The Famous Mouseman

Mouse man you might be thinking, what link to Stockton does it have, well The Mouse man otherwise know as Robert (Mousey) Thompson (7 May 1876 – 8 December 1955) was a British furniture maker. He lived in Kilburn, North Yorkshire, where he set up a business manufacturing oak furniture, which featured a carved mouse on almost every piece. It is claimed that the mouse trademark came about accidentally in 1919 following a conversation about "being as poor as a church mouse", which took place between Thompson and one of his colleagues during the carving of a cornice for a screen. This chance remark led to him carving a mouse and this remained part of his work from this point onwards.

He was part of the Arts and Crafts movement which was a rebuff to the automation and mechanisation of a craftmans work, that was beginning in the late 19th Century - the birth of mass production. Other people who were key to this include John Ruskin, William Morris & Thomas Carlyle. More specific to furniture making in this genre and era include Stanley Webb Davies of Windermere.

The workshop, now being run by his descendants, includes a showroom and visitors' centre, and is located beside the Parish Church, which contains "Mouseman" pews, fittings and other furniture. The company is now known as "Robert Thompson's Craftsmen Ltd - The Mouseman of Kilburn"

I remember during a school excursion to look at churches, we visited The church of St Mary the Virgin in Norton and there on the gate are the special carved mice, he is famous for carving the the mice into the pews, one on each.