This is the Country wife mural, created for the Festival of Britain 1951 by Constance Howard. Until recently it was housed at Denman College ( the home of the WI), and that is where I was most fortunate to see it.
It has now been given to the National Needlework Archive to be cleaned and conserved. It is a massive mural 4.5 metre by 5 metres.
I went along the the NNA this afternoon to the open day at their new premises in Newbury. They need a lot of volunteers to help them move into the new premises.... so if you live nearby and have some time to spare.... have a look at the website here.. and offer to help..... it is a bit far for me..... but I would like to help. They are planning lots of exciting activities in the new year to, as well as having an on-site cafe.
3 comments:
Hi, I'm a volunteer at the National Needlework Archive and I thought I'd give you a quick up-dare on the Centre and the Country Wife in particular. We have been open for some time now and I'm part of a fantastic team helping Linda Connell run the Archive. We now offer workshops, classes, lectures and exhibtions as part of our programme in the Old Chapel Textile Centre, along with the conservation, recording and research activities of the Archive itself. THe Country Wife is making great progress. We have a dedicated team of volunteers working on the tapestry. THe process is overseen my experts who visit regularly offering guidance on dealing with particular isses or advice on how to proceed. We are at an exciting time just now as the whole tapestry is to be 'moved on' in oder to gain access to the next section for conservation. We have visitors for many parts of the country and there is always refreshments available before they set off home. With large groups we can arrange light lunches and volunteers have a great chance to chat about things going on in other counties. It would be lovely to see you again. Come along and see how we've changed. Denise Gilvear, Volunteer NNA
Thanks for the article. Very interesting.
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