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Gathered at Gressenhall-The Podcast
Check out a wonderful reminder of the fantastic special event day held at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse Museum, made possible by the Costume & Textile Association in September this year. It was a wonderful celebration of Needlecraft and Textiles old and new enjoyed by many of our members.
Dr Isabella Rosner (Isabella Rosner – Historic Needlework | Textiles | Women's Work) attended Gathered at Gressenhall on 29th September and collected content for her popular podcast Sew What? – resulting in her latest episode now live, ‘Holiday Special!: Gathered at Gressenhall’.
You can listen here (scroll down the main page, or click ‘Episodes’): Sew What? – A podcast about historic needlework and those who stitched it
Check out a wonderful reminder of the fantastic special event day held at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse Museum, made possible by the Costume & Textile Association in September this year. It was a wonderful celebration of Needlecraft and Textiles old and new enjoyed by many of our members.
Dr Isabella Rosner (Isabella Rosner – Historic Needlework | Textiles | Women's Work) attended Gathered at Gressenhall on 29th September and collected content for her popular podcast Sew What? – resulting in her latest episode now live, ‘Holiday Special!: Gathered at Gressenhall’.
You can listen here (scroll down the main page, or click ‘Episodes’): Sew What? – A podcast about historic needlework and those who stitched it
Applications welcomed for Geoffrey Squire Memorial Bursary (GSMB) Award 2025
Since 2017, the C&TA biennial Geoffrey Squire Memorial Bursary (GSMB) award has supported exciting costume and textile research projects leading to several publications. These projects have allowed a greater awareness of specific craft skills, of the cloth trade, and technical analysis which has informed the reconstruction of textiles and costume. Applications are now invited for the 2025 award.
Up to £2,000 may be awarded to a successful applicant for research, which can be spread over two years. The closing date for applications for the 2025 Award is 14th April 2025.
Applications will be considered by an independent panel and winners will be announced in June 2025.
New Publication
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Geoffrey Squire Bursary Award winner, Jenn Monahan'S new book: Norfolk Horn: The Saga of a Rare Breed, its Place and its People. The book tells the story of a remarkable rare breed of sheep, The Norfolk Horn, Norfolk’s indigenous sheep breed. The Norfolk Horn’s saga is an extraordinary one. One of riches to rags, epic highs and tragic lows, fraught with twists and turns, cruel ironies, missed opportunities and odds overcome. But it’s not just a story about a sheep. It’s also about 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. It’s richly illustrated with photographs, illustrations, graphics and images of not just the Norfolk Horn but also Norfolk’s rich history and stunning landscapes through the past 2000 years. £21.00 plus p&p Pre-Orders are now open via www.fibreworkshop.co.uk Dispatch date 1st October. |
Tickets for an artist’s gallery talk (free to CTA members) and artist-led sewing workshop (discount for members) are now available from the musuem website
'Norwich Textiles' wins Best History and Tradition Category in East Anglian Book Awards 2023.
Dr Michael Nix's history of Norwich Textiles - A Global Story 1750-1840 published by the C&TA has won the Best History and Tradition Category in the prestigious East Anglian Book Awards 2023. The book has received universal praise for its beautiful production and for the comprehensive and fascinating new research it contains. It has been heralded as a go-to text for anyone studying woven textiles, the global Norwich Textile industry and the city of Norwich itself.
"a wonderfully erudite, comprehensive, well-illustrated and beautifully produced volume – everything we’d had hoped for and so much more!"
-Cathy Terry, Norfolk Museums Service
"a wonderfully erudite, comprehensive, well-illustrated and beautifully produced volume – everything we’d had hoped for and so much more!"
-Cathy Terry, Norfolk Museums Service
In 2024 we celebrated 35 Years of The C&TA
Congratulations to the Winners of the 2023 Helen Hoyte Award for 2nd Year Textile Students at Norwich University of the Arts. The students had just seven days to produce a scarf design inspired by the City of Norwich. The quality their work was of an excellent standard and will be displayed at the C&TA 35th Anniversary Exhibition at the Forum in Norwich as part of the Makers' Festival in April this year.
The overall winner was
Nina Lones who said 'The whole Experience has definitely been a highlight of my time at University so far. I really enjoyed the challenge of the week long project'. Second prize winner Esther Wildsmith was also delighted, saying 'these competitions are so important for people entering into the Textiles world.' 3rd Prize winner Megan Merhar added 'Thank you for giving us the opportunity to showcase our work!' Part of their prize was a year's free membership of the C&TA so we look forward to meeting these talented young designers at our forthcoming events.
The overall winner was
Nina Lones who said 'The whole Experience has definitely been a highlight of my time at University so far. I really enjoyed the challenge of the week long project'. Second prize winner Esther Wildsmith was also delighted, saying 'these competitions are so important for people entering into the Textiles world.' 3rd Prize winner Megan Merhar added 'Thank you for giving us the opportunity to showcase our work!' Part of their prize was a year's free membership of the C&TA so we look forward to meeting these talented young designers at our forthcoming events.
C&TA Book Launch: stunning new Colouring BookMore than just a colouring book, this delightful new publication from C&TA would make a perfect gift for anyone interested in fashion. It is full of beautiful historically accurate illustrations by former London College of Fashion tutor Stephen Worth. There are also lots of fascinating facts about nineteenth century women's fashions and the accessories that went with them as ladies through the decades took to wearing ever larger and more elaborate crinolines, bustles and bows. A feast for the imagination for all ages. |
Illustrator and costume historian Stephen Worth
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Read our NOTICEBOARD full of interesting updates for our members
Geoffrey Squire Memorial
Bursary 2023 Award Winner
The Costume and Textile Association is delighted to announce that Anna Deacon has been 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.
Congratulations to Anna and we look forward in due course to hearing about her progress.
Strangers Hall Celebrates 100 Years
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Visitors to Norwich can admire new window displays at Strangers Hall Museum designed to mark 100 years since Sir Leonard Bolingbroke gifted this beautiful medieval merchant's house to the city of Norwich and celebrating its 100 years as a museum in public ownership. We are particularly proud that the C&TA's Founder Pamela Clabburn features prominently in the centre window (the figure far right). The displays have been created by Hannah Broadway, Illustrator and Designer, working with Strangers’ Hall curators, and were funded by Norwich Freemen’s Charity. They herald a special centenary programme – Strangers’ Hall 100 – which includes events, new displays and a number of free entry days. |
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IN THE SPOTLIGHT
New acquisitions for Norfolk Museum Services
C&TA has purchased two theatrical new additions to the costume and textile collections of Norfolk Museum Services: A luxurious Liberty & Co velvet opera gown, and a fancy dress costume from around the 1960s in the style of Carmen Miranda.
C&TA has purchased two theatrical new additions to the costume and textile collections of Norfolk Museum Services: A luxurious Liberty & Co velvet opera gown, and a fancy dress costume from around the 1960s in the style of Carmen Miranda.
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THINGS TO DO...
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Virtual Tour of Textile Treasures at Norwich Castle Join Curator Ruth Battersby-Tooke to discover some true textile treasures from Norfolk Museums' collection. Textile Treasures (23 October 2021 -20 February 2022) was a temporary exhibition celebrating some of the best loved textiles in Norwich Castle’s nationally important Costume and Textile Collection. The exhibition showcased local connections and personal histories as told through textiles created to provide comfort, care and as a medium for self-expression. The pieces on show combined incredible artistry with emotional resonance which offered an insight into the lives of ordinary people. With themes of collaborative creativity, gift-giving, recycling, friendship, family and love the exhibition was even more relevant after the experiences of the pandemic. Click on here to see more: |
If you enjoyed this film, check out the six part audio series 'Unstitched' which takes a closer look
at some of the objects that featured in Textile Treasures:
Click on this link to listen now to all 6 episodes.
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Norwich Textiles Trail
A 3 mile walk taking around 2 hours explores the buildings associated with Norwich's historic textiles trade. Norwich was once world famous for its textiles. Queen Victoria had five of the luxurious Norwich shawls. Find out more about Norwich’s world-famous textiles industry and explore many of the buildings associated with textiles trade and manufacture with this self-guided trail. The whole trail developed by C&TA President Vanessa Trevelyan and The Norwich Society covers about 3 miles and takes around two hours to complete, although you are free to dip in and out as much as you like. Vanessa will be giving a talk to members on Saturday 4th March 2023. Click here to load the App onto your mobile device; https://www.thenorwichsociety.org.uk/explore-norwich/norwich-textiles-trail |
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Preserving the Bellepheron Tapestries
The C&TA have agreed to finance conservation work to enable the display of a panel from the extraordinary set of five Bellerophon Tapestries in the forthcoming British Museum Partnership Medieval Gallery as part of the redevelopment of Norwich Castle’s Norman Keep. C&TA funds have already paid for photography which will provide digital access to the tapestries remotely and in the redeveloped gallery enabling the whole story of the myth of Bellerophon to be told, and showing close-up details and giving an insight into the conservation process. The rest of the grant will be used to carry out a minimal conservation treatment so the panel itself can be displayed for two years. Read full report here (Download Word document) |
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