Joe Cunningham has been a professional quilter for 44 years and has written a dozen books, many magazine articles, museum catalogue essays and papers on the subject of quilts. He has lectured at museums, universities and for quilt guilds and conferences internationally.
Join Joe as he shares his work inspired by his love of traditional quilts.
“After many years spent studying, copying and imitating 19th century quilts and quilt styles, I made the decision to create my own style. While these quilts seem to be foreign to the common ideas of the tradition, it was my studies of the tradition that showed me how to create freely and in my own abstract language”. His quilts can be found in major museums in the US and in many private collections.
Gawthorpe Textiles Collection (GTC) is an internationally renowned collection of global textiles located in the heart of Pennine Lancashire, England.
Last week, I was honoured to be invited to a private tour of its new home at Northlight, Suite 26 Unit 2, Northlight House, Pendle Rd, Brierfield, Nelson BB9 5FF – a 15 minute drive from Gawthorpe Hall.
This post shares a flavour of what the collection has to offer and how you can access the beautiful embroidery for yourself.
A visit to Gawthorpe Textile Collection
“Founded by the Honourable Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth (1886-1967) the collection was amassed to educate, inspire creativity, support wellbeing and to preserve traditional craft skills by sharing knowledge, skills and expertise across cultures.” Gawthorpe Textiles Collection.
Northlight
Up until recently, the collection had been stored within Gawthorpe Hall, in a damp storage area that was starting to impact the condition of some of the pieces. After funding was secured a decision was made to move the entire collection to a new home within Northlight.
Northlight is a perfect location to visit with plenty of parking and just a stones throw from Brierfield Railway station. Northlight, a redeveloped cotton mill full of stunning historical features of its own.
This new purpose built archive holds the collection of over 30,000 textile and craft items. Each item has been carefully wrapped in acid free tissue and then placed in a box, labelled and referenced with its contents.
I was completely blown away by the diversity of the Gawthorpe Textiles Collection.
Beryl Dean
Rachel Terry the Collections Officer gave me a guided tour of the boxes and explained some of the stories behind their contents.
Rachel Terry the Collections Officer gave me a guided tour of the Gawthorpe Textile Collection.
I took a particular interest in a box labelled ‘Beryl Dean‘ and Rachel offered to get the box down for me. I naturally accepted and was in awe at it’s contents which included some tiny handstitched English Paper Piecing and an amazing artwork created in gold work and silk embroidery.
An amazing artwork by Beryl Dean created in gold work and silk embroidery.
Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth
Other embroidery that interested me was work stitched by Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth herself. Another box was chosen from the shelves and opened.
After carefully unrolling its contents – a long piece of beautifully hand stitched crewel work embroidery – Rachel explained the story behind the work.
A long piece of beautifully hand stitched crewel work embroidery by Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth
Whilst we chatted, Rachel mentioned a selection of pieces that I might be interested in. Pieces that had connections to the Kay-Shuttleworths.
On the far side of a wall covered in framed art was a hand painted artwork with links to the early years of the Girl Guiding Movement. Other frames contained patchwork and hand embroidery including two hand embroidered world maps documenting the travels of a family member.
Artwork with a connection to the Kay-Shuttleworths
My eye was drawn to three mysterious parcels wrapped in white fabric to protect them from dust and light. Each had decorated the tower walls at Gawthorpe Hall. I asked about them and Rachel offered to unwrap one for me. Inside was a very special piece by Rachel Kay-Shutleworth.
The work was mounted on a wooden frame and had the most beautiful, vibrant, red poppies hand embroidered in wool, in techniques that allowed the flowers and seed heads to sit proud of the foundation fabric.
Embroidery by Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth that once decorated the tower at Gawthorpe Hall
After seeing all this beautiful embroidery, my mind was buzzing and I needed a hot cup of tea and a sit down.
Before leaving the archive I had a chance to pop into a beautifully lit room adjoining the archive. The space is used for hosting talks and workshops, and also has a small shop where I had to purchase a new mug for my sewing room.
Viewing the Gawthorpe Textiles Collection – Talks and Tours
I can heartily recommend planning your own visit to the the collection. Enquiries for group tours and individual study visits are available via this link.
Another way to see the beautiful collection is at a new exhibition opening in summer 2024 at Gawthorpe Hall.
Gawthorpe Hall, Burnley Road, Padiham, BB12 8UA; (for Sat Nav use BB12 8SD).
Other ways to view the collection
The collection is gradually being digitally photographed and documented. A large selection is available to view here on Tumblr.
GTC has designed a number of Loan Boxes to support creative learning in schools and adult learning classes. The boxes are full of inspiring textiles covering Patchwork, Plain Work Samplers plus boxes dedicated to Contemporary Stitch and Lace. Please enquire about availability.
Thank you for joining me on this tour of the fabulous Gawthorpe Textiles Collection.
I hope you are inspired and plan to make a trip of your own in the future.
In August of 2023 I received an email from an Australia based sound artist called Rebecca Riggs-Bennett asking for assistance on a project she was working on with her mum Rachel Riggs for the Fremantle Biennale 2023.
Both Rebecca and Rachel are Lancashire born and bred and moved to Western Australia in 2010. Rachel had completed her masters in fine art at UCLan, predominantly focusing on research into Horrockses textile industry and cotton mills. Their new project together planned to look at another part of Lancashire’s history – the Lancashire Cotton Famine and the deportation of Lancashire women to Walyalup (Fremantle), Australia in 1863.
They’d seen a video I’d created about Helmshore cotton mill in Lancashire and asked if I could assist them with some original recordings of the sounds of the machines. It was an honour to assist them and these sounds are now layered into an audio visual artwork they created for the Fremantle Biennale 2023 called ‘So Once You Were Here They Had You’ .
Fremantle Biennale 2024
‘SO ONCE YOU WERE HERE THEY HAD YOU’
The beautifully produced project can be viewed here on YouTube.
Close to the submerged remnants of the Fremantle Long Jetty, an immersive re-telling of arrival and separation will unfold.
‘So once you were here they had you’ is an experiential audio-visual poem to the 50 young cotton-weaver women who arrived on the shores of Walyalup, journeying by ship from Lancashire over 110 days and nights in 1863. Created by electronic music composer Rebecca Riggs-Bennett and video artist Elham Eshraghian-Haakansson, this work takes place across Bathers Beach, re-tracing the steps of the women and the many others of the “Bride Ship” era.
So once you were here they had you is a reflective honouring of the time swept experiences of these women. Cross with us into an immersive, at times ghostly, real and imagined narrative of migration, loss and departure. – R. Riggs.
A promotional image for ‘So Once You Were Here They Had You’ // credit Elham Eshraghian-Haakansson
Original research, dramaturgy & collaboration: Rachel Riggs Animator: Jarrad Russell Dramaturgy & Co-Designer: Rachel Riggs Narration: Angeliki Georga & Phoebe Georga Featuring poetry of the Lancashire cotton famine (1861-1865) by University of Exeter and audio recordings by Catherine Hill and Helmshore Mill.
For further information on the project please visit Rebecca’s website.
