Textiles in Durham Cathedral

Recently, Durham Cathedral, which does not normally allow photography inside, held an open evening for amateur photographers to come along and snap away. I've already posted about my photos of the Cathedral itself, but said at the time I'd hold back the ones of textiles for a separate post following a textile tour of the Cathedral I was booked on.  Well, the time has come!

A couple of caveats, however: the tour turned out to be of the various pieces made by the Cathedral Broderers since 1980, not all the textile collection as I'd expected, and secondly, the real treasures, including some amazingly rare Anglo-Saxon embroideries, are not currently on display due to building work, and I wouldn't have been allowed to photograph them even if they were. I hope you can still enjoy the items I did get to see.

There is a fine display of the Broderer's work in the Chapel of the Nine Altars. The pieces here were designed by Leonard Childs and Malcolm Lochhead, though I'm a bit unsure which of them was responsible for what, so apologies for that.

Firstly, there's the altar dedicated to St Margaret:

and a set of kneelers in front of it:

I haven't got them all in shot, but there are three, reading 'Wear', 'Forth', and 'Danube' - all rivers associated with St Margaret.

Additional kneelers are with a set of pews facing the altars:

There are a whole series of them, each featuring the names of saints with altars dedicated to them in the original Nine Altars. I particularly like these as I'm always interested in lettering and calligraphy in embroidery, and I think the way the designer (Leonard Childs, I think) has incorporated the saints' names is very effective.

Another kneeler, this time in front of an altar to St Hilda:

This is also part of a set of three, featuring the names of three towns - South Shields, Hartlepool and Whitby - associated with her.  The altar itself has a particularly beautiful, and deceptively simple, frontal:

In the centre is a large altar, with a spectacular frontal and panels, featuring the wildlife of Lindisfarne:

Immediately in front of the Chapel is the Shrine of St Cuthbert, which contains two large batik hangings by Thetis Blacker, of St Cuthbert:

and St Oswald, whose head is buried with St Cuthbert (I'm afraid I don't know what happened to the rest of him):

Over the steps leading into the shrine is something that might look familiar!

Another piece by the Broderers is a pulpit fall in the choir, with motifs based on designs from the Lindisfarne Gospels:

The High Altar and the other altars in the main body of the Cathedral just had plain covers at the time rather than embroidered frontals, so nothing much to see there, though there were some other interesting pieces.  None of these were made by the Broderers, however, so I'm afraid I don't have any information on them at all.

There was a rather nice processional banner for the Mothers' Union:

A hanging banner evidently commemorating a connection between Durham and Lesotho, in southern Africa:

And a large processional banner, but this time entirely secular in origin:

There was a long and proud coal mining tradition in North East England, and the annual Durham Miners Gala was a huge event in its heyday, with banners from each colliery paraded through the city.

Finally, into the Galilee Chapel, and a kneeler designed by Joan Freemen by the tomb of the Venerable Bede, also based on the Lindisfarne Gospels:

And an old and beautiful altar frontal in silk:

I don't have any information on this at all, I'm afraid, but it's just stunning.

If you're ever in the North East of England I can heartily recommend a visit to Durham Cathedral - it's well worth it.

York Minster - All Saint's Chapel dossal

A stunning example of goldwork in (fairly) contemporary ecclesiastical embroidery can be seen in All Saint's Chapel in York Minster.

This magnificent dossal (or hanging behind an altar) was made in 1972 by the Minster Broderers, from a design by Joan Freeman. On red silk, the design is worked in padded gold kid and couched gold thread and cords, with some beading. I haven't described working with kid or other fine leather yet, though as with couching, it's a simple technique that can be used to great effect, as here.

I love this piece - the design is deceptively simple but perfectly composed, and the colour scheme - just red and gold - shows it off without any distractions. Although I keep saying that goldwork techniques are simple (and they are!), so much hinges on their execution, which here is flawless. Although the Great Processional Banner is an astonishing piece of work, I much prefer this one. Beautiful.

York Minster - the Great Processional Banner

It's always interesting to see how others have done something, and when it comes to processional banners, they don't come any better than this.

I went for a visit to York Minster recently, to have a look at some of their ecclesiastical embroidery. I was fortunate to be able to speak to two very knowledgeable ladies from the York Minster Broderers, who gave me a tour of the embroideries on public display, and some very useful hints and tips.

York Minster is currently undergoing extensive restoration work, and a lot of their textiles are in storage while the building work is carried out, so I was unable to see a series of contemporary processional banners made in the 1990s, but I was able to see this, the star of the show, and one of the finest pieces of early 20th century embroidery in the country.

The descriptively-named Great Processional Banner is an absolutely fabulous piece of craftsmanship. Dedicated in 1916, this was made by Watts & Co in London, and there must be months if not years of work in it.

It's huge - about 8 feet long by 4 feet wide, and takes two strong men to carry. There's a lot of beautiful goldwork - couched gold thread - involved, but I was particularly interested to have the chance to examine the other techniques used. The faces are exquisitely worked in silk in long and short stitch and split stitch, giving a marvellous expressive effect, as in this image of St Cuthbert.

A lot of it, though, is appliqué embellished with embroidery. In this detail of St Peter's robe, you can see that it's made of green damask applied to the background, with some quite large stitches in shades of green onto it, to give the effect of folds.

As I'm planning on using goldwork, appliqué and split stitch myself on St Cuthbert's Banner, I was fascinated to see how this was done. I was especially interested to see the size of some of the stitches, which were an inch or so long. I often work at quite a small scale, which I enjoy, but there are some cases when stitches that can be measured in millimetres aren't necessarily appropriate. When working on a piece that's designed to have an impact when viewed from the back of a cathedral, you can go a little larger!

Durham Cathedral visit

I took a trip over to Durham yesterday, and had a good look round the Cathedral. It's just a few miles from where I live so I've been there a lot over the years, but it's always worth a visit. I particularly wanted to see their ecclestiastical embroidery; they don't have much on display, but what they do have out is stunning. (I would show you, but I wasn't allowed to take photos. They don't allow any photography inside the Cathedral at all, in stark contrast to York Minster, where you can snap away to your heart's content.)

Anyway, despite the lack of pics, I had a great time, after being treated to a personal guided tour by the senior steward, Marion. She's amazingly knowledgeable, and gave me far more information than I can remember.

Most of the embroidery is made by the Cathedral Broderers, a dedicated band of talented but largely unsung ladies. There are also a couple of batik hangings by Thetis Blacker; not a technique I know much about, but it's certainly effective.