Leeds in Bloom - Elizabeth Bidgood's Garden

Sometimes the link between embroiderer and subject is even closer (see yesterday's post). Elizabeth Bidgood stitched her garden for the Leeds in Bloom panel. She regularly opens it to the public to raise money for charities and sponsored hers and Temple Newsam's on the Tapestry.

I met her, in her role as Chairman of the Leeds Horticultural Society, at the Flower Show yesterday and she said that the garden is much altered now from the depiction on the panel.

Many techniques were used in stitching this piece including cross stitch, hand stitching and, I suspect, a few french knots.

Leeds in Bloom - Joe Maiden & Gardening Which

This weekend Leeds Flower Show is taking place at the Grammar School at Leeds up in Alwoodley. Joe Maiden is broadcasting from there this morning for his gardening programme on Radio Leeds.

Renee Davidson stitched the background in counted thread work. A second print of Joe Maiden was made, hand stitched by Merel Jackson (11 hours) and appliqued to the ground. Merel was one of the stalwart helpers at the Show until last year so it's appropriate she stitched Joe.

Quite often there is a link between the embroiderer and the subject.

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.

Leeds in Bloom - Harewood Arms

Kath Bretherick introduced a group of embroiderers from Harewood willing to stitch the Harewood Arms; Mrs Parnaby, Mrs Marshall, Mrs Armstrong, Mrs Hedley, Mrs Sutcliffe, Mrs Peel and Mrs Newby. They in turn suggested the Countess, as an experienced needlewoman, may be willing to get involved, which lead to her becoming a Patron of the Tapestry.

Ann Wheatley chartered the building for petit point (12 hours)

And many others were involved in embroidering flowers using various techniques to surround the piece.

Cross stitch flower border by Ruth Fowler and Lynne Ward

Primrose by Margaret Foxcroft (needleweaving)

Pink flower by unknown embroiderer (needleweaving)

Yellow flower by Shirley Gale (needleweaving)

Primroses by Margaret Foxcroft (needleweaving)

Leeds in Bloom - The Queens

The Queen's Hotel, on the south side of City Square was built in 1937, from the design of architect to the London Midland and Scottish Railway, WH Hamlyn. It is faced with white Portland stone at the front but the sides and rear are brown brick.

Interesting fact: Portland Cement is often cited as being invented by a Leeds man Joseph Aspdin (1778-1855). Should he be included as one of the forgotten ones?

As a devotee of Art Deco I remember visiting the hotel (penniless) in the 1970s just to see the lift. The building has had a major refurbishment recently but the 1930s features have been retained. I didn't know, until reading it in the link, that The Queens was the first hotel in Britain to have en-suite bathrooms to all rooms and the last of the railway hotels to be in public ownership.




This is another huge piece of embroidery, chartered by Val Lloyd and stitched in blackwork by Audrey Gabbitas. Audrey spent 437 hours on the work and calculated that she had made at least 345,000 stitches. It was quite a job to scan this for the records.


Some of the volunteers didn't necessarily embroider. There were all sorts of other jobs to be done including making tea at workshops, keeping the materials sorted and stitching the individual pieces to the panels. Shirley Gale was one of these people but she also found time to do some needleweaving.

Leeds in Bloom - Coronation House

In 1911 the Council demolished the old conservatory in the kitchen garden of Roundhay Hall and built the Coronation House. It was rebuilt in 1939 and again in 1984 when the ‘Tropical World ‘ theme was introduced. It has recently been closed for further redevelopment, opening in 2001 to queues of people. Its hard to believe that in the late c19, when John Barran fought to buy Roundhay Park for the city, that his critics called it ‘Barran’s Folly’ because of its great distance from Leeds and its people and that there were schemes to build a railway to provide access.

I think this was written in 2001. More changes have been made since then, including a new enclosure for the very popular meerkats. Well worth a visit.


This piece was chartered by Penny Babbington and stitched by Catherine Davies, a member of the Embroiderer's Guild @ Leeds. The techniques used were blackwork and cross stitch.

Leeds in Bloom - Oakwood Clock

Designed by Leeming and Leeming and made in 1904 by Potts and Sons of Guildford Street Leeds. The clock was originally the centrepiece of Leeds New Market Hall (1904) but alterations to the building made it obsolete and the decision was made to move it to Oakwood in 1912.

Originally a gravity hand-wound striking clock the mechanism was removed in 1941 (re-used in Leck Church, Lancashire) and a self-starting synchronous movement was fitted, the bell was broken up and used for scrap.

Potts and Sons made many clocks for Leeds including those in Thornton's Arcade (with figures by JW Appleyard), The Griffin Hotel and the clock on the Stable Block in Roundhay Park. Going off the point a bit, there seems to be some confusion in the books about Leeds as to who built the clock in the Grand Arcade - were Robert James and Joseph Potts of Leeds part of the same family and company? For readers wanting more information on Potts there is a flicker group of photographs of the clocks and a book on the history of the firm.

The company joined the Smith of Derby Group in 1933, but possibly still have a base in Leeds? Not any longer - see notes from Michael Potts below.

The canvas was chartered by Ann Wheatley and the piece was started by Maureen Carr and finished by Godfrey Harland (Godfrey spent 199 hours working on it).

Additional notes supplied by Michael S Potts, direct descendant of Robert and William and collector and researcher of clocks made by the Potts Family:

1. The firm's name was Wm. Potts & Sons in 1904 and apart from the addition of "Limited" a few years later it has remained the same to the present day. Robert, James and Joseph were William's sons who joined the firm. In the end five consecutive generations of the family were involved in clockmaking.
2. the Oakwood clock movement is now at Leck Church.
3. The firm installed over a hundred public clocks in Leeds between 1858 and 1934, not all of which have survived, but many have. Thornton's, Queen's, Grand, and Market Arcades all had clocks. Other significant buildings in the city centre that can be seen today are The Corn Exchange (1862), Griffin Hotel (1877), General Post Office (1895), Leeds Parish Church (1898), Holy Trinity Church(1902).
4. The firm joined Smith of Derby in 1934. They no longer have a base in Leeds.

Thank you Michael