The family company of Robert Thompson's Craftsmen Ltd is located in Kilburn, one of the pretty and interesting villages in the Hambleton Hills north of York.

High above the village on Roulston Scar is the famous White Horse of Kilburn, the inspiration of the local schoolmaster who provided the original working drawing. This feature is unique in the North of England.

This is a well-known landmark and was cut out of turf on the escarpment in 1857 and is maintained and re-surfaced periodically by a village trust and forms a background to the cluster of cottages, the inn and the Church which contains the Memorial Chapel created in English oak by his own Craftsmen, to Robert himself, the founder of the Company.

Farmers and craftsmen have lived and worked for generations in this beautiful spot as indeed was the case in virtually every village in the land until the Industrial Revolution lured them to the towns to become mass-producers. Many bemoaned the loss; few were in a position to do anything about it, so gradually the craft traditions began to die away.

Robert Thompson was one of the exceptions - a simple man not given to philosophising about problems - a man who had a dream and set about making it become a reality. In Kilburn today we see something of that reality: a group of craftsmen with a refreshing approach to both material and work, with nothing sentimentalised or trivialised, no rush, push or scramble - merely simple and honest craftsmanship.

Text and Images taken from Robert Thompson web site.
http://www.robertthompsons.co.uk