AT the moment of writing this newsletter it is almost June and Midsummer's Day is only a few weeks away. It is therefore some seven months since our last Newsletter. We had hoped to be more regular with the Newsletters but the amount of work that has had to be undertaken over last few months has made it impossible to compile these words till now.

We had a most successful exhibition in November 99 at St Mary's Church Hall immediately after the previous Newsletter. Well over 1000 people visited us on that day and most generously purchased project memorabilia or supported the project with donations. About £6,000 was raised on that day alone. The wooden jigsaws were a particular success and the Millennium calendars were greatly appreciated and purchased in large numbers.

The photographing and digitising during 1999 of all the items of embroidery made the process of creating the embroidery jigsaw and the calendar (and not least of all the cards) possible. Thanks to Vic Kettle and 20/20 Image for their help with all of this. Without them it would have been difficult - if not impossible - to achieve the quality of product which has been so highly appreciated.

The exhibition allowed the embroidery to be hung vertically for the first time in public and so gave everyone a very good impression of the way it will eventually look.

Once again we are most grateful for the generosity of St Mary's for allowing us to use the Church hall without payment. We hope to once again hold a November exhibition but do not intend to do so this time without paying for our presence in the Church Hall. As soon as we have fixed a date for this we will announce it publicly. Yet again we are grateful to LOSRA volunteers for delivering this newsletter and for the ever supportive Albert Skinner for distributing copies with his newspapers.

THE jigsaw puzzles and other items have been sent all over the world, and two weeks ago we received our first order from overseas via our world wide web site. This came from Singapore!

The wonderful success of the embroidery however is reflected in the superb coverage given by Country Life in their 30th March edition. Everyone involved in the embroidery was thrilled not only to be on the front cover of the magazine but to have such a laudatory article within its pages. Those who were not there to witness the taking of the photographs would not realise that the photograph that includes the boat house required the photographer to sit in amongst the blackberry thorns with one foot almost in the river in order to achieve its chosen angle. We know that not everybody was able to obtain a copy of the magazine but one is available for inspection in the workshop by anyone wishing to see a copy.

Judy Parsons of the Surrey Herald has always been most supportive of the project and applauds its community nature. We are extremely grateful for her recent full page colour coverage in the Surrey Herald magazine, Essence. The coverage was particularly impressive as she showed both the village panel and the side panels arranged in their finally intended way.

The Daily Mail has promised us an article in their Saturday colour magazine. It was originally intended to be published in May, but now we are told it will be during June.

We are assured too that Russell Grant's postcards programmes will be transmitted on Channel 5 in the near future. The programmes are ready for broadcast but we understand that the exact scheduling is up to the Channel 5 programmers. It seems likely that the Postcard crew will be down again to make a further programme.

IT is not intended to move the finished embroidery until the time comes for it to be placed in its final exhibition space - with the exception of those venues agreed some time ago. One such was the recent four-day exhibition at the Princess Alice Hospice in Esher. This is a wonderful organization to visit and all those who participated in the display felt honoured to have been able to do so. We were pleased to be able to share our profit and donations with the Hospice.

We also felt honoured to be allowed to display the embroidery in St Mary's Church as part of the Mayor’s visitation to Sunbury. This occasion was attended by us at the request of the outgoing Mayor John O'Hara. The Mayor was attended by five other Mayors and a short service was led by the Rev. Harold Nicolson. During this service the embroidery was dedicated. Again we were able to share our profit and any donations with the Church.

We are already committed to displaying the embroidery at the Thames Street Arts Centre on Sunday 23 July as a part of the Sunbury and Shepperton Arts Festival, and we will be taking it to the Fordbridge Day Centre in Ashford as part of the Spelthorne Festival on Saturday 10 June. Once these commitments have been met it would have to be for very important and pressing reasons for the embroidery to be taken from the workshop to any other venue until it is placed in its final exhibition space. In the meantime the embroidery is being protected behind continuous plastic sheet to keep dust and fingers off it, and insure that it is in the best condition for the future.

THE workshop has now been opened for over 18 months and during that period it must have received over 3000 people. They come in ones and twos, and on occasions in parties of up to twenty. While some of them come from Sunbury, others come from most of the Home Counties and many from all the world's continents (except perhaps Antarctica). We anticipate receiving a group of young Japanese embroiderers and students of gardens in late June, and although we understand they don’t speak English are sure that the embroidery will bridge the language gap. The workshop has proved a great boon in which to carry on taking the project to the community. It continues to be open between 10.00am and 4.00pm on all weekdays except Thursday. It is manned by embroiderers at all times. If you haven't yet visited please do so, and if you know of anyone living locally who is not aware of the embroidery and has not visited the workshop please let them know about it. You will be sure of a very warm welcome.

AS a ‘Stop Press’ to the last newsletter we mentioned the possible construction of a special building within the Walled Garden area to accommodate the embroidery on a permanent basis. Since then we have had a number of constructive discussions with Spelthorne Borough Council, and these discussions have got sufficiently far advanced that we hope soon to be in a position to make public the proposed design and apply for planning permission. The moment we have some measure of agreement over the design we will be able to harden up the initial crude estimates of its cost and to launch efforts to raise the necessary funds. It is already clear however that the amounts of money will be quite large, and this does prove that all our past efforts to raise money have been well worthwhile. We have now raised through donations and merchandising over £41,000, and a large part of this money has already been deposited in a ring fenced account which will only be available for the building works. We would welcome any suggestions from any one regarding ways which would help us raise the additional money required. If you have any good thought please let any committee member know.

WE have at long last managed to revise and update the giveaway information leaflet. This not only has an overview of the project together with addresses and the opening times of the workshop, but also announces our worldwide web site address for anybody who wishes to look it up. The web site address is:

The site was posted at the end of March and achieved 5000 hits in April. Many thanks to Phil Smith for his time and skill in setting up the site and putting it on line.

At the printers now, and expected in the Workshop soon, are eight postcards which illustrate the individual panels comprising the side illustrations which flank the centre Village Panel. We know that some people collect the various cards that the project has created in the past and we hope that these new cards will appeal to everyone as much as the earlier ones

It has been suggested that people might enjoy being able to wrap parcels and Christmas presents in wrapping paper designed using images from embroidery. We intend to pursue this idea, and if it would make a suitable contribution to finances we would endeavour to have it available well before Christmas 2000 so that those of you sending a present overseas could use it for some very personal wrapping.

What is inevitable is that there has to be a managing group to organise and run the project. All those who serve in this way are very aware that the project belongs to Lower Sunbury as a whole. We would welcome any suggestions for new forms of merchandising (as already mentioned) and for fund raising, or creative criticism of any sort. We feel honoured to be allowed to look after the project whilst it awaits its final home. However the more people who can contribute to the process the better it must be for the embroidery.