Community Spirit - Rob Bumby

A very short post today. Rob Bumby was also involved in Common Purpose.
He was also hand and machine stitched on printed fabric (Three and a half hours).

Community Spirit - Jane Hustwitt

Jane was a participant in Common Purpose (see Wednesday's entry).

The embroidery was machine and hand stitched on printed fabric by Janet Taylor. The observant will realise that below the knees the piece is untouched. The lower legs are hidden on the Community Spirit panel and embroidering them, and other covered pieces would have made the final result too bulky.

Community Spirit - NSPCC

I should really have mentioned this event before, rather than after the event. A really successful day and still worth including today to make people aware that it may be repeated. I met so many people I know, and haven't seen for years, the common thread? Textiles.




One visitor to the event yesterday embroidered the children for the NSPCC logo. I could remember what she'd made before her name - the danger of being obsessed with databases. So, Julia Cooper, if you're reading this, did you use a computerised machine to make the children? and who stitched the NSPCC?

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was founded in 1884 by Reverend Benjamin Waugh.

Sports for All - Headingley Cricket Ground

There are gates at the cricket ground named for Len Hutton.

On 7 March 1861, a Match Fund Committee to run Yorkshire county matches was established in Sheffield, which had by then been the home of Yorkshire cricket for nearly 100 years. It was from this fund that Yorkshire CCC was founded two years later. Yorkshire played their first game at Headingley in 1891 and two years later a major reorganization of the Club saw its centre of operations shift from Sheffield to Leeds.

On 31 December 2005 Yorkshire County Cricket Club purchased the cricket ground for £12 million from the Leeds Cricket, Football and Athletic Company, parent company of the rugby league club, with the help of a £9 million loan from Leeds City Council. This purchase ensures that Test Cricket continues at the venue with a 15-year staging agreement. On 11 January 2006 the stadium was officially renamed the Headingley Carnegie Stadium as a result of sponsorship from Leeds Metropolitan University.

The piece was hand and machine stitched by Janet Taylor (12 hours)

Community Spirit - Injuns

Machine and hand stitched by Jackie Ford (20 hours), this trio was also involved with Carnival. Yet again we have no idea who the boys (?) are or which year they were dressed like this.

The sun is shining this morning so fingers crossed, the weather stays dry for the procession.

Community Spirit - Latch

Latch was started in 1989 and still has the same objectives to rehabilitate houses in Leeds and thus provide homes for young people (16-25) with housing needs. The young people being housed are involved in all aspects of renovating the buildings and given support to maintain their independence after the building is complete.

I've just found reference to one of their properties on a history of Leeds website.

Vivienne Brown embroidered the house and said this of the Tapestry project

"As a workshop leader and occasional volunteer stitcher, it has given me great pleasure to be involved in this project.
Initially I was inspired by Kate's visionary ideas and ideals, and then amazed by her qualities of leadership which resulted in the project gathering momentum, developing, and progressing over the many months.
Many of my students became involved and I helped whenever I could. Always I was impressed by the enthusiasm and friendliness of the helpers.
These stunning panels, which are dedicated to the City of Leeds, also celebrate those who have helped in their making, and symbolise their creativity, their energy and their sustained stamina!"

Jackie Moore hand stitched the logo on printed fabric.

Sports for All - Leeds Golf Club

This is the clubhouse of Leeds Golf Club, built in 1909, though presumably enlarged over the years since then.

The men who formed the club were the first to wield a golf club in Leeds, originally playing on Soldiers Field before renting the horse pastures, now the top nine of the present course.

The famous golf architect, Doctor Alistair MacKenzie was a member between 1900 and 1910 and he gave advice on the placing of bunkers and the layout of the course. There's a website devoted to the courses designed by him and even though this course is not mentioned it appears to have been the first he had a hand in.

Another first for the club seems to be that they gave the first professional golf trophy, The Leeds Cup.

The piece was machine embroidered on printed fabric by Barbara Walker (5 hours).

Arts for All - Lotherton Hall

Just been over to Lotherton Hall where there is another branch of the Flocking Together Exhibition taking place throughout the Museum Service in Leeds. There's also a very comprehensive exhibition of the works of Sutton Taylor, who used to live at Lotherton Old Hall.

In continuous occupation since the 7th century, Lotherton takes its name from an Anglo-Saxon settler called Hluttor whose farm or 'tun' occupied the site in early times. By 1086 records suggest that a hall or manor house had been built here and, during the Middle Ages, a number of tenants are recorded as having lived on the site, including such well known Yorkshire families as the Nevilles and the de Hothams.

In the 1540s the farmlands surrounding the hall were purchased by John Gascoigne of Lasingcroft to form part of his newly acquired Parlington Estate. The Hall itself did not become the property of the family until 1825 when both house and park were purchased by Richard Oliver Gascoigne. Some attempts were made to re-fashion the existing building at this time but it was not until Richard's grandson, Colonel Frederick Gascoigne, inherited the property in 1893 that the house took on its present form. Together with his wife Gwendolen, Colonel Gascoigne extended and remodelled the house and gardens to create a charming home for his family. After his death in 1937 the estates passed to his son and daughter-in-law, Sir Alvary and Lady Gascoigne, who retired here in 1953 after an active diplomatic career.

In 1968 they presented the Hall to the City of Leeds, together with its park, garden and art collections. These, along with items brought from Temple Newsam House and Leeds City Art Gallery and objects bought specially for the house since it opened as a museum in 1969 are what visitors to the house see today, a lasting testimony to an ancient Yorkshire family and support of the arts by the people of Leeds (I've extracted this from their site).

The embroidery was hand painted and stitched by Anne Cove. I'd forgotten that Anne made a larger, similar hanging for Lotherton Hall and at present it can be seen in the entrance porch.

Leeds in Bloom - Brethericks

Kathleen Bretherick was Kate's local florist. She not only sponsored this piece on the panel but encouraged the Harewood Ladies to join in. Word of mouth was usually the most successful way to get people involved. It seems the business has now closed, so I quote below from the old website.

We are one of the longest established flower shops in Leeds, UK and celebrated 60 years in business in 2006. The business was started by Kath and Ron Bretherick and is now run by their daughter Sandra Moss and granddaughter Carla Moss. Sandra Moss is a Chief Examiner for Society of Floristry, which is the awarding body for the Floristry examinations at the highest level. She has taught floristry and still teaches flower arranging to individuals and groups. Bretherick's has been a member of Interflora since 1960 and has exhibited at the Chelsea Flower Show, London. We have decorated many venues for dinners where Royalty and High profile personalities have been present.

The piece was cross stitched by Kath and the staff at the shop.

We don't seem to have a detailed photograph of the tulips, and no note of who made them.

Sunflower by Margaret Foxcroft. She moved away from Leeds and sent a parcel of needleweaving treasures from time to time.

Sunflower by Gill Cook, cut fabric with french knots.

Ivy leaves machine stitched by Freda Copley.

Needleweaving ivy leaves by Shirley Shaw.

Local Faces - John Smeaton (1724-94)

John Smeaton is known as the father of Civil Engineering and was the founder of the Society of Civil Engineers in 1771.

He was born at Austhorp, attended Leeds Grammar School (the old John Harrison site) and after starting work at his father's law firm then went on to learn how to make mathematical instruments with Henry Hindley. I wonder how long it took to pursuade his father that law wasn't his forte?

A mechanical and civil engineer, he is most famous for building the Eddystone Lighthouse (first to use concrete since the Romans), but he also made improvements to the Aire Calder Navigation and undertook several drainage projects. He built substantial bridges in Banff, Coldstream (Robert Burns used this one to cross into England for the first time) and Perth all of which are still in use.

Despite working throughout England and Scotland it seems he didn't leave the area to live and died at the family home, Austhorp Lodge in 1794.

Models of his prototypes and the wood framed lathe he made and used are on display at Armley Mills. His innovative model for dealing with the foundation of Eddystone lighthouse is illustrated over on the Leeds Museums blog.

Janet Taylor hand and machine stitched this piece on printed fabric (4 hours).

Local Faces - John Barran (1821-1905)

Greenwood and Batley developed the band-knife for Barran (the son of a London gunmaker), which was capable of cutting through several layers of cloth at a time. Coupled with the use of the Singer sewing machine this enabled Barran’s factory in Alfred Street to become the first to produce ready-made mass produced clothes. They were able to provide uniforms for the Crimean War, the expanding force of rail workers and the police. The factory also produced children's clothes including sailor suits which were very popular in the late nineteenth century.

The Moorish building in Park Square built in 1879 (architect Thomas Ambler) was originally John Barran’s warehouse.

He made a fortune and turned his hand to politics, becoming the Lord Mayor of Leeds between 1870 and 1872. It was while he held this post that in 1871, due to the death of the owner, the Roundhay estate came onto the market and was sold at auction on 4 October. Barran urged the Council to buy the estate for the people of Leeds but they were reluctant and as the estate then lay outside Leeds boundary they had no authority to make the purchase. With little time to change the Council's mind, John and his supporters raised the money themselves, the huge sum in those days of £127,000. After this he offered the estate, at cost, to the Council who agreed to the purchase after getting parliamentary approval.

Denise Teed machine embroidered this piece on handmade felt.