Walsall Silver Thread Tapestries

The Walsall Silver Thread Tapestries are a set of eleven artworks, in the form of tapestries, designed by the artist Hunt Emerson in conjunction with the various communities of Walsall, England and hand stitched by local people there during 2016. They depict the people, places, history and wildlife of the towns and districts that, since 1974, have formed the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall.

The works were commissioned with grant funding of £73,740 from Arts Council England, to commemorate the 25th (or silver) anniversary of Walsall Council's Creative Development Team.[1] The team was disbanded before the project was completed.[2]

The tapestries are in three sizes; a large one for Walsall itself, six of medium size and four smaller pieces. In total they cover over 12 square metres (130 sq ft).[3] Work was carried out under the auspices of Creative Factory, a community interest company.[2]

In January 2017, they were exhibited at The New Art Gallery Walsall, and afterwards at several venues around the borough, including St Matthew's Church, libraries, and Walsall Leather Museum.[3][4] As of 2019 the tapestries are exhibited at Walsall Arboretum Visitor Centre.

The work is dedicated to Maxwell Bailey, manager of Creative Development Team, who secured the Arts Council grant, but died before work was completed.[2]

The tapestries

Each tapestry depicts several subjects:

Aldridge
Aldridge war memorial

Barr Beacon
Walsall Lodge, Great Barr Hall

One of the smaller tapestries.

Birchills

One of the smaller tapestries.

Bloxwich
Bloxwich fountain
  • Bloxwich
  • Bloxwich Memorial Fountain
  • A preaching cross
  • Awl blades, needles and tacks, as manufactured locally
  • Sailing dinghies on the reservoir at Sneyd
  • Haymaking with a horse and cart, at Dudley Fields and Mossley
  • The Showman cinema, latterly The Electric Palace
  • The Royal Exchange, a public house
  • The Bellfield, a public house
  • Robert Plant and a Cavalier
  • Sir Harry Smith Parkes
  • Pat Collins, and one of his carousels

Brownhills
The Brownhills Miner
  • Brownhills
  • The Brownhills Miner, a large public statue by John McKenna
  • Clayhanger Country Park, with a red deer stag, red fox and a hoopoe
  • The Brownhills canal festival
  • A clock, known locally as the three-faced liar, as it was said to never show the same time on each dial
  • The Staffordshire Hoard
  • Brownhills Memorial Hall, known as; The Memo
  • Brownhills Activity Centre
  • St James' Church at Ogley Hay
  • Reg Morris
  • Erin O'Connor
  • Howdle the Butcher
  • Wild flowers, a dragonfly and a blue tit

Butts

One of the smaller tapestries.

Pelsall
Pelsall's fingerpost
  • Pelsall
  • Knitted poppies
  • Pelsall Colliery
  • Pelsall Canal Festival
  • A butcher's bicycle
  • St Michael's Church
  • Cilla Black attending the first 'Blind Date' wedding at St Michael's Church in 1991
  • Pelsall's finger post
  • Daisy Coates' a Pelsall postwoman of the 1960s
  • Boaz Bloomer, proprietor of Pelsall Iron Works

Palfrey

One of the smaller tapestries.

Darlaston
  • Darlaston
  • The statue of Saint George and the Dragon at St George's Church
  • Rubery Owen, an engineering company, and the company's David Owen
  • The Sanna, Moxley, site of a sanatorium ("sanna"), now a wildlife reserve, with a Staffordshire knot
  • Bentley Cairn at Bentley Hall
  • St Lawrence's Church
  • The Columbrarium, a listed building
  • Nuts and bolts of the type manufactured by local companies
  • Billy Muggins, a local peddler
  • Jane Lane

Walsall
Bust of John Henry Carless VC

The largest tapestry. The central panel depicts:

This is surrounded by smaller panels, depicting (clockwise from top left):

This tapestry also carries Hunt Emerson's signature and a cartoon of Maxwell Bailey.

Willenhall
Willenhall Lock Museum
  • Willenhall
  • Willenhall coat of arms
  • Willenhall clock tower
  • New Invention and the Henry Squire & Sons' lock factory
  • Henry VIII in Rough Wood, at Short Heath
  • Willenhall Lock Museum
  • Willenhall Guru Nanak Gurdwara
  • The Bell, a public house
  • Dr Joseph Tonks in a hot air balloon
  • The Diamond Wedding of Derek and Julia Symmons
  • Hilda Creanery and other local charity fund raisers

References
  1. "Silver Thread". Creative Walsall. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
  2. "Silver Thread Tapestries". Creative Factory. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
  3. "The Silver Threads Tapestries go on tour of the Borough". The New Art Gallery Walsall. 30 January 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
  4. "Walsall tapestries to tour the Midlands". Express & Star. 2017-02-02. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
  • Walsall Silver Thread Tapestries information pack
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.