Thornton and Downer were Arts and Crafts metalworkers associated with the Cotswold School, active in the early twentieth century and based in Chipping Campden. Bill Thornton and Charley Downer are recorded as members of C. R. Ashbee’s Guild of Handicraft who remained in Campden after the Guild went into liquidation in 1907, continuing to make wrought and chased iron and steel work for domestic interiors.
Their surviving work centres on fireplace equipment, including fire dogs, companion sets, pokers, tongs and stands characterised by hand forged construction, scroll finials and restrained decorative chasing. Pieces by Thornton and Downer have been sold through major auction houses and feature in exhibitions of Cotswold metalwork, where they are recognised as part of the wider Campden and Sapperton Arts and Crafts tradition.
