This happily means that the almost complete embroidery will be seen to great advantage at the Work In Progress Exhibition at St. Mary’s Church Hall on Saturday 20th November. We are once again grateful to St. Mary’s for allowing us to use their premises.

We are constantly surprised by the enormous support given to the project by our community and hope this Newsletter will interest all those who, by their support, have made the project so rewarding and successful.

We are yet again indebted to LOSRA volunteers who have undertaken to deliver this Newsletter and to Albert Skinner for distributing copies with his papers, and also for his generosity in selling embroidery cards.

The Workshop has proved a great boon to the Embroiderers making up the various panels. Since it was opened over 1500 visitors have been received and the Visitor’s Book records the enormous range of places from which they come. As well as members of the local community, visitors appear from all continents and from all over the UK. Their comments in the Visitor’s Book make interesting reading and show just how well the Embroidery is received; descriptions such as ‘lovely work’, ‘staggering’, and ‘outstanding’ frequently appear, but more significant is the often written wish to see it given national exposure.

Whilst many Embroiderers give help making up the panels, Pam Judd, Carole Tompkins and Pauline Tregidgo are present whenever the Workshop is open acting as the principal Workshop Co-ordinators. The atmosphere in the workshop is one of sustained hard work augmented by gentle humour and companionship.

If you have not yet made a visit why not pop in and enjoy the workshop spirit. It will continue to be open for the remainder of this year and possibly for some time in the year 2000. Opening times are Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 10am and 4pm. You will be sure of a warm welcome. You can phone beforehand to arrange a time by phoning the Workshop on 01932 788101.

The Workshop is lucky to have Margaret Stanley as ‘artist in residence’. She regularly sits in a corner busy sketching and watercolouring the goings on and recording events with descriptive diary notes.

The hectic activity in the Workshop has been once again matched throughout 1999 by the number of external exhibitions and talks given. These continued to fulfill the original hope to spread knowledge of the embroidery as widely as possible. The March work in progress exhibition welcomed over 800 visitors and was followed by the now annual displays at Squire’s Garden Centre and the Sunbury Regatta. Colin Squire always makes us very welcome at his Garden Centre and we appreciate his generosity in accommodating us. Equally, the Regatta Committee are totally supportive of the project and give us a prime site. We are grateful for their continued help and encouragement. Earlier in the year we were invited to exhibit the work at Monksbridge at the annual garden party held in aid of the Princess Alice Hospice. This was a splendid day and Della Pascoe’s hospitality was very much appreciated.

Talks were given to Chertsey WI, Hersham United Reform Church, Ladies Fellowship and the Good Companions Community Trust, all of which were tremendously enjoyable occasions. But a highlight of the year was exhibiting and talking to the children of St Ignatius School. John Stamp talked to the younger half of the school and David Brown to the more senior pupils. Both talks were received with rapt attention and the questions asked were some of the most interesting ever received. We were surprised and delighted to be presented a few days later with two scrapbooks prepared by Years 1R and 2A. These wonderful documents recorded the children’s impressions of the work both in words and pictures and are a real treasure for the archive.

In late September the embroidery was taken to Knowle Green Leisure Centre and displayed for a day.

Transporting the embroidery has become increasingly difficult and ever more onerous to organize. With all the other calls on the committee it has therefore been decided not to take further bookings until plans for 2000 are finalised. Enquiries are for the present being diverted to the embroidery workshop during opening times.

The success of the Embroidery was confirmed when the the Sunbury & Shepperton Arts Association awarded the project its annual rose bowl award on the first day of their annual Arts Festival on 23rd July. The rose bowl now has pride of place in the workshop and will be proudly displayed until it is returned after it has been held for a year. The embroidery was displayed the following day at the Craft Centre and attracted many visitors.

Local architect Wycliffe Noble, whose William and Mary House is included in the embroidery, has for much of his life designed and advised on buildings for the disabled. He has kindly prepared an audio tape for the visually impaired, which describes the project and will enable those unable to see the detailed work to appreciate its intricacy and thus be involved. The committee greatly appreciate this important contribution which helps fulfil the aim of extending the project to the entire community.

Early this year Russell Grant, the TV astrologer and campaigner for Middlesex, formally opened the embroidery workshop and spent a number of hours talking to the embroiderers about the project. Russell broadcasts what are known as ‘Postcards’ on Channel 5, which are short programmes devoted to describing places of interest. He suggested that the embroidery and Sunbury Village would make a good subject and as a result filming will take place in November for broadcasting next year.

Equally interesting, we believe that one of the independent networks will be present during the work in progress exhibition at St. Mary’s Church Hall to record a news item on the embroidery.

In preparation for the year 2000 the BBC has a web site devoted to the millennium which has a series of pages counting down to 1st January 2000. Each day a project is added to the site and the Sunbury Millennium Project was added on the 7th day (day 95 counting backwards) and will be viewable until the end of the year. 

The December issue of the nationally distributed Needlecraft magazine carried a full colour page entitled Millennium Magic. In addition to the write up items of embroidery were illustrated as well as members of the committee receiving the Sunbury & Shepperton Arts Association rose bowl. If you would like to see a copy one is available in the workshop.

During the early days of the project much discussion took place regarding the eventual location of the embroidery. Following discussions with St Mary’s Church PCC a site was found at high level just under the balcony over the west entrance. Since then the most often expressed concern received from visitors was that, at the height proposed, the intricacy and fineness of the work would be incapable of being appreciated. Earlier this year the committee no longer felt that it could ignore these representations and set in motion a search for another site. So far at least one possible site has been identified and discussions to establish its feasibility are being instigated. If this investigation proves positive the proposal will be immediately made public. In the meantime for obvious reasons the matter has sensibly to remain confidential.

Ideally any site should be as near to the centre of Lower Sunbury as possible where it would be not only most accessible but also a possible help to the viability of our important local shops.

The committee would in the meantime welcome any suggestions regarding suitable and available locations. The original church location had one advantage in that the building already exists. Any new site is likely to require a building to be built to accommodate the embroidery. This will in turn mean a further programme of fund raising and makes it imperative that the committee continues to raise funds whenever possible. The prospect however is an exciting one.

The project has now raised over £20,000 from sponsorship, donations, the completed sponsor a square scheme, and the sale of cards and framed pictures. The £5000 already on deposit to look after the embroidery’s future continues to accrue interest, and the sale of cards produces regular income. The main items of costs due to the creation of the embroidery (ie photography, photocopying of patterns, transferring patterns to canvas, the cost of cloth, silks and timber stretchers) are by and large over. Costs for the work in progress display systems are also complete. This leaves the photographing of the final finished panels, any new display system which may be required to show the completed embroidery during next year and the possible larger cost of any future building.

Your continued support would be appreciated in anticipation of this future expenditure. In line with our policy of complete transparency the books will be open for anyone to inspect at the 20th November Work In Progress Exhibition.

As reported in Newsletter no. 3 the decision was taken early this year to have all items of embroidery both conventionally and digitally photographed. This not only fulfilled our early ambition to create a good archive but also allows images to be manipulated for whatever purpose required. This work has been under the design control of Robert Shaw who has been responsible for the cards offered for sale and the coloured explanatory leaflet available for all visitors.

It appears that some local people collect sets of the cards and there have been constant requests over this year for new designs. As a result 4 further cards have been designed and these will be available at the workshop and at the Work In Progress Exhibition. Now that the Village Panel is nearly complete a further special card, larger in size, has also been prepared from a plate photograph kindly taken by local photographer Vic Kettle. Some of these have been overprinted with a Christmas greeting and these will also be available at the two venues.

To add to the celebratory nature of the embroidery two further items have been prepared which should become historically significant as the years pass. Firstly a wooden jigsaw of the village panel has been made to Robert Shaw’s design and secondly he has produced a beautiful illustrated embroidery calendar incorporating all the work to-date. Again these will be on sale at both venues and will surely delight everyone.

Now that the village panel and the eight side panels are virtually complete and over 50 logos of different local organizations have been embroidered, as well as the many hassock patterns; and in the knowledge that over 140 people have been directly involved and many more local people have seen and supported the work; it can be seen that the project has fulfilled its remit and now truly belongs to the community. Equally, by the 31st December actual stitching will be complete and we will have met our initial financial targets.

The project can now look forward optimistically to the millennium year. We hope to display it widely and find it a suitable home where future generations can enjoy its outstanding quality.