Rochdale Branch Meeting Jan 2014
Our first meeting of 2014 was a talk, and what a talk. I had been lucky enough to hear Linda Barton speak on this subject before ( at the AGM in Southport) but she is certainly worth hearing again.
Her subject was the Stephen Simpson's gold thread works in Preston.
The processes in the production of gold thread/wire are quite amazing and Linda bought home to us the wide use of the braids and threads produced at the works.
She traced the rise and fall of the works in some detail and illustrated it all with some excellent photographs.
The use of gold thread on naval uniforms is illustrated here. The days when the gold was used are sadly over we learned and nowadays lurex threads are used. This is not always popular with some high ranking people we learned!
Here are some of the samples of wire that Linda brought along. We learned of the long, skilled and highly complicated process of producing the wires and threads
A gold tassel. You can see the thickness of the individual strands used in the tassel.
The freemasons and other organisations used
Simpson's and their skilled embroiderers and machinists to produce banners and emblems.
Although the facts and pictures were, on their own, interesting , the whole subject was brought alive by the manner in which it was presented. Linda's enthusiasm for her subject shines through and her delivery is well paced and vibrant.
Linda told us that she has been so busy giving talks that her personal life has been curtailed and she feels that it is time to have some time to pursue other things.
How lucky we were to have booked her for this talk before that happens!
NW Regional Day. Sunday April 27th 2014
The preparations are well under way now. We have done everything as much as we can but continue with some fine tuning.
The imponderables are :-
How many tickets will be sold?
How many people will enter the competitions?
How many young embroiderers will come along?
Theses are things that cannot be pre-organised
Time will tell!
February Meeting
Is show and tell and social stitching.
Don't forget to hand in the survey so that they can be sent off to be studied and have contents analysed.
