Family Day out to Charlcote Park, Warwickshire

Yesterday we went out as a family to National Trust property Charlcote Park.  Its not that far from where we live, about a 40 minute drive, depending on traffic.  I am the only one in the family that has ever been here before but that was about 34 years ago so to come back and visit this place as an adult was very interesting.

It has been home to the Lucy family since the time of King Richard I in the 1100's and the current Baronet, Sir Edmund Fairfax-Lucy who is a painter and artist, still lives in the private upper rooms to this day.  You can read more about the family history here.

When you arrive, you park across the road in the car park, pay or show your membership and then go across the road, through the gate and walk along a really long path to the outer building/gatehouse.  Once you are through the gatehouse it opens up into a lawned area with a few statues and a small area with small fruit trees growing and the main house in front of you.

Left: The Gatehouse.  Top: The Main House.  Bottom Centre: Rear view of the Main House. Bottom Right: Cottage next to rear entrance gates of the property.

That beautifully ornate "cottage" sits right next to a set of massive gates, obviously the rear entrance to the property and maybe would have been some kind of Gatehouse in the past, maybe home to the head groundsman many years ago, maybe it still is, but someone would have had to have been close by to open and close those huge gate.  The gates lead directly onto a long tree-lined path which you can see the end of in the bottom middle photo as it goes over a bridge and although it looks like it takes you right up to the rear of the building it doesn't, it actually takes you off to the right and you end up at the outbuildings which house all of the old coaches and carriages and years ago would have housed horses too.  As you walk from those gates along that path you can imagine coach and horses travelling along.  If you look at the first aerial view further down you can see the path coming in from the bottom and into the stable and outbuilding area.

The park is home to a herd of Fallow Deer and you can see these as you walk from the entrance gate to the Gate House.  There are a lot of them, more than you can see in my photos.  I stopped and changed lens's for my "big lens" though as they were still quite a distance away and I didn't want to get too near to them.  My "big lens" is really good for zooming in on objects far away, as you can tell, but not for anything close up so I had to change back to my normal lens after I took these shots.  I was amazed by the different colours in the herd.

Once through the Gatehouse, you enter a large court yard area with nice lawns on either side of the path and a couple of statues either side of a set of steps that lead up to another area that is open to the public but you can't go up the steps as there is a locked gate at the top of the steps with a fancy stone wall on either side, and I couldn't resist getting an "arty" photo of one of the statues through that wall later when we were the other side of that locked gate.  Maybe the steps are too dangerous to have people constantly going up and down them.

Inside the house, in the main hall, there are these beautiful stained glass windows and the guide told us that they represent the history of the house and the Lucy family.

There is also a lot of beautiful furniture and I was especially drawn to the detailing of the inlay on these chairs and cabinet.  Absolutely stunning and, for me, totally mesmerising. 

Round the back of the house is a beautiful formal Capability Brown garden with steps down to the River Avon, where in times gone by visitors to the house could arrive by boat, if they lived on neighbouring properties or just along the river, or the family could just go for a boat ride along the river on a nice summers day.

There really isn't a good focal point in which to get a great shot of the garden but thanks to the power of Google, I can show you an aerial shot.

And finally, a photo from a history display in the main gatehouse, which I found really interesting and then a couple of photos from our walk around the vast expanse of the outer areas of the estate.  The Jacob Sheep, how could I not go and see them and how could I not include them after the amount of yarn that I spun from the fleece of Jacobs sheep.  I can't add all the links to all of the posts I've written about the yarn I've made from Jacobs fleece, if I did this post would be twice as long as it is and I think its already as long as War and Peace as it is!

If ever you are in the Warwickshire area and fancy an historical and educational day out, you certainly can't go wrong with paying a visit to Charlecote Park.  For exact location for a SatNav its CV35 9ER and if you need details of opening times, prices, what's on and special days then just go back to the top of this post and click on the Charlcote Park link, which will take you to the National Trust website for this place.

August's Fibre has arrived - Peterloo

When the letter came a few days ago I didn't know what to expect other than blue and white.  Its quite nice, almost like a denim look to it and if you look really close it almost like there is a pink tinge to some of it.  Its 50% Shetland Wool, 25% New Zealand Wool, 25% Linen so its not the softest wool but she did say that it would be quite stiff until its worked.

August's Fibre Club Letter

August's fibre club letter has arrived. Its quite a long letter again this time.  Interesting though!

The letter reads:

Two hundred years ago, on Monday 16th August a massacre occurred at St Peter’s Field Manchester. It was a notable event because it was the start of the process of the British working classes gaining the vote, and also due to the horrifying number of deaths and injuries. 

A crowd of 60,000-80,000 had gathered from many areas surrounding Manchester. They gathered to protest about the lack of representation for the new city of Manchester, which had a booming population due to the Industrial Revolution and the rising number of cotton mills. The whole of Lancashire was represented by just 2 members of Parliament, and only men who owned land with a rental income of 40 Shillings a year could cast their vote, in person, in Lancaster. One million people were represented by just 4 people in the area of Manchester. 

At the time there were 515 MPs for England and Wales, of these, 351 were returned by the patronage of 177 individual voters and a further 16 by the direct patronage of the government: all 45 Scottish MPs owed their seats to patronage. Added to this discontent about political representation, was an economic recession which came about at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Textile workers were earning 3 times less in 1818 as they were in 1803. The Corn Laws led to a shortage of food in the country, causing rising prices, leading to famine. 

Members of the Manchester Patriotic Union, a group of radicals from the Manchester Observer newspaper organised a “great assembly” in the month of August. The founder of the newspaper, Joseph Johnson wrote to the famous political orator Henry Hunt inviting him to address a political rally. The letter included this line- “Nothing but ruin and starvation stare one in the face [in the streets of Manchester and the surrounding towns], the state of this district is truly dreadful, and I believe nothing but the greatest exertions can prevent an insurrection. Oh, that you in London were prepared for “ However, their communications were being read by government spies, and the 15th Hussars army cavalry regiment were sent to Manchester in preparation for the rally. 

Johnson and Hunt were determined that the rally would not fall victim to the popular opinions against giving the working poor a political vote. Namely that they were ragged, dirty and rowdy. The groups that marched in to St Peter’s field had been told to dress in their Sunday best, and many had drilled and rehearsed before the gathering. Peterloo was unusual due to the number of female protestors, many of who wore white to show their purity. 

When all the protestors had assembled they were in an area roughly as large as 45 tennis courts, with narrow access points, many of which were blocked by the cavalry soldiers. The local magistrates issued a warrant for the arrest of Henry Hunt, Joseph Johnson, and other organisers. Due to the crowds it was decided that the military would need to be present to allow the arrest to be carried out. The cavalry officers were sent charging though the packed crowds, on horseback, with drawn swords and caused a general panic. The main exit route was also blocked by the 88th Regiment of Foot, who had formed up with drawn bayonets. 

It became a massacre. With inexperienced soldiers (who were possibly drunk) panicking, and frightened crowds unable to escape. The number of deaths and injuries, has never been established with certainty, but it’s suggested that 11–15 were killed and 400–700 injured. The women in the crowd were significantly more likely to be injured. Only 12% of the crowd were female, but 168 of the 654 officially recorded casualties were women. 

The general public were horrified by the massacre, and many commemorative items went on sale, with the proceeds going to the victims. Press coverage of the event was unusually thorough, many journalists from further afield than Manchester had been present, and reports were in many national newspapers. Many of the organisers were jailed, and the commanding officers were acquitted of all charges as the gathering was judged to have been illegal. The immediate response of the government was to introduce legislation reducing civil liberties, the Manchester Observer was shut down, and by the end of 1820 every significant working-class radical reformer was in jail. 

In 1832 the Great Reform Act created the Manchester parliamentary borough, and the area elected its first two MPs. One of the candidates was the great reform campaigner William Cobbett. The name Peterloo stemmed from the battle of Waterloo, which had happened just 4 years earlier. 

Until now the only commemoration of the massacre was a small blue plaque on a building in the city near to the site of St Peter’s field. Earlier this month a new memorial was unveiled. The design is beautiful, but inaccessible by anyone who has mobility issues. It is ironic that a memorial to a campaign for democracy and inclusion should suffer from limited democratic participation and leave some people feeling excluded. 

For my colour inspiration today I’ve used a popular image from the time, that would have been seen by many as they read about Peterloo. It features the blue jacketed cavalry officers charging through the crowds, cutting down the women dressed in white.

Ok, so I can expect something blue and white then, hmmmmm.

From the spoilers chat it sounds like this one might be a little bit more coarse, it is a linen blend best spun from the end worsted spun and maybe on the finer side of things as opposed to thicker spun and that the washed yarn may feel a little stiff but should soften when working with it.

July's Fibre has arrived - Singer

I had no idea what to expect this month other than that as far as my knowledge of Singer sewing machines goes, I think they are black and gold and I didn't Google the model mentioned in the letter.

Its nice and soft, 50% Merino Wool, 25% Corriedale Wool, 25% Eri Silk.

July's Fibre Club Letter

July's fibre club letter has come.  I learned some interesting facts last month so I wonder what this months letter will teach me.  Its a long one this time.

The letter reads:

On July 9th 1819 marks the birth of the man who is credited with inventing the sewing machine. Elias Howe was from Massachusetts, and he created his machine in 1845. However, as with so many inventions, it’s not a straightforward story. 

Mechanisation of sewing dates back to 1755, Charles Fredrick Weisenthal, a German-born engineer working in England was awarded the first British patent for a needle intended to be used in a sewing machine, but the trail of development then stops, it doesn’t appear that he went on to develop the actual machine. In 1790 a man called Thomas Saint did patent a machine that was designed for sewing together leather. It used an awl to punch a hole, which was followed up by a needle carrying the thread. Saint was a cabinet maker, and although no working examples of his machine survive, replicas have been made from his plans, though they did need substantial modification. Critics have suggested that he never actually made a working machine. Further men developed ideas, patented them, and produced working examples, but the first practical machine that was widely used was designed by Frenchman Barthélemy Thimonnier. His machine was patented in 1830, and used in a factory that created uniforms for the French Army. 

All of these machines used what’s known as the chain stitch, which looked to replicate the way a hand sewing needle functions. American Walter Hunt developed the first lockstitch machine in 1832. This is the first machine that uses a bobbin thread under the fabric to lock the top thread into place. Issues with the feed mechanism meant the machine was never commercially viable, and it wasn’t patented until 1854. 

In 1844 all the disparate elements of the various machines were combined by British inventor John Fisher. It was designed to produce lace, but had all the elements of a working sewing machine. Due to this it was misfiled at the patent office, and John Fisher wasn’t credited with his invention. 

Instead we move forward to our credited inventor Elias Howe, and a name synonymous with sewing machines, Isaac Merritt Singer. Howe was the first to create his machine, and to patent it, but despite repeated demonstrations showing the efficiency of his machine he couldn’t find a commercial backer. He came to England, to try to find a manufacturing partner, and while he was away the American sewing machine market exploded, lead by Singer. Howe filed for patent infringement, and won, Singer had to pay him $1.15 for every machine already sold, and then entered into a partnership to license his idea. 

Over the next century millions of Singer sewing machines were produced. A factory was established in Clydebank, Scotland. From its opening in 1884 until 1943 36,000,000 sewing machines were made, and there were many other factories all around the world. If you have an old Singer machine it’s possible to find the location of manufacture, and the year it was made just from the serial number.

The Clydebank factory finally closed in 1980. In its short history it was one of the marvels of the manufacturing world, the factory boasting the largest clock tower in the world. On 21st March 1911 12 female cabinet polishers went on strike objecting to a change in working conditions that required them to do more work for less pay. Within a week all 10,000 of the 11,500 other workers had also come out on strike, backing up their fellow workers. Singer responded by closing the factory, and threatening to move all work to other European factories. The strike lasted for 3 weeks, but in the end workers returned to work. All of the Strike leaders and members of the Industrial Workers of Great Britain were sacked. 

Your fibre this month is inspired by the beautiful old black machines, in particular a Singer Model 66 with a decal the collectors call Lotus.

I can't use a sewing machine to save my life, I just get it all in a tangled mess, its the bobbin thing underneath and setting the tension that I can't get on with, well at least I do on my late mother's electric sewing machine which has recently gone to sewing machine heaven as it was so rusted up now and so many things wrong with it that it was uneconomical to have it repaired.  She did used to have a little turquoise blue hand operated sewing machine, which I believe was a Singer, that I could get on with under my late father's supervision.  He would bring it over to me, set it up, I'd do what I had to do, supply him with cups of tea and biscuits etc and then he'd take it back home with him.  One of my sisters had that one after my parents passed away.

From the spoilers chat she has revealed that it is a sturdier blend that will stand up to a lot of wear.  Sounds interesting.

Spinning Isbre

Seven years ago, yes, seven, I bought some spinning fibre from The Fluffy Viking, who has either changed name or gone out of business and it is still absolutely amazing after all this time.  It spun like a dream, it hasn't compacted, felted or anything.  My usual spinning method, split down the middle length-ways, spun from the end, make a traditional 2 ply.

Its 60% Merino Wool, 20% Polwarth Wool, 20% Bleached Tussah Silk

Lovely and soft, 102g/350m of double knit weight yarn.

Oh Dear! It doesn't fit!

I tried to do a photo shoot today using the new wedding backdrop.  I spent ages setting it all up, ironing the creases out of the backdrop, making sure the light was OK and that I had enough room etc only to go and get changed into the wedding dress and discover that first of all I couldn't even do the strapless bra up and then I couldn't zip the back of the dress up, the two pieces are a good few inches apart.  Nothing wrong with the zip, I've just put so much weight on since the last photo shoot I done with the wedding dress.  This is embarrassing!!

I am so angry and annoyed with myself.  How could I let myself get into this situation.  It was bad enough having to buy a second hand wedding dress in such a large size in the first place and now I can't fit into that.  I have a perfectly good wedding dress that I wore to my own wedding 17 years ago that I would love to be able to get into again but that is a small size.  One day, maybe, one day.