Leeds in Bloom - Harewood Estate

It's snowing again in Leeds today, though it looks wet enough not to last. This piece of embroidery was hand and machine stitched on printed fabric by Janet Taylor and comes from a photograph taken on the Harewood Estate.







Needle weaving using a wire framework was the technique used to embroidery these leaves. Those above made by Margaret Foxcroft, and those below by Muriel Gabbitas

Textile and Industrial Heritage - Smocking

Many techniques of manipulation and surface decoration have been used on the Tapestry including smocking used in the background of the Textile panel. These pieces were made by Joan Langfield and Janet Taylor.

Another tenuous link.......

One textile technique not used is intarsia patchwork. If you don't know what it is there's a perfect opportunity to look at an international collection of examples at Leeds Art Gallery (on display until the end of October).

Two textile exhibitions in one building - is Leeds finally acknowledging its history?

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)

Education - the Parkinson Building

The last of Thursday's photographs, the Clothworker's Court arch is just to the left and in the distance is the Parkinson building clock tower. A completely different style of architecture from the second phase of the expansion of the University.

In 1936 The Brotherton Library was opened, but with no real street presence; it was always intended to be set behind a central arts and administration block. Frank Parkinson offered £200,000 for the construction of this building named after him.

Faced in Portland stone it was designed in the distinctive Greek Revival style of Thomas Lodge and was officially opened by Princess Mary in 1951.





A very large piece of machine embroidery undertaken by Janet Taylor and completed in 24 hours (I don't think this was a single marathon effort though)

Faith in the City - John and Joan Gamble

The embroidery is of John & Joan Gamble at their wedding in 1952. Joan is one of the volunteers at the Tapestry and wanted her husband, as a Mill Hill Chapel member on the Faith Panel. He was still alive when Kate talked to the congregation about the idea of the Tapestry and was very keen for the building to be on the panel. After he died Joan suggested he should be represented, initially by himself but as the photographer of the family very few images of him survive so Joan was pursuaded to join him.

John's family connection with Mill Hill can be traced back to before the present chapel was built in 1848. After their marriage they were both involved in the life of the chapel, founding the popular dance club and helping with the dramatic society. John held the post of Treasurer for Mill Hill for 42 years and, as the Minister remarked in his eulogy,

"John was rarely centre stage. He was seen to join me on the roof when slates fell or gutters bunged-up or to pop-in to talk or sometimes argue a point of difference. His great quality was that he was unassuming."

Joan was nervous about doing the embroidery and was assisted with her veil and John's suit by Janet Taylor.

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.

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).

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.

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