Textile and Industrial Heritage - Peacock and Sons

Mary Mawson also stitched the image of Peacock's building. She asked the Peacock family if they would sponsor the pieces on the Textile panel and they were happy to do so.

When we had workshops or 'get togethers' at the Tapestry (first at Kate's home, then Armley Mills and latterly at Holy Trinity) the stitchers would happily talk about their jobs in the textile industry before the 1980s. Mary recalled that the Peacock family treated their employees very fairly. Before the advent of state pensions one man was kept on, well passed retirement,  to open the back door. She said that it wasn't really a job, but it gave that person not only a small income but also a purpose.

It's a real pity that we don't have recordings of some of the reminiscences shared while we sat and stitched. I think possibly that there are some videos taken by Antonia Lovelace, Curator of World Culture at Leeds Museums Service, but they were only shot during stitching together the last panel, Arts for All.

The piece was produced using the counted threadwork technique of blackwork and was charted by Hazel Rand.

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.