Showing posts with label Mill Hill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mill Hill. Show all posts

Monday, 7 June 2010

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.

Monday, 22 March 2010

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
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