Education - Robin and Lesley Dove

"My wife Lesley spotted an article in the Yorkshire Evening Post inviting readers to visit premises in County Arcade, Victoria Quarter where Kate was promoting her unique idea of involving local people in helping to create a tableau of embroidered panels depicting the progress of the City & Borough of Leeds through two thousand years of progress up to the second millennium.

"Lesley took up the invitation to meet Kate, the idea struck a chord and my wife came away with a small piece to stitch for the first panel, this was the beginning of a friendship. Between 1993 and 2002 we visitied a variety of temporary homes the expanding project occupied over the years. We visited Kate's home and offices, Armley Mills and Trinity Church, as I remember.

"The numerous panels we were involved with brought us into contact with many lively and interesting industrious people all committed to the completion of the project. We have enjoyed our years of involvement and we are proud of being part of the project that future generations will admire in awe. "

Robin Dove 2003

Lesley hand stitched the couple on printed fabric, Robin undertook research for the Tapestry.

Local Faces - John Battle

I heard on the radio yesterday that John Battle stood down as Member of Parliament for Leeds West so, thought it relevant to put him on the site today.

He first entered Parliament in the General Election of 11 June 1987 and stood down on 12 April this year when the election was announced.

John is one of the few who appears on more than one panel. In 2000 he was at the forefront of the Leeds Jubilee 2000 Network 'Drop the Debt Campaign' and appears holding the banner on the Community Spirit Panel.

Both pieces were printed on fabric. Drop the Debt was embroidered by Jackie Barron and Janet Taylor in 46 hours and the John Battle from the Local Faces panel was hand stitched by Sheila Eagleton in 32 hours.

Don't forget to vote.

Education - the people

I don't think these people are any particular individuals but haven't they got movement in them? They were hand stitched by Denise Teed. They can be seen at the top of the panel between the buildings.

Arts for All - Temple Newsam Wallpaper

I'm including this on the blog today as a reminder that the Wallpaper Exhibition at Temple Newsam is coming to a close at the end of the week. The Exhibition shows highlights of the collection of papers given to the house by Roger Warner.

The wallpaper collection at Temple Newsam was started as a research aid for redecorating individual rooms, each in a particular time period of the life of the house. Samples of historic papers have come from underneath floor boards (in rat's nests?) or have been recovered from behind woodwork added over the centuries as room sizes changed. Often very small samples have been just enough evidence of the pattern if the same was used in other houses.

The paper chosen to be represented on the Tapestry had just been re-hung in the Picture Gallery (1996), a facsimile of the flock hung there in the 1740s.

I could go on.........

Joan Holah hand stitched this piece on printed fabric.

Education -Panel and Leeds Grammar School

There were several false starts in the design of the Education Panel but the revised format was ready to go in 1999. The style of the panel reflects the more formal style of the Health Panel, monochrome buildings suggesting that they are the housing for education and the people in glorious technicolour the product and life of the education process.



Leeds Grammar School may have been founded as early as 1341 but it's foundation is usually taken as 6th July 1552, dating from the will of William Sheafield. In 1624 John Harrison provided a new building on North Street (near the site of the Grand Theatre) where the school stayed until 1859 and its move to the new building in Clarendon Road. Rev. Alfred Barry was headmaster at the time and the buildings were designed by his brother (Their father designed the Houses of Parliament). This embroidery shows the architects elevation of the new school built in the 1990s at Alwoodley Gates. Mr Collins was head at the time of that move. When the panel was made the school was for boys only. Now, with the name changed to The Grammar School at Leeds, the girls from Leeds Girl's High School have joined them.


The straight lines of the architect's elevation were very difficult to maintain in embroidery. Several attempts at hand and machine embroidery were thwarted by kinks and bends where none should be. Finally the effect was achieved using couching - lines of cotton perle across the surface of the printed fabric with tiny stitches holding them down.


The original plan for the Education Panel had been more in the style of the Community Spirit panel with crowds of students spilling from the buildings. These pieces were embroidered for the earlier design by Mary Mellor and Ann Barker. So far they have not been used but are beautiful, and ready when someone else takes up the challenge to create more panels.

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).

Arts for All - samples

When the book 'The Leeds Tapestry - we made it' was published the Arts for All panel hadn't been completed. The background, by Chris Richardson (top), was ready but the individual pieces of embroidery had not been chosen.

The Environment panel was made by the West Riding Rag Ruggers, the Leeds in Bloom panel was originally to have been completed by the Embroiderers' Guild and in the same way the Arts for All panel was to have been made by patchwork and quilters.

Many of the Night Owl quilters had too many other commitments at the time but several of them made small postcard sized samples to see what could be done on that scale. Some of the results are shown above.

The Pillars at Catalana were machine appliqued by Chris Richardson and the Malham view by Liz Thompson.