GEOFFREY SQUIRE BURSARY...
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Geoffrey Squire Memorial Bursary(GSMB) Award
Since 2017, the C&TA biennial Geoffrey Squire Memorial Bursary (GSMB) award has supported some exciting costume and textile research projects. These projects, leading to several publications, have allowed a greater awareness and understanding of specific craft skills, of the cloth trade, and technical analysis which has informed the reconstruction of textiles and costume. Past recipients of the bursary award and their projects are cited below. Up to £2,000 has been awarded to a successful applicant for research, which can be spread over two years. The next round of funding will officially open for submissions in 2027, with the closing date for applications for the next Award on 12th April 2027. Applications will be considered by an independent panel and winners will be announced in June 2027. Applications should be made online or if a paper copy is preferred this can be obtained, and returned to the following address, (please include a stamped self-addressed envelope): Ksynia Marko (Bursary Coordinator), Holly Tree Cottage, The Street, Oulton, NR11 6AF See full details of application criteria, terms and conditions and former winners below. if you require further information please Email: [email protected] These biennial awards of up to £2000 have already contributed materially to costume and textile research and practical applications, covering Anglo-Saxon embroidery, local medieval worsted spinning, 18th century textile manufacturing methods in Norwich and its trade internationally, zines on radical quilt history, and most recently the fifth round of awards, made in June 2025, when the independent selection panel were faced with a hard choice between some excellent submissions. The award was made to two projects: an analysis of knitting techniques used by Master Knitters in the 17th and 18th centuries, and dye analysis adding to our knowledge of tapestry manufacture. 2025 Bursary Award WinnersHannah Sutherland ACR was awarded £800 to support her research project titled, ‘The Other Knitted Masterpieces’. Hannah is a textile conservator at the Victoria and Albert Museum and an accomplished knitter. In 2022 she assessed and treated the only knitted masterpiece in England and carried out extensive analytical documentation. This and her passion for knitting inspired her to further her understanding of these rare objects, of which only 19 are now known to be in existence.
Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries knitted “masterpieces” were the final part of a journeyman’s progress towards becoming a master hand knitter in one of the various Guilds of Hand knitters in France, Germany, Switzerland, Poland and beyond. The number of researchers who have seen more than one or two masterpieces, and published their findings, is very limited. As a knitter Hannah found frustratingly little information about the production of these pieces and devoted private research to learning more about their creation, including making a small sample. Two knitted masterpieces remain in the UK, one in Edinburgh and one at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Hannah’s research aims to increase understanding of their construction, and the bursary will help to cover travel expenses, allowing her to also examine those held in the museums in Strasbourg. Hannah plans to publish her findings and will give an online talk to C&TA members in 2027. Kelly Grimshaw ACR was awarded £1200 to support the cost of dye analysis for her research project titled, ‘ Understanding Fire: Analysis of Dyes in a 17th Century John Vanderbank Tapestry’. Kelly is a textile conservator working in a private practice studio based at Burghley House, Lincolnshire. The house itself holds a collection of 30 tapestries, woven by the Gobelins, Mortlake and Vanderbank workshops, the latter examples purchased by the 5 th Earl of Burghley c.1685. In 2024 Kelly undertook the conservation of one of the Vanderbank tapestries. The condition of the tapestry raised queries about the dyes used. Dye analysis is an under researched area within tapestry manufacture and is often only undertaken within major institutions for specific public or royal collections. Dye analysis is integral in providing a comprehensive understanding of an object, giving us information on what and how dyes were used, on use of mordents and whether over-dyeing or mixtures were used, as well as informing trade route associations. Analysis can also help to identify areas of restoration and can subsequentially help inform display conditions and future care on light sensitive objects. Kelly also hopes to compare her findings with similar tapestries in other collections. She hopes to publish outcomes and will present her research to C&TA members online in 2027. 2023 Bursary Award Winner
Anna Deacon was awarded £2000 to support her research project Hidden in the Archives: Heirloom Textiles of Tamaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum. This was the unanimous recommendation of the independent Selection Panel for the award. Anna is now based in Auckland, New Zealand, after a career in UK and is currently studying for an MA in Historical Costume at the University of Bournemouth. Her project funded by the bursary will study in depth Eurocentric garments from the 18th and early 19th centuries which are held in the Auckland War Memorial Museum, and bring them to a wider public. This she intends to achieve by researching contemporary construction methods in order to make precise garment textile re-creations, and also discovering the “back stories” of the garments through engaging with Auckland family heritage groups. She plans as well to devise an easily-accessible pattern-drafting system similar to that of Janet Arnold in her Patterns of Fashion series. This would be for use by the wider interested public, and she intends to publish her findings in text, talks and online. 
Anna Deacon with textile from Aukland War Memorial Museum
2021 Bursary Award winner
The third Geoffrey Squire Memorial Bursary winner wasoLaura Moseley (right) to support her project proposal to create and publish Stories in Cloth: Two Zines on Radical Textile History.
Laura's application was the unanimous choice of the independent selection panel who were impressed by her clear and professional proposal. The first zine Many Hands Make a Quilt – Short Histories of Radical Quilting (written with Jess Bailey of UC Berkeley) explores Norwich's textile heritage of 19th and 20th century quilts calling for criminal justice reform. Her second zine, Diasporic Threads: Black Women, Fibre and Textiles (written with Dr Sharbreon Plummer of Ohio State University), will highlight black women's contribution to art and history through textiles and will be based on research into intersections of race, art and cultural memory. This collaborative project, to be published by Laura through Common Threads Press, is likely to create a young and new audience for historical and contemporary textiles in a fresh, exciting and affordable format as zines.
A second award of £1,000 went to:
Jennifer Monahan's proposal Spinning a Yarn: The women spinners of Norfolk's medieval textile industry. Her aim was to research the roles of these unsung heroines of Norfolk's famous worsted industry, women whose continuous production of finely-spun yarn was essential for the weavers but remains largely unrecognised. She also plans an in-depth study of the local industry, weaving using authentic techniques, setting -up an online blog and involving colleagues in practical archaeology. In September 2024 Jennifer published the book: Norfolk Horn: The Saga of a Rare Breed, its Place and its People. This tells the story of a remarkable rare breed of sheep, the Norfolk Horn, Norfolk’s indigenous sheep breed and how that sheep has shaped Norfolk’s history, culture and landscape. From its arrival with the Anglo-Saxons and the foundations of the English, to its role in generating the wealth that put medieval Norfolk at the centre of power, the part it played in the Agricultural Revolution and its virtual extinction in the 20th century where it kickstarted the Rare Breeds movement and the founding of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.
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About Geoffrey Squire
Geoffrey Squire (1924-2011) retired to Norfolk after a long and varied career in London as a designer, educator, historian, author and scholar. Theatre design, and the history of fine and applied arts, especially textiles and costumes, were his passions, and he was one of the founder members of the Costume Society and an early vice-president. In Norwich he met fellow textile and costume historians Pamela Clabburn and Helen Hoyte, both of whom very involved with the Costume and Textile Study Centre (CTSC) and with C&TA. Geoffrey became a valued volunteer at CTSC and a regular and popular lecturer there. He also contributed a series of lively and erudite articles for the C&TA Newsletter (the fore-runner of Miscellany). His writing was both informed and perceptive, and his book Dress, Art and Society (Studio Vista, 1971), now out of print, remains to this day on the V&A reading list. A review of his unpublished manuscript Masculine Habits, 1850-1970 appears in the 2015 issue of Miscellany. Following his death in 2011, the C&TA received a generous legacy. In 2014, C&TA used £3,000 of our legacy to underwrite the very successful Geoffrey Squire Memorial Competition exhibition 'Silvery Threads' . The biennial bursary in his name was launched in 2017 to support and encourage research and study in the fields of costume and textiles. Geoffrey Squire lies at rest in a quiet Norfolk churchyard. We will continue to honour with gratitude the memory of this remarkable and generous benefactor. |
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Inaugural award winners, 2017
In 2017 the inaugural award went jointly to Aviva Leigh and Dr. Michael Nix, pictured at the presentation of their research in October 2018. Michael Nix's research related to the export of Norwich textiles in the 1700s when the industry was at its most successful, and involved travel to Paris to study the Moccafy manuscripts held at the Bibliothèque Forney. Gian Batta Moccafy was a Piedmontese merchant who toured Europe to visit textile manufacturers and collect patterns with a view to recreate them in Piedmont. Dr Nix's research has given us a greater knowledge of Norwich's global trade in textiles in the 18th century In 2023, with the help of the bursary, he published a comprehensive history of Norwich Textiles: Norwich Textiles: Global Story, 1750-1830. Aviva Leigh and Michael Nix worked together on a technical analysis of the fabric swatches in the early Norwich Pattern Books and Aviva reconstructed several examples of the patterns, weaving sufficient cloth to make a gentleman's waistcoat (worn here by Michael, pictured with Aviva). This gives us a greater understanding of the methods used to create 'Norwich Stuffs” and a sense of how the pieces would have appeared and felt. View Aviva's presentation on her website |
Dr Michael Nix and Aviva Leigh
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