Funding boost helps stone carver grow her business and share her skills
Josephine Crossland is a freelance stone carver working at Hutton Stone. Originally from Dorset, she now lives and works in Berwick, running a business which encompasses architectural and conservation work, memorial carvings, and sculpture.
In 2025 Josephine applied for a grant from Create Berwick’s Creative Action Fund and received £5000, enabling her to diversify her business and hold a series of stone carving workshops for the first time.
Josephine explains how the workshops took shape: “I often had people asking me if I ran classes, but the problem was that I didn’t have anywhere suitable to hold them,” said Josephine. “I came across the Straw Yard and I knew it would make a great venue, and then shortly afterwards, I saw the opportunity to apply for funding from Create Berwick.”
Investing in equipment
To run her first workshops, Josephine needed to invest in equipment including tables, chisels, stone, and other tools for participants to use. The funding not only enabled her to buy the kit she needed, but also to make the classes affordable for as wide a range of people as possible.
She was also able to employ other local stone carvers to help run the classes.
Josephine’s scheduled four classes, each lasting for a day. She printed flyers, emailed local schools, and opened booking.
“All the classes booked out within a week which I took as a good sign!” said Josephine.
New skills for workshop participants
Altogether, 32 people took part in Josephine’s first four workshops and she plans to offer more in the near future.
“The variety of people who came was really lovely, and at the end of the day, everyone was so proud of what they’d done and we took photos of everyone’s work. The feedback was that people want to do more classes!”
“I see this continuing as part of my business and I hope that, as well as learning new skills, people will also be able to appreciate the carvings you can see in the buildings here in Berwick, and the skill it took to create them.”
See some of Josephine Crossland’s work, and more photos from her workshops, on Instagram.
Create Berwick’s Cultural Resource Hubs funding continues to allow empty spaces in the town to be transformed into new creative hubs for workshops, exhibitions, concerts, performance, events and creative and communal activities. Find out more.
Create Berwick is a culture-led regeneration programme that aims to make Berwick one of the most distinctive, must-see cultural destinations in the country by investing in the arts, creativity and culture. Create Berwick is a designated Culture and Creative Zone (CCZ) and funded by the North East Combined Authority and Northumberland County Council.
