Arts for All - Grand Theatre Ceiling

Yesterday was the monthly coffee morning for those volunteers at the Tapestry who still keep in touch. If anyone is reading this who wants to join the meetings just pop down to the Tiled Hall at the Art Gallery/Library on the last Friday of each month at 11 am. The function starts with a drink and often extends to lunch as well.

The tiled hall was a hidden gem of the city while the Tapestry was being designed and stitched but would definitely have been chosen in 2010. The ceiling is magnificent, but photographs taken yesterday were too poor to post here.

Another ceiling worthy of mention is in the auditorium of the Grand Theatre which has recently had a major makeover. This was included on the Arts panel, hand stitched by Godfrey Harland.

The Grand Theatre has its own book, "Grand Memories" by Patricia Lennon and David Joy, published in 2006 which gives a lot of information about the history, performances, performers there and some beautiful photographs.

The first performance at the theatre was Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" on November 18th, 1878. In 1969 there was a plan to destroy the building and replace it with a 22 storey office block - fortunately the planning application was turned down, mainly because of its Grade II listing. Now, back to its former glory it's open for business again with the additional venue of the Assembly Rooms for smaller concerts and performances.

On the Move - Burton's Van

When the panels were first on display, at Harewood and then at the Royal Armouries, there was a rota of volunteers willing to steward the Tapestry and talk to visitors about the pieces. Some of the anecdotes from this time were recorded and Brian Jackson was particularly good about this.


"My attention was drawn to an elderly gentleman who was looking at the Transport panel. He appeared to be having some difficulty with his glasses. I could see that he was particularly interested in Burtons and when asked he replied "it used to be my firm", by which I understood him to mean that he had been employed by the company.
I informed him that there was another Burton's item on the Textile panel and offered to show it to him. With some difficulty, he was walking with two sticks, we went to the panel where I pointed out the montage including Montague Burton, the man. Again with some difficulty he adjusted his glassed and looked very closely at the piece. Then to my utter astonishment he turned to me and said "that is my father".
I then had a long conversation with him and at my request he signed the visitors book, Raymond Burton."

(written by Brian Jackson 3/11/03)

There are still volunteers willing to provide guided tours at the Tapestry's permanent home in the Central Library in Leeds. Please contact me if you would like to bring a group to see the panels. Any of the volunteers reading this? Remember that a group still meet in the Tiled Hall on the last Friday of each month, the more the merrier.

Barbara Gray embroidered the piece on printed fabric (6 hours).

Civic Pride Panel

The Civic Pride panel was begun in 1993 and unveiled 26th February 1999. It represents the Lord Mayor's parade, centred around the Civic Hall and Mandela Gardens.

The fourth panel to be made, it was designed at the time when more and more people were aware of the project, and volunteered not only to sponsor pieces but also to embroider them. The crowd scene allowed for this and included are many people and flags sewn in a variety of techniques.

The volunteers also came with differing sewing experience, so it was the beginning of a series of skill-sharing and workshop sessions. One of the first and simplest was the balloon workshop. Interspersed in the crowd these give colour to the scene and were useful in filling in awkward gaps when the individual pieces were stitched to the background.

Originally the project was based in Kate's kitchen but as it progressed and acquired a larger workspace she booked a wide variety of professional embroiderers to teach at workshops, including goldwork, machine embroidery, rag rugging, needleweaving, computerized machine embroidery and raised work. This also allowed the volunteers to meet regularly and many lasting friendships were made. Some of them still meet once a month at the Tiled Hall. If you would like more details of this and were one of the stitchers please email via 'about me'