History of Upfront Gallery
The buildings at Upfront date from around 1680 with later additions and alterations. The original building was built to the plan of a traditional yeoman farmhouse.
The original house had small mullioned Elizabethan windows, which were modernised in Victorian times into sash windows. The top and bottom stones of the upstairs window openings still have stone sections where the mullions were fitted. The inside of the house has a traditional ‘long passage’ and ‘sneck’ leading from the front door behind the fireplace wall and turning a corner into the main room of the house. This room, now one was originally divided into two smaller rooms, a parlour and the buttery. The room still has an open ingle-nook fireplace, behind a low beam and has a small cupboard in the wall next to the fire. This was to keep dry a family bible or a jar of salt.
The property was known as Unthank Farm when it was purchased in 1990. It was always the intention to open a gallery on the site.
During the first few years it served as a home and workshops for Upfront Exhibitions. Theatre sets, props and commercial exhibition stands were designed and created in the workshops for national and international destinations. For the first few years trees were planted and work was carried out to convert and to restore the buildings which you now see. In 1997 the gallery finally opened to the public. Since then it has grown to take over most of the buildings on site and new buildings have been created to allow the gallery to grow. The buildings were given a rural architecture award in 2003.
The project was a massive gamble as it was funded entirely from money derived from Upfront exhibitions, only in later years have smaller grants been given towards developing the business.
Around fifty thousand visitors now visit the gallery each year. They can all now take pleasure in spending time in buildings built with skill and renovated with love for future generations to enjoy
The place-name Unthank is thought to mean a clearing on the edge of a wood, occupied by unwelcome settlers. However if you choose to visit the gallery, rest assured that you would be made most welcome.