Millennium Embroideries

I've been told about another community embroidery in Marston Magna. Noted but I haven't an image yet

Faith in the City - St Paul's, Ireland Wood

St. Paul's is a relatively modern and distinctive church building. Built in 1965 it is eight-sided with a crowning cupula containing the bell and was designed by Geoffrey Davy of Kitson, Parish, Legard & Pyman. It stands just below the highest point of the City of Leeds.

Mary Mawson (7 March 1917-March 2004)
Mary worked on every panel except the last which was put together during the last 2 years of her life. She joined us in 1993 and almost immediately became a great enthusiast. She felt her ambition to go to Art School was met to a great extent by participating in the workshops, master classes and skill-sharing sessions which were part of the process of making the tapestry.
Always full of courage, creativity and initiative she was never phased by the challenge of a difficult piece of work. She was also tireless in spreading the word about the Tapestry and persuaded her former employer, Peacocks, to sponsor the Textile and Industrial Heritage panel. She also raised funds for Ireland Wood and Adel churches to appear on the Faith panel.
She was a very familiar face at the group sessions where we stitched the embroidered sections onto the backcloth - travelling first to the workshops at Kate's house, then to Armley Mills and finally to Holy Trinity Church on Boar Lane where the majority of the Panels were completed. Mary hand stitched this piece using long and short stitch with french knots.

Textile and Industrial Heritage - Murray's Engine

OK, this is where I get very confused and hope that someone like Kris will help out.

This is a model of the prototype engine built by Mathew Murray in 1812. It seems to have the cogged wheel missing, so presumably is the forerunner of the Rack and Pinion loco described a couple of days ago?

The model is kept at Armley Mills, where for several years the Tapestry panels in progress were worked on by the volunteers. The Burling and Mending room was set aside for the work and there were many workshops with leading embroiderers of the time.

The embroidery was hand stitched, including french knots, by Jan Brown in 40 hours

Textile and Industrial Heritage - Leeds 1715

In tandem with the previous post.

“Prospect of Leeds from the Knostrop Hill” c.1715 which appeared in Thoresby’s Ducatus Leodiensis. In the centre are Alderman Atkinson’s domed roof house, Call Lane Chapel and the Parish Church of St Peter. On the hill is St John’s Church. In 1740 the population was estimated as being 10,638.

Angela Turner hand stitched this piece in 100 hours.

On the Move - Cossin's Map 1730

'A New & Exact PLAN of the Town of LEEDES' by John Cossins published in 1730.

In 1993 Sothebys offered for sale a notebook written by John Cossins. It contained notes on his maps of Scarborough, York and Leeds and also a list of the people who subscribed to those maps. This was bought by the City Archivist for York. Originally 138 people subscribed in Leeds to 192 copies; only one copy is now accessible, in Leeds City Museum. It has been suggested that Thoresby was instrumental in hiring Cossins, and a copy of the map is kept at the Thoresby Society.

I don't think any of the houses shown in the margins are still standing, or any of the buildings on the map. St Peter's was rebuilt in 1838. BUT is the White Cloth Hall on the map the same building which is currently shored up with scaffolding in Kirkgate?

Joan Holah spent 100 hours hand stitching on this printed fabric. It's fabulous.

On the Move - Rack and Pinion Loco

One of the few pieces on the Tapestry which we have detailed information about.

"This is the world's first commercially successful steam locomotive, which began work on Wednesday 24th June 1812 on the waggonway between Middleton Colliery and Leeds.
Four of these locomotives were built for the colliery owner Charles John Brandling, by the famous engineer Matthew Murray, at his Round Foundry in Water Lane, Holbeck.
They incorporated a cogged wheel which gripped on to a cogged rail, an invention patented by John Blenkinsop, Mr. Brandling's manager at Middleton. This system enabled the locomotive, which weighed less than 5 tons, to heave along about 30 waggons of coal, sometimes weighing over 100 tons in total, without breaking the brittle cast-iron rails then in use. A man named George Stephenson saw an identical locomotive start work near Newcastle in 1813: his own first locomotive copied most of it, but omitted the cogged wheel and, therefore, was not nearly as strong as the Leeds locomotives.
Between 1812 and 1835, people from France, Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, Austria, Russia, and the U.S.A. are known to have seen the Leeds locomotives at work and later tried to interest their own countrymen in the building of steam railways.
The Hunslet area adjoining the railway was later at the centre of Leeds' important locomotive-building industry.
The Middleton Railway has other claims to fame: in 1758, its route agreements were ratified by the first railway Act of Parliament and,
over two hundred years later, in June 1960, it became the first standard-gauge railway with services operated entirely by volunteer preservationists.
Steam trains still run on the historic Middleton Railway, maintained and operated by the volunteers of the Middleton Railway Trust Museum."

Information supplied by Sheila Bye (Historian/Archivist, Middleton Railway Trust Museum)

The piece was hand stitched by Lesley Dove

On the Move - the Transport Panel

The panel was made between 1995 and 2000 and was first exhibited at the Civic Hall during a reunion event of the Leeds Swordfish Appeal.

At that time the Tapestry workshop was at Holy Trinity Church and Kate and Betty thought it would save time and money to carry the panel through the streets of Leeds rather than hiring transport. Someone took a photograph of this and it appears on the Community Spirit Panel.

The background is made up of maps of Leeds illustrating it's growth from hamlet to town to city. Overlaying these are the various modes of transport including road, rail, water and air.

On the Move - 1939 Vauxhall Car

On 26th March 1934 the Driving Test was introduced in the United Kingdom.

Today's offering is a 1939 Vauxhall car in celebration of this event (OK, tenuous link)

I have many more questions than facts today. Whose car is this? Where is it and is it still being used?

It appears with a Vauxhall Calibra on the Transport (On the Move) panel and both were sponsored by Barr Wallace Arnold.

Were those driving already issued with licenses without having to pass a test?

The printed fabric was hand stitched by Janet Carding.

Leeds in Bloom - Ainsley's

Lady Day and a friend's birthday, so thought I would send virtual flowers and cakes via Mrs Ainsley. It could so easily have been an embroidery of some form of public transport!

Victor Ainsley opened his first shop at Headingley, Leeds, in 1938. Over the next 30 years he worked with his wife May to expand the business. They specialised in fresh-from-the-oven bread and cakes and were among the first bakers to capitalise on the take-away sandwich market. In 2009 there were 29 shops but at the end of the year the company went into administration.

Jill Rutter wrote this when she had completed the figure

"I first heard about the Leeds Tapestry in an article in a local newspaper in April 1994. The idea of the Tapestry intrigued me, but I did not have any spare time to get involved then.
Some years later when Leeds Girls' High School decided to hold a workshop to stitch figures for the tapestry, I decided to get involved. The workshop was fascinating - how to stitch real people using photographs as a guide. First of all I stitched my daughter, Emma, as she was a pupil at the school. Then I stitched my son, Simon, and also two oriental girls. My husband's pharmacy business sponsored part of the Civic Pride panel.
Some time later I was asked if I would stitch the figure of Mrs Ainsley for the Leeds in Bloom panel. I was delighted to do this as both my own and my husband's family were friends of hers. The figure took many hours to complete (32), and the details were stitched as accurately as possible using a photograph as a guide.
I would have liked to have done more stitching for the tapestry but unfortunately my husband's business was undergoing major reorganisation, and this and family commitments took over all my spare time. As one's children get more independent, unfortunately one's parents get less so"

Ann Wheatley worked on the charting for the building and Lizzie Ingle did the cross stitch.

Arts for All

Arts for All was the final panel completed. It represents a decorative pin board with postcards of examples of arts in Leeds. I've added it today in celebration of the exhibition at the V & A.

When the first 15 panels had been made there was a difficult time finding a home for them all. At first they were displayed in the stable courtyard at Harewood, then they moved to The Royal Armouries. The latter was a more suitable venue because there was free access to them but this, again, was only a temporary home.

Leeds City Council offered another temporary display site in a first floor corridor of the Central Library and its here that the Arts Panel was unveiled. Finally, last year, the Council, Library and Tapestry Trustees agreed that the Library would be the permanent exhibition space; and after redecoration, re-hanging and interpretation boards were added there was a re-union for the volunteers and friends to celebrate.

The background patchwork was made, almost entirely, by Chris Richardson of Night Owls quilters group

Local Faces - Kay Mellor OBE

Continuing the theme of people working in the media.

Kay Mellor married Anthony when she was 16 and has two children, Yvonne and Gaynor. She wanted to run a playgroup so took a child psychology course then went on to study O and A levels and to Drama College at Bretton Hall. When Kay had finished studying she supported the family while Anthony qualified to work with children with learning difficulties. Her first work in the media was as an actress in 'Albion Market' then she started script writing, her works including 'Band of Gold', 'Coronation Street', 'A Passionate Woman', 'Albion Market' and 'Fat Friends'.
Her daughter Gaynor often appears in her dramas, which used to confuse me. I hadn't realised she had a daughter and just thought Kay was wearing well, sorry both.

Kay is Patron of the Tapestry.

The piece was machine embroidered by Jackie Ford, a member of TAG

Local Faces - Keith Waterhouse CBE (1929-2009)

I should have added Keith Waterhouse to the blog last week, his memorial service was on the 16th. There's a very similar picture to this on his memorial order of service.

There are many pages on the internet about his life but my favourite is the fact that he was the Life President of the Association for the Annihilation of the Aberrant Apostrophe or AAAA for short.
"pound's of apple's and orange's" in greengrocers' shops

Possibly his first published work was as a contributor to the Mill Hill Youth Club magazine. In fact he borrowed a copy of one edition from one of the embroiderers, who went to the same club, during the making of the Tapestry.

The piece was machine embroidered on printed fabric by Janet Taylor who, after the Leeds Tapestry was finished went on to oversee the Horbury Tapestry.
Like the embroidery of Willis Hall, the Keith Waterhouse piece was sponsored by the Yorkshire Post

Local Faces - Willis Hall (1929-2005)

I think there will have to be two postings today. Something happened in Hunslet in the 1930s, the friendship of three families, the Halls, the O'Tooles and the Waterhouses.

Willis Hall was a prodigious writer with works including 'The Long and the Short and the Tall' and the Vampire series of children's books. He started writing professionally at the age of 12 when he would attend weddings and funerals for the now defunct Leeds Guardian, noting down the guests and mourners.

Both he and Keith Waterhouse had successful separate writing careers but when Billy Liar, the book, was published Willis contacted his friend, suggesting it would make a fine play. This was the beginning of a prodigious collaborative play writing phase in both of their lives.

The piece was hand stitched on printed fabric by Val Gomersall (6.5 hours) and was sponsored by the Yorkshire Post.

Local Faces - Peter O'Toole (Lawrence of Arabia)

Just when I was going to add an image of the patchwork background of the Arts for All panel in celebration of the current V & A exhibition Lawrence of Arabia was identified on the Needleprint blog.

This portrayal is not so much about TE Lawrence as Peter O'Toole in his most famous role which I can't believe was as long ago as 1962 (though my daughter thought it was nearer the 1930s).

Peter O’Toole was born in Ireland on 2nd August 1932 but moved with his family to the Hunslet area of Leeds as a child. After National Service he was awarded a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and in 1959 was awarded Best Actor of the Year for his performance as Private Bamforth in Willis Hall’s ‘The Long and the Short and the Tall’.

Freda Copley embroidered this piece and I really will have to contact her to describe the number of techniques involved.

Local Faces - Phyllis Pask MBE

Not all of the people on the local faces panel were well known celebrities. Mrs Phyllis Pask was awarded an MBE in 1989 for services to the community in Leeds.

Not only did she raise at least £93,000 to sponsor 100 guide dogs but she also volunteered at several hospitals as a member of the WRVS.

The vast majority of the volunteers tried to avoid embroidering people. Representing faces in stitch does require a great deal of patience, practice and talent. This problem was overcome by getting the images printed onto fabric, at first by professional firms and latterly, with much trial and error by our own domestic printers. Since the Tapestry was completed several firms have brought out fabric treated with chemicals to be used with inkjet printers, these could have made life a lot easier.

This embroidery was stitched on professionally printed fabric by Julia Cooper and Godfrey Harland.

Links to other Millennium Embroideries

Kate was inspired to embark on the mammoth task of a community embroidery for the City of Leeds by visiting "Glasgow in Stitches".

Many other villages, towns and cities have also embroidered their own commemorative pieces. A list of these, with their web links is in the right hand margin. If anyone knows of others please let me know and they will be added to the list.

Thank you

Local Faces - Brian Close and Fred Trueman

We don't have a lot of information on the database about these two Yorkshire cricketers but in tandem with Leeds Daily Photo blog. I thought it relevant to add them today, in celebration of the new statue.

Brian Close was born in 1931 in Rawdon. He started to play cricket for Yorkshire in 1949 and captained the team from 1963-1970. His debut for England was when he was 18.

Fred Trueman was born in 1931 in Stainton, Yorkshire. He made his cricket test debut in 1952.

Both were sponsored by John Morgan and embroidered by Valerie Horner, not only hand stitched but also with very tiny cabled knitting. I don't know what she used as knitting needles or how long she took with the project.

Could a sport's fan submit the relevant information about these stars of Yorkshire cricket? Would any other cricketers be added to 'the forgotten ones' ? Darren Gough and Len Hutton are included on the Sports Panel.

Local Faces - Herbert Henry Asquith (1852-1928)

So, here's the man that Leonora Cohen threw the brick at. Why?

Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith was born in Morley in 1852 and attended the Moravian Scool at Fulneck, Pudsey. He gained a classics scholarship to Balliol and after qualifying as a barrister was elected to parliament as member for East Fife in 1886.
When the liberal party came to government he became Chancellor of the Exchequer and introduced the Old Age Pension and Conscription.
He lost his seat in parliament in 1924 and as a peer entered the House

This piece was hand embroidered on printed fabric by Ena Dunn in 20 hours.

Local Faces - Leonora Cohen (1873-1978)

After the last link I thought I'd better add Leonora Cohen. The people on the local faces were embroidered in colour if still living and monochrome if deceased. The men far outnumber the women in the deceased category so we could really have done with knowing about Vera Leigh in the planning stage.

Leonora Throp was born in 1873. Against both families wishes she married Mr Cohen who was Jewish and both husband and son were very supportive of her political activities. One of Leeds Suffragettes' most prominent activists she campaigned long and hard for enfranchisement and organized mass meetings on Woodhouse and Hunslet Moors. She achieved notoriety in 1912 by throwing an iron bar through a jewel case in the Tower of London and was, for a time, bodyguard to Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst. At the height of the suffragette movement Leonora was briefly imprisoned in Armley Jail, having thrown a brick through a window when Asquith was speaking and there she went on hunger strike. In 1923 Mrs Cohen became the first woman president of the Leeds Trades Council. She was also a magistrate. She retired to North Wales and died there aged 105.

Abbey House Museum holds a collection of Leonora Cohen memorabilia. As well as pamphlets, correspondence and news-cuttings, the collection includes a dress designed by Mrs Cohen in Suffragette colours which she wore at an Arts Club Ball in 1922.

The Leeds City Museums blog also has an interesting reference to Mrs Cohen.

The embroideries were hand stitched by Karen Pattison, Barbara Gray, Joan Holah and Joyce James

Local Faces - the forgotten ones

Check out today's posting on Leeds Daily Photo blog. It seems we have another entry for the forgotten ones.

Vera Leigh - SOE Secret Agent (1903-1944)

Local Faces - The Thoresby Society

The Thoresby Society is the historical society for Leeds and was founded in 1889. They are based in Clarendon Road and have a huge list of publications on the history of Leeds.

The piece is hand stitched on printed fabric by Eileen Wilson and took 30 hours to complete.

Local Faces - Ralph Thoresby (1658-1725)

Ralph Thoresby’s father, John, was a cloth merchant and in 1679 his son inherited his house in Kirkgate along with a collection of coins & medals which were to form the basis of his famous museum. He was not a success in business but instead devoted much of his time to antiquarian interests, writing a diary (from 1677-1724 and published in the 1830s) and also the first published history of Leeds Ducatus Leodiensis (1715), which contains a street by street description of Georgian Leeds with plans and prospects.

He was born at the house that stood at 15 Kirkgate, which is now a card shop opposite the northeast corner of House of Fraser. A Blue Plaque was put on the present building in 1992, sponsored by the Thoresby Society and unveiled by their then president.

The piece was hand stitched on painted fabric, either by Denise Teed or Barbara Gray.

Leeds in Bloom - Kirkstall Abbey

In the spirit of Mothering Sunday this image is of Kirkstall Abbey with daffodils in the foreground. I'm not sure whether Kirkstall ever fitted into the position of Mother Church but it was, and is, certainly important in the Christian Faith of the City.

Cistercian monks, originally from Fountains Abbey moved here from Barnoldswick in 1152. The Abbey, originally made of wood, was mostly complete by 1182 and made of Bramley Fall gritstone. The monks traded in wool until, in 1539, Abbot John Ripley surrended the abbey to the king’s commissioners. Sir Robert Savile bought it in 1584 and it passed through marriage to the Earls of Cardigan whose trustees sold it to Colonel John North in 1889. North then presented it to the City of Leeds and it was finally opened to the public on 14 September 1895.

This is one of the larger pieces on the sixteen panels and was embroidered entirely by Maureen Hinds in black work and hand embroidery.

Local Faces - Doctor Hey (1736-1819)

Doctor Hey was a founder of Leeds Infirmary (1771) where he worked as a surgeon for 45 years. Not mentioned in the link is the fact that he gave anatomy lessons, often with members of the public being charged to watch, using the bodies of criminals executed at York. Subjects included Mary Bateman, the Yorkshire Witch who apparently had murdered Rebecca Perigo with a poisoned pie.

I presume this statue of him is at Leeds General Infirmary, does anyone know otherwise?

Yes, I've found him in the Great George Street entrance hall, but now need to know who he's with.

Ann Brown spent 50 hours hand stitching this piece.

Local Faces - Owl

Keeping Dean Hook company on a balcony is the owl, one of the symbols of the City. When the completed panels were displayed at Harewood House there was a competition to count the number of owls represented on the Tapestry.

There is now an owl trail in Leeds


This particular bird was hand stitched by Joyce James

Faith in the City - John Harrison (1579-1656)

The fourth Leeds worthy represented in City Square is John Harrison. He appears on the Faith Panel as a member of the Pious Uses Committee, set up in 1619 to administer local charities, some of which still benefit the people of Leeds today.

He was a cloth merchant and landlord who used the rents from his properties to help in building St John's Church and the second (?) Grammar School (on a site between North Street and The Grand Theatre), replacing the building at the top of Lady Lane.

A favorite story about him is that he cut holes in the doors and ceilings of his home to allow his cats free access around the house - is this one of the earliest records of cat-flaps? Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) has also been cited with this invention.

There is a John Harrison on the Local Faces panel, born near Wakefield in 1693. On the face of it he shouldn't be represented, but more of him later.

I'd completely forgotten that when we went to see the statue it was just after Jeans for Genes Day and we had to ask a workman to remove Mr Harrison's jeans before taking the photograph.

Janet Taylor hand and machine embroidered this piece on printed fabric.

Local Faces - Colonel T. Walter Harding

This chap keeps cropping up in researching the various bits for the Tapestry. He was the owner of the Tower Works and seems to have been a great influence at the end of the C19 and beginning of C20. Perhaps he's the first candidate for "Local Faces - the forgotten ones"
I know there's a portrait of him out there.

Local Faces - Dean Walter Farquhar Hook

One of the four statues found in City Square but this one is off his pedestal and proclaiming from a first floor balcony.

Dean Hook (1798-1875) was responsible for building the present Parish Church and there is a memorial to him in there. He seems to have been a bit of a controversial figure, building churches, from a council levy, in a mainly non-conformist town and encouraging the education of children when laws to limit the number of hours they worked hadn't even been introduced.
In 1859 he moved to Chichester where he became Dean and was buried there in the Cathedral. Seventy-seven years in two paragraphs - I suspect I'm not doing him justice. Leodis has a more comprehensive article on the man

His statue in City Square was sponsored by Colonel T. Walter Harding and designed by F W Pomeroy.

The hand stitched embroidery was done by Barbara Gray.

Local Faces - River Island Building

One more building, one more embroidery technique. Sally Walton spent 40 hours machine satin stitching this applique.

This building is now occupied on the ground floor by River Island. Are the upper floors being used and what was the original use?

I should probably take a trip round the City centre with Pevsner.

Local Faces - Senza Building

On the corner of Lands Lane, this building is the former Church Institute built 1866-8 by Adams and Kelly. It contained a lecture hall for 800, a library of 10,000 books and the walls were painted with frescoes of the saints. Presumably all of this was cleared when the building was converted to shops (Senza?) and offices and the Gothic window displays added by Hadfield Cawkwell Davidson & Partners in 1980?

I seem to remember a cafe in the basement in the 1970s. We used to meet friends there on Saturday mornings, in the days when many more people spent the day in town.

The building was embroidered by Eileen Wilson.

Textile and Industrial Heritage - Mathew Murray

And here's the man himself. Mathew Murray, born in Scotland in 1765.
A potted biography can be found on the Holbeck village website.

Wondering if there was a statue of Mr Murray in Leeds I found this site where Bob Speel has listed all the Victorian sculpture in the City. He includes a good deal of information on the statues in City Square. Judging by the dates of these, the worthies of Leeds were commemorating the turn of the eighteenth to nineteenth century in the Square. The equivalent of Millennium Square (formerly Mandela Gardens)?

Post Script
City Square was constructed to celebrate Leeds becoming a City.
Mandela Gardens still exists in the new Millennium Square arrangement - its the southern part with the Kenneth Armitage bronze 'Both Hands'.
Both City Square and Millennium Square were re-created by the Civic Architect John Thorp.

The embroidery was hand stitched on printed fabric by Janet Carding and took 18 hours to complete.

Local Faces - James Watt

Denise Teed used the same technique to stitch James Watt, hand made felt with machine stitching. On the website we wrote

'City Square was built just after Leeds gained city status (1893). Colonel Harding offered statues of Joseph Priestley, John Harrison, Ralph Thoresby and Dean Hook. Councillor Wainwright argued that Watt rather than Thoresby would be more appropriate as Watt’s steam engines powered the first mills in Leeds. Perhaps Matthew Murray rather than Watt should be in the Square, as his engines were more widely used in Leeds and Watt, working in Birmingham, actually bought the land around Murray’s works in an attempt to stop his works expanding.'

Is it true that Watt blocked Murray's expansion or is it an ugly rumour?

Local Faces - Joseph Priestley

No prizes for guessing who this is, or which century he lived in. Joseph Priestley was born at Fieldhead, Birstall and attended Batley Grammar School.
I've just been looking at the Priestley Society website it's amazing how much more he discovered than oxygen, and there's a photograph there of this image on the Tapestry.

The piece was worked by Denise Teed using handmade felt with machine embroidery.

Local Faces - The Longley Building

The Longley building houses Alan Bennett and one other.

Added after comments

Yes, it is Fanny Waterman, inspiration behind the International Pianoforte Competition, founded in 1961. She was awarded the OBE in 1971 and the CBE, for services to music, in 2000.

Merel Jackson remembers Longley's when it was a furniture store....
"I bought my dining suite, easy chairs and bedroom suite (headboard £12 extra) there in 1954.
The building is on the corner of Land's Lane and Albion Place and is indeed a Pret a Manger

Local Faces - Market Roof

Joyce James hand embroidered this piece showing the market roofs in Leeds.

The Market is a fantastic building which can still be seen on the skyline despite the increasing number of high rise buildings in the city. There's another representation of the building on the LS2000 panel.

Many of the older people of Leeds grieve that the Market isn't what is was 'in the old days' but with the advent of supermarkets most choose to use these instead of the weekly trip into town.

The frontage, built in 1904, was saved after a fire swept through the market in December 1975.
There are photographs of this disaster on the Leodis website
http://www.leodis.net