News from the National Trust's Textile Conservation Studio in Norfolk
On the 20th June we closed the doors of the Studio for a day so that we could visit the historic silk mills in Sudbury, Suffolk. Today Sudbury is regarded as the most important centre for silk weaving in Britain, producing nearly 95% of the nation’s woven silk from its three working mills. We were… Continue reading Studio summer visit
In June three conservators from the Studio travelled to Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire to rehang the 11th conserved tapestry from the Gideon set. The tapestry had travelled to the property after the conservation treatment and was waiting for us in the Long Gallery. You can see a short video of the rehang on the Hardwick… Continue reading Gideon re-instated
For five days in May 2017, a team of Textile Conservators from the Studio traveled two miles down the road to Blickling Hall in Norfolk, to undertake condition surveys and estimates for treatment for all of the textile items on display on the visitor route. Blickling is a red-brick mansion left to the National Trust… Continue reading From Hand towels to State Beds
The Studio is privileged to be working on a 16th century English tapestry depicting the county of Oxfordshire owned by the Bodleian Library, Oxford University. It is one of a set of three map tapestries (Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, also in fragments) owned by University of Oxford, with a fourth tapestry (Warwickshire) in the set owned… Continue reading Location, Location, Location!
While work is still under way on the second tapestry from the Hero and Leander set from Cotehele, Cornwall, the conservation treatment of the last tapestry Death of Leander has started. Before any treatment was carried out, the tapestry was fully documented and photographs taken. A professional photographer came to take some overall photos before… Continue reading A sticky problem
Installation of three tapestries in the King's room at Knole In March three conservators from the Studio made the journey to Knole in Kent in order to re-hang three tapestries. The King's room, Cartoon Gallery and Ballroom were being re-opened to the public in the next few days so our job was to re-hang the tapestries… Continue reading A tight squeeze
February 2017 saw the completion of the eleventh Gideon tapestry ‘Gideon choosing his army’. At 6m x 9m this is the largest tapestry in the National Trust’s collection. The last stage before rehanging the tapestry was lining the tapestry. This meant the top border had to be re-stitched to the mainfield. This required the full… Continue reading The great cover up
Final phase of James II Bed, Knole After a 4 year wait for funding we are now on the final stages of conservation of the James II Bed from Knole in Sevenoaks, Kent. This project was started back in 2004 with a pilot project on the cantonnieres. These are narrow curtains which sit over the… Continue reading The final hurdle
Back in September we had the film crew from Channel 5 come to the Studio for the day to film our work for a feature on Secrets Of The National Trust With Alan Titchmarsh. We went live in episode 3 on Tuesday the 21th of February. See us here! We're on from 17.10 onwards.
Conservation work can lead us to discover all sorts of previously unseen information. Our conservators made a discovery on one of the Gideon Tapestries, Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire after it had been cleaned.
