Our Story

Dansel Story

2024 - 45th Anniversary.

2020 - Launch of new website.

2019 – 40th Anniversary.

Free tree seeds of Tilia Platyphyllos with every purchase during August to encourage everyone to be more conscious of how important trees are to the planet.

Employ 5 sales assistants in the gallery. Workshop producing more individual pieces by Selwyn. 200 makers represented in the gallery mostly from the South West but also from all over the country covering all aspects of woodworking from carving, turning, cabinet making, pyrography, laser creations, box making, toy making, jewellery, one-off sculpture and individual works of art in wood. 

2018 – Dorset Art Weeks. 26 May to 10 June. Exhibition featuring Selwyn Holmes, Tilia Holmes, including a series of wood plaques, pyrography and painting on wood 

2016 – Dorset Art Weeks. 28 May to 12 June. Exhibition featuring Selwyn Holmes, Tilia Holmes, Bronwyn Holmes and Yvonne Tye on tree themes including a series of wood plaques, pyrography and painting

2014 – For 35th Anniversary a competition was organised requiring customers to answer different questions about the gallery. The first prize was £1000 gift voucher to spend in Dansel. This was won by a local customer from the Weymouth area 

2009 – 30th Anniversary in Abbotsbury exhibition featuring over 70 makers

2006 – May - opened café. Launched revised website www.danselgallery.co.uk

2004 – roof re-thatched and timbered

2000 - Converted upstairs into a further showroom and moved the office to loft by the entrance.

Exhibition in May ‘Woodcarvings’ featuring 8 woodcarvers. Exhibition in September ‘Lock, Stock and….Box’ featuring 9 box makers.

1999 - Exhibition in May ‘Eccentric Wood’ featuring Colin Gosden and Lynn Muir.

Exhibition in September ‘ Fine Design in Wood’ featuring Brian McKee, Nicholas Butler and Perry Lancaster.

1998 - Exhibition in May ‘ Movers and Shakers’ featuring Robert Race and Jeff Soan.

Exhibition in July ‘Containers’ by Selwyn Holmes.

Exhibition in September ‘Birds and Bowls’ featuring Dennis Hales and Judith Nicoll.

Also in 1998 closed workshop at 10a West Street and moved it back to Eype where Selwyn continued making on his own. Stopped making wholesale items for other outlets and concentrated on supplying Dansel only. 

1997 – Began exhibitions:

Exhibition in June ‘Two Artists in Wood’ featuring Brian Hancock and John Hunnex.

Exhibition in September ‘from Driftwood to Fish’ featuring Chris Berry, Ian McKay and Jeremy Turner.

1995 - Converted roof space over the top room from a wood store to an office and play area for the now 2 children. Also extended top room into outside compound to create another 10 square metres of floor space.

1990 - Moved workshop out of Rodden Row to 10a West Street at the other end of Abbotsbury village, allowing all downstairs space to become a selling area.  The top section was turned into a children’s shop with toys made in wood and the rest of the space was divided into kitchen - domestic wood area, one-off pieces, boxes and desk items and library for wood books with furniture mixed in between. There are now 2 employees in the shop everyday on a rota with 3 others, in order to keep the shop open 7 days a week. The workshop employed 4 and there were 2 in the office.

1989 - Moved workshop up to top room, so increasing showroom and selling space. Could now sell larger pieces by other makers

1988 - Started wholesaling a range of smaller items to other shops and galleries in the UK and Europe. Employees increased to 3 in the workshop and 2 in the office and shop.

1980’s – Began to make smaller items alongside the furniture commissions to have something to sell to the many visitors to Abbotsbury. Also at this time decided to specialise in selling only wood, as there already was a potter, Roger Gilding and a glass engraver, Greg Shepherd. Started welcoming other makers in wood to sell their work in the gallery as struggling to make enough different things to sell to the people who came in.

1979 – Out grew workshop in Eype and with the help of COSIRA (the Council for Small Industries in Rural Areas), were put in touch with Edward Green of the Ilchester Estates who offered us the Rodden Row property. It had been used as stables then lock up stores and the estate had been advised to renovate some of the older buildings into business properties in order to help encourage employment and keep the school open in the village. They employed Norman Hitchcock Architects in Yeovil and

H Leaf & Sons Builders to do the project to our specifications and we moved in on 24 August 1979. Took on one employee in the workshop and one in the office to do the accounts. The entrance room was the showroom/shop and the rest was used as workshop space.

1976 – Danielle and Selwyn Holmes started Dansel from their home workshop in Eype near Bridport making furniture to commission and architectural models. First project was a model of the proposed West Bay Marina and involved a model of the West Bay square mile, which led onto making the café tables at the newly opened Riverside Café.