It seems like only 5 minutes since the Millennium Year was heralded in. And now we are already in the run up to Christmas 2000 and our traditional exhibition in St Mary’s Church Hall is well past its initial planning stage. At the beginning of the year we looked forward to twelve months of activities with high expectations, and happily most of these have been fulfilled.

Since our June Newsletter the workshop has continued to attract many visitors who have left carrying away cards, calendars and jigsaws, all helping to swell the funds.

In July we were pleased to receive Lisa Townsend from the National Trust Conservation Centre at Blickling Hall, Norfolk. She spent the whole day with us and gave us the benefit of her specialist conservation knowledge so that we could ensure that we keep and maintain the Embroidery in the proper fashion both now and when it goes into the proposed building. Later in the same month we also welcomed to the workshop the Her Majesty the Queen’s Swan Marker and the Vintners’ and Dyers’ Bargemasters prior to them taking to the water and carrying out their traditional duties. They were duly photographed in the workshop as shown in the adjacent illustration. Also in July in an effort to understand the complicated work necessary to make a lottery application we received Carol Saha the Surrey Lottery Co-ordinator. She explained the convoluted process involved and left us rather desperate about the amount of work to be done and the poor chances of success. We have yet to decide how to take this matter forward, but in preparation for any application and to support any similar ones Wycliffe Noble a local architect and specialist in buildings for the disabled has produced a detailed Disabled Audit for the building proposed in the Walled Garden. We are most grateful to him for doing this work and are sure it will be immensely valuable.

We have continued to attend events and give talks to a variety of groups and organizations and these have recently been greatly assisted by a carefully prepared slide-show. The load imposed by these talks has been much more widely spread during this millennium year and both our Deputy Chief Embroiderers, Carole Tompkins and Pauline Tregidgo now give outstanding ‘journeys through the embroidery’. Talks were given to the Inner Wheel in Walton, Shepperton Ladies Club, the London Embroiderers Guild and the Berrylands Women’s Club at Tolworth. All of these have taken place since June and we still have venues arranged for the Ash Club in Ashford on 8 November and the Sunbury & Shepperton History Society at Squire’s Orangery on 13 December. The Embroidery was taken to the Riverside Arts Centre in July as part of the Sunbury & Shepperton Arts Festival, and a substantial part was taken to Bernard Clark’s Boathouse Gallery on the river front as part of the Walton Heritage Day. On 11 November it will be on display at Sunbury Library for one day only, and we of course look forward with great anticipation to our exhibition at St Mary’s Church Hall on 25 November. Once again we have to thank the Regatta Committee for allowing us to mount a stand which this year did not display embroidered works, but did show the model and drawings of the proposed Walled Garden embroidery building. The stand was supported by the special opening of the embroidery workshop.

Sometimes when people have visited the workshop we receive letters of thanks and congratulations. These come, not just from local people, but sometimes from overseas and often from areas in other parts of Great Britain. One particular letter was received in September from Elizabeth Ruddock, an 87 year old visitor from Guildford. We were particularly moved by this letter as it seemed to sum up the project so well. With her permission we have reproduced it below and are sure you will agree with us that it gives a most interesting insight into how impressed people are with the embroidery.

There were many ideas for commemorating the 2000 Millennium in the British Isles. Some cities built domes and bridges - or Memorial Halls, some planted trees, others dug trenches in which they placed sealed trunks containing specimens of the era (a car, television etc.) - archives to be opened 1000 years hence.

In my view, outstripping all of these in value, was the concept of ‘The Tapestries’ to be produced in needlework by communities in Rural Areas. The response was gratifying. There are now as many as 700 of theses works up and down the country.

I was fortunate in being taken to see the exhibition of The Sunbury Millennium Embroidery by my niece Mrs Mary Jamieson, who has lived in Sunbury for many years and has a great interest in, and knowledge of, its history. The exhibition is outstanding and has already achieved some fame, having been written up in National Magazines, and visited by thousands of spectators.

Professional in design and concept, the execution is by 150 needleworkers whose abilities range from highly trained to the unskilled. School children contributed - some of the stitching is done by a 4 year old! The organization in gaining the co-operation of the local people must have been phenomenal. The project has taken years to complete.

The Embroidery is 25 feet in length - The Centrepiece is of the River Thames and of the Churches, Historic buildings and Public Houses of the village. This is flanked by panels showing significant places and events. I would advise the visitor to walk slowly past the display - not once, but many times, for there is a lot to see and there are rewards for sharp eyes. Here is village life in all its aspects. People going about their business; shopping, at play, field sports and water sports, a regatta, Kempton Park races... Pause and look closely and you will be amazed at the detail and the realism of the trees and wild life. There are over 30 birds. The swans, the grebe, and the heron are very beautiful. The butterflies are delicately stitched and true to colour - the picture is full of surprises. Can you spot the frog sitting on a leaf? The grass snake? And the hedgehog?

What amazes me is that the skill of a needle can depict so many different textures and show perspective. In spite of its complexity the whole composition has harmony and coherence.

Of the panels, I was particularly interested in the Walled Garden, The Lion Memorial and the Archaeological finds. I should also mention the beautifully worked badges and insignia of the district which run separately from the main embroidery - and the patterns of hassocks (taken from a design of one of the kneelers in the Church) which have all been made by the local community.

After the Exhibition, Mary took me for a drive through the Conservation Area of the village so that we could see the inspirational buildings - the churches, the clock tower and the historic houses were all there. The ‘Flower Pot’ and ‘Magpie" pubs were easily recognizable. We went on to look at The Rope Walk and to take a stroll round the Walled Garden. We looked up at the century old, weather-beaten and impressive ‘Lion Memorial’ with its inscription dedicated to those who lost their lives in warfare in Africa.

The Embroidery is too large to put in the church for which it was originally designed. The new idea is to build a home for it in The Walled Garden where it can be on permanent display.

My hope is that this work will endure through the centuries. Its value lies, not only in the record of 20th Century life but also in the celebration of unsung talents. It is an achievement resulting from voluntary hard work, co-operation and enthusiasm.

It is Englishness at its best.

Elizabeth Ruddock

Guildford

In our June Newsletter we appealed for merchandising suggestions and for fund raising ideas and we have received a number of responses which is very encouraging. Tim Walters has proposed that we run a Treasure Hunt throughout the Summer of 2001 and he is actively working up the details of the proposal. It has the makings of a terrific project. Richard Worthington has produced a stimulating 50 question Embroidery Quiz which we may well have available at our November Exhibition.

We have also had a tentative enquiry as to whether we could put on a concert at some local venue as a further fund raising event and hopefully this will develop over the coming months.

We would still welcome any new ideas for fund raising or merchandise.

We have received enormous support from the Flower Pot Hotel over recent years and they have once again come up trumps. On the evening of Sunday 29 October the bar top bottle, which has been collecting contributions since it was last emptied in 1999, was upended and its contents counted and produced the magnificent amount of £113.00. This was the third emptying of the bottle since 1997 and we are once against immensely grateful for their continued support.

We continue to be grateful to Albert Skinner for selling our memorabilia, and the workshop continues a brisk trade in cards, calendars and jigsaws. In the run-up to this Christmas season there will be more items to delight the imagination and fill a stocking. During November smaller jigsaws of every side panel will be available alongside the original village one. A new Christmas card will be available and an Activity Book for children with pictures to colour and things to draw is already being sold in the workshop. After the enormous success of the Millennium Year calendar we have once again gone to the printers and a new calendar for 2001 will soon be available. It is totally different from last years but we are sure everyone will find it a pure delight.

By the time this newsletter is distributed we hope that our planning application for the new building will have gone to the November Planning Committee meeting and received approval. This will allow us to move on and appoint specialist consultants and hopefully start work on the building some time during next year. However it also puts immense pressure on us to raise the necessary funds and as soon as the approval is received the new fund raising sub-committee will swing into action. Whilst they realize that it is a formidable task to raise the quarter of a million pounds required they approach the task with great optimism and enthusiasm. Once again we appeal to our local community to be as generous as possible to ensure that this community project achieves its aims. So please support us by coming to the November 25 Exhibition at St Mary’s Church Hall and by thinking of our memorabilia when preparing you Christmas list. Every penny helps and every penny will be greatly appreciated.

DISPLAY OF THE SCHEME

A model of the proposed Embroidery Centre in the Walled Garden, together with drawings of the scheme, is currently on display in the workshop.