hand-crafted rocking horse is the ultimate 'toy' - and a man who knows every inch of one is Anthony Dew, whose spent his life creating amazing creatures = he's retired now - but his craft lives on
The craft of making beautiful rocking horses was almost dead on its hooves when Anthony Dew launched a small business in the heart of Yorkshire almost 50 years ago.
Determined to buck the trend, he and his then wife Pat made the monumental decision to plough everything they had into a rural enterprise which would focus on the ultimate traditional ‘toy’.
It was a decision which brought them great joy and ultimately heartbreak – leading to near bankruptcy and eventually costing them their marriage as the business became all-consuming. But their shared vision – told in Anthony’s book ‘Making it With Rocking Horses’ - transformed him from a former seaman and one-time teacher into the big fish of rocking horse makers, whose passion for his craft rekindled demand for one of the UK’s most iconic playroom treasures.
‘When I said I wanted to make a living from this, Pat thought I was barking mad,’ he says. ‘I spent a lot of time learning the craft, overcoming obstacles and difficulties, but I loved the whole creative side of it. I made a rocking horse for my final year project as an art student and after that I was hooked. I loved the idea of taking a sketch, a few tools and some raw timber and slowly transforming it into a solid, rideable animal.’
Moving from Skipton to East Yorkshire, where properties were cheaper, they eventually opened their first shop in Holme Upon Spalding Moor. They ploughed blood, sweat and tears into its development, working long hours and against extraordinary odds to keep their niche business afloat while supplementing their limited income with other work – including time at sea for Anthony.
‘As with any artisan or craft-based business, cash flow is always a problem,’ he says. ‘You have to buy masses of materials and equipment and fund a workshop before you can start to make your product and then you have to find your customers. It’s very hand to mouth a lot of the time.’
Slowly and surely demand for their beautiful creations grew as word spread far and wide. The timeless appeal of these tactile, elegant creatures with their dappled coats and flowing silky manes, touched a nerve with customers who were looking for quality craftsmanship and perhaps a hint of nostalgia.
Many think of rocking horses as a staple of well-heeled Victorian parlours and playrooms, but the history of these magical creatures goes back to Medieval times in the form of a simple hobby horse – a horse’s head mounted on a stick. The first toy horse with rockers was made in 1605 for Prince Charles – later to become King Charles Ist of England – to help the sickly five-year-old exercise his weak legs so he could walk and learn to ride. That simple wooden construction is now on display in the V&A museum. Over the centuries the design of the rocking horse has evolved and refined to become one of the world’s most beautiful and elegant toys, with craftspeople like Anthony adding their own skills and interpretations along the way.
Anthony’s commitment to his craft was largely responsible for a huge resurgence of interest and in 1990 the business was so successful that they hit a watershed and faced the option of quitting while they were ahead or expanding into larger premises to cope with demand.
‘I couldn’t think of anything else I wanted to do, so we bit the bullet and decided to find an industrial unit, or a farm with outbuildings, where we could expand the business,’ says Anthony.
They moved to Fangfoss, near Pocklington, into a dilapidated farmhouse with 47 acres of land and a series of buildings in the farmyard which would make ideal workshops. The business grew into the space and before long
Anthony was working 18-hour days, while the couple were also raising their family and doing up the house.
‘It’s a fine line between hard work and obsession,’ says Anthony. ‘There was no let up, no holidays. It was crazy. In the end it became too much for everybody.’
On the surface it was business as usual, but behind the scenes their lives were falling apart. Unable to cope with the fallout of the pressures, Pat left and the children left home. Anthony continued to run the business on his own, dealing with a major fire in which the workshop burned to the ground and the aftermath of water damage caused by a flood. The straw that almost broke him, however, was the death of their son, Sam, who was fatally injured while rock climbing in Australia.
Anthony channelled his grief into his work, leading a small team of people and focusing on a growing sector of clients who were wanting to buy rocking horse making kits so they could build their own. But by 2003 he had employed a manager, written several books and embraced the potential of internet sales. He also launched a side-line of horse-making kits, supplying accessories, restoring old horses and running courses and workshop tours.
It was on one such tour that he met his second wife Shirley – an artist who asked whether she could come back and sketch his rocking horses and never really left.
Three years ago, feeling more settled than he had for years, with the business at its peak and retirement on his mind, Anthony made the difficult decision to sell his business. It is now owned by James Honey and Becca, who took over at the beginning of the pandemic.
Anthony turned his skills to creating and making the toys and sculptures he had never had time for while he was running full pelt with the business. He also found time to write his latest book based on his fascinating life story.
‘Making it With Rocking Horses’, a self-published, colourful coffee table book, is an intimate and frank portrayal of the highs and lows of developing one of the most renowned rocking horse companies in the UK. For Anthony, it was a cathartic way of moving on from the business which took over his life.
‘Now I just have a man-cave with all my books above a workshop where I have one or two horses I can’t part with and a workbench where I can create whatever I like,’ he says. ‘I am also writing more. I am compelled to create, whether it’s horses or books. And when I’m not creating I am paragliding or sailing. I went to sea for seven years after leaving school at 15. That passion for the sea has never left me.’
He has sailed across the Atlantic with the Jubilee Sailing Trust and he is planning a second trip – albeit in the relative comfort of an ocean yacht. ‘At this stage in life you must do what you can and as much as you can,’ he says. ‘The worst thing I could do would be sit around and do nothing.’
rockinghorse.co.uk
Making It with Rocking-Horses can be ordered direct from the author at anthonydew.co.uk price £14.99, a saving of £5 off the published price of £19.99.
