Faith in the City - Trees

Machine embroidered trees supplied for the Faith panel by Margaret Kenny.

Community Spirit - Morris Dancers

Are these the Ladies of Briggate Morris Dancers? Hopefully someone may be able to identify the individuals.


The girl's dancing were hand stitched by Val Gomersal (28 hours) and those waiting for the show to begin were hand and machine stitched by Betty Bertrand (30 hours). The original photograph had dustbins rather than bushes in the foreground; photoshop and french knots and voila not a bin in site.

Textile and Industrial Heritage - Hopkin's Catering Equipment

There would have been a nice bit of symmetry if Hopkins had provided the fish fryer for Oakwood Fisheries but they didn't!

Vincent Hopkins established Hopkin's Catering Equipment on 17th September 1957 with the aim to provide a complete service to the catering industry. The business is now in the hands of the second and third generations of his family.

The family were really enthusiastic in their support of the Tapestry. They were contacted via Bryan's Fish Restaurant and provided the cartoons to bring to life the story of the Fish Fryer. Neither did Mrs Hopkins forget us when a neighbouring tailor retired and she rescued his unused cloth for tapestry use.

Jackie Ford machine embroidered the background for the piece and Renee Silverman made the two people in the foreground. Janet Taylor and Kate Russell are also recorded as working on the piece - perhaps the frame?

"Fish and chips being my favourite food I was happy to take up the challenge of the Hopkins piece. The background was being beautifully done by Jackie, I just had to concentrate on the two figures. The setting had an early 1900 look about it, the man in his high button suit and bowler hat, the woman in her hat and dress with leg-of-mutton sleeves. A couple of local people dressed up for an evening out, perhaps returning from an evening in the gallery of the City Varieties, stopping off for a portion of cod and bag of chips on their way home, well satisfied with their lot in life. The fingers presented a challenge and I eventually settled for hands for the man made from fine wire wrapped round with tape, dipped in adhesive and painted. The woman's hand was made in a similar fashion but enclosed in a glove made from a scrap of velvet. Would anyone hold fish and chips wearing a velvet glove you may ask - but that is embroiderer's licence. The newspaper was an actual piece of the Leeds Mercury of the time which Barbara Walker printed onto a piece of silk for me, at reduced scale, and the chips were my husband's inspiration, padded strips of painted felt glued to wires which are passed through and anchored at the back of the embroidery. I hope it looks real enough to viewers and that they might even imagine a waft of malt vinegar as they pass by." Renee Silverman

Post Script March 2012
The road sign above the shop relates to Hopkins address, Kent Road Pudsey.

LS 2000

From the eighteenth to the twenty-first century in twenty four hours.

After the Money Works panel had been unveiled other firms from the financial sector were eager to be included on the Tapestry. The talk then was of 24-hour and internet banking and many new developments were springing up around Leeds, particularly around the waterfront.

LS2000 - Urban Fabric represents a communications superhighway around the border, and the historical superhighway, the river, running down the centre of the panel. When it was first planned the idea was to incorporate fibre optics in the design but, despite attending many workshops, they had to be ruled out as unworkable.

Darren Newby of Carey Jones was commissioned to design an architectural map suggesting 'urban fabric' which includes the River Aire, some of the statues from city square and the floor plan of the Tetley Brewery Wharf visitor centre ( or is it the Corn Exchange?).

The architectural map was then machine stitched onto a huge piece of pelmet vilene by Elizabeth Thackrah and the individually embroidered buildings were fixed to board to raise them from the surface of the map. This posed quite a problem for the team who had to research extensively for conservation grade glues which were capable of bearing the weight of the pieces. Before the re-launch last year this panel had to be removed from it's frame to make minor repairs.

and finally.........
the mouse traps on Secret Lives of Objects are definitely worth a peak.

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 - 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 - 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 - Alan Bennett

Alan Bennett, born in Armley in 1934. In the book of the Tapestry he was described as being best known for "Beyond the Fringe", "Talking Heads" and the film "The Madness of King George". He used to shun publicity, hence peeping from behind a curtain on the panel, but he's now one of our National Treasures. Since the Local Faces panel was finished he has had great success with "The History Boys".

In our family he is best known for autographing his collected works for DD at his favorite fish and chip supper diner.

Mr Bennett was embroidered in raised work by Beverley Silverman