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.

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 - 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