Visit from the Friends of Whitworth Our Talks so Far BAFM Our Trip to Wales Art Gallery Many thanks to Bernard Rostron who is doing an In March 54 of the Friends stayed for three nights January, The Quaker excellent job of keeping us informed on North Western in deepest Wales, in Llandrindod Wells, a spa town, In anticipation of the February exhibition of part of the matters. The notice below is taken straight from his where some of the brave or foolish tasted the heal- February saw the visit of a large contingent of the tapestry at Blackburn Cathedral, we asked Celia Ball latest newletter. ing waters. Friends of Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, to our to come and talk to us about the history and develop- BAFM National Conference and AGM We visited The Waterfront Museum in Swansea museum. The Blackburn Friends turned out to greet ment of the tapestry.Celia gave us a fascinating ac- This year the Annual conference will be held in London which is them with home made cakes and tea before they were count together with an excellent visual presentation. as guests of the London Transport Museum between noted for given a tour and a short history of the galleries. I then We also had the opportunity to examine samples of the rd th its high- took them across to the Cathedral where they had lunch Friday 23 and Sunday 26 of September. The cost will materials and techniques used. The talk tech dis- ready waiting for them. be £175 per person which includes a Gala Dinner was greatly enjoyed by ourselves and also by the plays. There was a exhibition on loan from onboard the battleship HMS Belfast on the Thames. Friends of Gawthorpe Hall who joined us for this meet- The cura- Kendal to the Cathedral and Celia Ball, one of our mem- Accommodation is available at the Union Jack Club ing. tor, after bers, was on hand to explain the history to them. In fact close to Waterloo Station where the en-suite rooms are we had Celia ‘sold it’ to them and thus they had two events for described as “small and adequate but not lavish” In February: Costume Conservation enjoyed the price of one. previous years booking forms were circulated within the Eleanor Palmer, Conservator with Lancashire County tea and Judging by their response, the Whitworth Friends thor- BAFM Journal but this year they are only available Museum Services, took us on a time tour, with exam- welsh cakes, gave us a fascinating insight into the oughly enjoyed the extras we and the cathedral supplied. online ;- ples of her work, which ranged from 4000 year old work of the museum and the rationale behind it. They did say they would return to spend even more time Booking Forms and a Full Schedule of the Visits and fragments to a spacesuit used on the Apollo 12 space Dylan Thomas is of course closely linked with in the museum! Speakers can be downloaded from the BAFM flight. Eleanor gave us some detailed examples of how Website Swansea so she tackled particular projects, and explained the think- some set off Joy Heffernan ing behind the problem of when cleaning and restora- in search of tion should be limited. his traces. The Quaker Tapestry Exhibition It was a thought provoking session and we would love Molly Volunteers Barbara Rid- to hear more of Eleanor’s world wide experiences. ing, a great Many a Monday morning you will find me ringing the The Quaker Tapestry was exhibited in Blackburn Cathe- fan of DT bell at the museum, finding a table to work on and set- dral during February of this year. I have been very lucky March: From the Collection was less than ting out various albums and catalogues. I can work fair- as I put my first stitch into James Wailer’s jacket under Blackburn’s own keeper of art, Vanessa Mitchell, pre- over- ly independently but Vinai or Vanessa usually check I strict supervision as I had not done a of the sented a visual diary of her museum activities from whelmed by have everything needed and Paul is usually very quick stitches, when I visited my sister Miriam Stockbridge. January 2010 to the present. Packing up items for ship- his statue. to offer me some coffee. My elder sister, nancy Goddard, was also there some ping to international exhibitions alternated with setting In Cardiff These collections contain a large number of postcards time im 1981. It was my first aquaintance with the now up our own exhibitions and liaising with other institu- the National Museum enjoyed our company as we from Victorian verses, famous people, embroidered me- famous Quaker tapestry. Years later when the the Quak- tions such as Blackburn College on new ways to were given guided tours of the archaeology gallery. mentoes and scenes both local and world wide. er Tapestry was on display in the undercroft in , present old art. Vanessa has also been commissioning The highlight for me was a special exhibition on a The albums vary in content, usually very mixed, the cata- the home of the Bayeux Tapestry, Anne Wynn-Wilson new representations of Blackburn itself to complement Chinese Bhuddist rock temple while others were logue numbers aren’t in sequence and there are missing who conceived the idea of the tapestry asked Nancy, our existing collection. She ended her diary with some more taken with the impressive collection of im- spaces. I often feel like a detective, gathering clues to- Miriam and myself if we would take over the information on the likely effects of the economic cut- pressionist paintings. Some members also visited gether and feeling the same thrill when I identify some ‘Underground Railway’ panel which had been started in backs, which included her part-time transfer to the rugby ground, the castle and the shopping ar- missing cards. Vinai and Vanessa have occasionally the USA but not finished as the states group decided Townley Hall. cades. found another hoard which they present hesitantly in they wanted to make their own tapestry. We found this extremely informative and there were We were particular- case I am overwhelmed, but I can often find their suita- Nancy embroidered most of the lower third, Miriam did many requests for Vanessa to give us another update ly lucky with the ble place. So far I’ve checked about half the albums so all the lettering and I broke my arm just as I started on in a year’s time. weather - sunshine, there’s still some way to go. the map! This was beautifully sewn by a Blackburn daffodils, red kites Originally I started on the large volumes of acquisitions. Friend, the late Eileen Fielding. My contribution was and snow on the I transposed a more readable list so that the items could small. Brecon Beacons - be put on the computer database and so be more easily Four thousand people of all ages and both sexes in fif- as we were with the accessible. It was interesting to read all the items in teen countries worked on the tapestry which took fifteen hotel where the stock, where they were from, what they had cost and to years to complete. Seventy seven panels were completed service and choice marvel at the sheer numbers. I thoroughly enjoy this before we ran out of the specially woven fabric in 1996. of food was excel- work. There are so many treasures in stock, I hope this ‘Quaker’ is a nickname given to us by Justice Bennet at lent. It was the first trip where we had a courier will make them more easily available and will provide the trial of George Fox in 1660 who bid his accusers to with us who performed an excellent job of counting some useful help in the future. ‘tremble at the word of God’. There are still Quakers, Cherries is on the move again. This time to the V&A. us on and off the coach. There was a certain draw- The Religious Society of Friends, in all five continents. Vanessa told us museums are less able to afford these back concerning legs but the trip was worthwhile, borrowings - less income all round. Molly Manthorpe. enjoyable and cheap! Celia Ball