Community Spirit - Youth at Risk

The logo was hand stitched by Joyce Maynard (5 hours)

The two boys above were hand stitched and appliqued by Hilary Thurlow and the group below were hand stitched on printed fabric by Myra Turner (13 hours).

Youth at Risk is another community programme to help young people, quoting from their website

Youth at Risk is a charity dedicated to young people whose reality has become
crime, exclusion from school, unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse and
other self-harm. We support them.We encourage them to choose to get back
on track and give up the habits which are holding them back.

Beyond hope’, ‘no future’ – these are phrases we don’t entertain. We believe,
passionately, that our approach, which is sometimes challenging, will prevent
them from exclusion from school, being benefit-dependent, imprisonment,
alcohol/drug abuse and suicide. There are no “ready-made” solutions. Each
and every young person who comes to us is different. We deal with them
individually. Some are already hardened, others are on their way to being
so.

We respect them. We help them find out what makes them tick, and why they ‘tick’
the way they do.

Local Faces - Dame Fanny Waterman

Dame Fanny Waterman was mentioned briefly in the 3rd March 2010 entry but she stars today as the guest on Desert Island Discs this week. Repeated next Friday, you will also have a week on iPlayer after that to catch up with her favourites and her personal story.

Dame Fanny Waterman, DBE (born 22 March 1920) is a piano teacher, and the founder, Chairman and Artistic Director of the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition.

Waterman was born in Leeds; her father, Myer Waterman, a Russian Jew, had emigrated to England to work as a jeweller. She began to study with Tobias Matthay when she was 17; she started giving public performances, and in 1941 opened the concert season in Leeds with the Leeds Symphony Society. She won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music and studied under Cyril Smith. In 1944, she married Dr. Geoffrey de Keyser and in 1950, with the arrival of her first child, gave up her concert career and concentrated on teaching. By the early 1960s, Waterman felt that young British pianists needed a goal to give them a competitive edge with foreign pianists.

In 1961, with the help of her friend Marion Thorpe (then Countess of Harewood) she jointly founded the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition. She is artistic director of the competition and, since 1981, chairman of the competition jury. Her contribution to the city of Leeds was recognised in April 2006, when she was given the Freedom of the City of Leeds.

Waterman was Director of the Postgraduate Certificate in Advanced Piano Performance at Leeds College of Music until 2006.

The above is courtesy of Wikki.

Beverley Silverman embroidered and hand painted this piece using the techniques of raised work and applique.

The Legal Sector - Leeds Coat of Arms

The Coat of Arms is made up of a collage of different techniques by several people, just like the composition itself is an amalgam of other coats of arms.

I've lifted this description straight from the old Leodis site

In 1626 a Royal Charter of Charles I incorporated the Borough of Leeds when the wealthy Sir John Savile, MP for Yorkshire, was elected the first council member of the Borough. The coat-of-arms displayed a fleece, supported by silver owls on a blue field. The fleece represented the staple trade of the town whilst the supporters came from the arms of Sir John. Sir John had recently become a landowner in Leeds and he gave some land in Headingley for building a church, which became the first St.Michael's in Headingley.

Following the restoration of the monarchy in 1662 the chief inhabitants of the town petitioned Charles II for a new charter. The charter was granted on the 2nd November that year. With this charter the chief citizen became the mayor of the town. The first mayor of the town was Thomas Danby whose arms included three mullets argent, or three silver five-pointed stars to you and me. The stars were added to the arms.

The arms were not settled until 1836 when the Leeds Corporation was reconstituted under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 and the Borough Seal now comprised the full complement of blue shield, owl supporters, the crest and the motto, 'pro rege et lege' An important citizen of Leeds in 1920 was Alderman Sir Charles Wilson MP, a Freeman of Leeds and London. He was concerned about the legality of the coat-of-arms as it was not registered at the College of Heralds. It was decided to submit the matter to the College. His Majesty's Officers at Arms altered the colour of the owls to 'proper', that being the proper colour of owls.

The arms received the sanction of the College on the 7th November 1921. Above the shield is the closed helmet used by Civic Authorities with a crest-wreath and covering in the principal colours of the arms, gold and blue.

The full coat is now described in heraldic terminology as: Shield: azure, a fleece or, on a chief sable three mullets argent; Crest: on a wreath or and azure, an owl proper; Supporters: an owl proper ducally crowned; Motto: 'Pro rege et Lege'.

The three owls were embroidered by Audrey Gabbitas in a variety of techniques. The wings are canvaswork, the bodies hand embroidered and padded, the feet made of wire and wrapped with perle thread and the crowns are gold leather. The lamb and stars by Colleen Nicoll and the helmet and plume by Anne Darch were all appliqued. Kate Russell and Sue Hodgson hand embroidered the ribbon.

Spectacular.

There's a very interesting article here about the owls of Leeds, apparently they are European Eagle Owls

Local Faces - The Longley Building

The Longley building houses Alan Bennett and one other.

Added after comments

Yes, it is Fanny Waterman, inspiration behind the International Pianoforte Competition, founded in 1961. She was awarded the OBE in 1971 and the CBE, for services to music, in 2000.

Merel Jackson remembers Longley's when it was a furniture store....
"I bought my dining suite, easy chairs and bedroom suite (headboard £12 extra) there in 1954.
The building is on the corner of Land's Lane and Albion Place and is indeed a Pret a Manger

Local Faces - Alan Bennett

Alan Bennett, born in Armley in 1934. In the book of the Tapestry he was described as being best known for "Beyond the Fringe", "Talking Heads" and the film "The Madness of King George". He used to shun publicity, hence peeping from behind a curtain on the panel, but he's now one of our National Treasures. Since the Local Faces panel was finished he has had great success with "The History Boys".

In our family he is best known for autographing his collected works for DD at his favorite fish and chip supper diner.

Mr Bennett was embroidered in raised work by Beverley Silverman

Local Faces - Diana Rigg

Diana Rigg CBE, Patron of the Tapestry and actress. She was born in Doncaster but spent her teenage years in Leeds, attending Fulneck School.
She would prefer not to be known only as Emma Peel in the Avengers so, can anyone provide any anecdotes?

The embroidery is raised work/applique and was made by Gillian Holding