Awayday!

On 17th June, we had our annual KEG outing. It's always a good day, with some textile inspiration, and over the years we have travelled far and wide to find somewhere different. Sally sends this report on our visit to Halifax.

Trip to Bankfield Mansion - 17 June 2010

Our annual trip out this year was to take us to Halifax to visit Bankfield Mansion, a museum and exhibition centre. The mansion started as a modest 4 bedroomed house and was the principal home of Edward Akroyd, a woollens and worsteds manufacturer in the early 19th

century. He purchased the house in 1838 and, after his marriage and inheriting a substantial fortune, he set about enlarging and decorating the property in the Italianate style to become the Mansion that stands today.

We entered the house by an enclosed lobby and ascended some stairs to enter the ballroom, now a beautiful room with a painted ceiling and patterned wooden floor. It contains a small shop and a large exhibition of modern patchwork and embroidery.

The embroideries comprised many  mixed media, batik, appliqué, and machine, all very colourful, clever, and well thought out. One section of flower drawings in black machine stitch on white organza were quite lovely. Some modern sculptured dolls made one smile with their funny faces. All these embroideries had been done by members of a sewing

group 'TenPlusTextiles' (http://www.tenplustextiles.com/).There were patchwork hangings, small, but perfect in the use of colour, design and stitching, adding to their beauty. A triple hanging using blue/pink fabric was the highlight.

Leading off the ballroom were many rooms housing things from the past; books, jewellery, clothes and textiles, toys, and household/kitchen equipment. One room was dedicated to the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment and followed its history up to the present day. Another room was The World of Textiles Gallery, with fabrics from India Africa and China.

Upstairs the exhibition cases had models wearing clothes from many nations as well as interesting old garments, shoes, boots, hats etc. from this country.

Another display was of Jewellery by Charles Horner, a new name to me. He had a thriving business through two world wars expressing his his great skill in Art and Craft style designs but went into voluntary liquidation in 1986.

We spent a very pleasant afternoon looking round the house and its displays and returned to Keswick feeling inspired by the modern work and fascinated by our trip into the past.