Stitching Together a Community
Ashbury is a small village on the borders of Oxfordshire and Wiltshire, and at the foot of the Berkshire Downs. It still has a mainly farming economy, but has seen changes as the years have gone on, most recently in a new housing development.
It is very much a village with a strong community spirit, and this was amply illustrated in a parish project that puts both the geography and history of the village on display. Nearly 100 people were involved in the creation of the Ashbury Parish Textile Map, and the production of an accompanying booklet.
It was through the new housing that the project came about, for the developers Redcliffe Homes made a donation to the parish of £3,600 for a community arts project. The first step to putting this to good use was when Abi Brown, Community Arts Officer of the Vale of White Horse District Council, made a telephone call to Margaret Smith, who had previously organised art classes in the village. Margaret suggested that a map would be a way of involving a good number of people — a good choice indeed, as was that of Margaret as the project co-ordinator.
And so it all took off, beginning with the preparation of a draft version of the map, for which there was a contracted artist, Stuart Roper. As matters progressed, two open meetings were held at which everybody in the village was able to add their own suggestions.
Ideas for the individual illustrations resulted in a total of 136 contributions being worked upon by people of all ages, from those in their eighties to four-yearolds. These show their own homes, other buildings in the village and features of the surrounding countryside — all combining to provide an all-round picture of the neighbourhood and its setting. As well as Ashbury itself, the neighbouring small communities of Ashdown, Idstone and Kingstone Winslow are covered on the map, which measures 63" x 63".
The illustrations were each worked by the contributors in their own choice of styles, including cross-stitch and tent-stitch, embroidery and applique; some were painted, and others based on photographs.
With the planning stages completed, it was time for the contributors to be invited to set to work on their individual pieces. Four workshops were held in the Village Hall, for learning the skills of the basic canvas stitching, machine embroidery and other topics.
“All the workshops were well attended,” says Jean-anne Shiff who led one of the series. “Coffee flowed and friendships were made. Stitching took over village life. A strong community spirit developed; stitchers met in each other’s homes. Newcomers got involved, as did children. Even people who had moved away wanted to stitch their old house. Pieces were carried further afield, on trains, at airports and on holidays abroad. Stitchers with homes in Luxembourg, Portugal and Italy also took part. A communal stitching session was held halfway through the programme, when children and some adults worked together to make trees.”
Meanwhile the construction of the background was underway. Diane Lovegrove and Rosemary Rousell worked together on building up the four layers of fabric — the hessian backing, cotton lining, wadding and the top collage. This is of green and blue cotton to represent land
and sky. The roads are the handiwork of Linda and Kevin Clark, by whom they were knitted. Anne Griffiths machine embroidered names of all the contributors around the border, and Marianne Astor stitched the place names. Each contributor was provided with an individual pack including a photograph, and guidelines, with the materials.
“A stash of fabrics, threads and reference books had been obtained from charity shops and private donations, as well as at a quilting exhibition,” Margaret Smith explains. “Other than the completed dimensions, nothing else was proscriptive, allowing the stitchers complete freedom to express themselves.”
Their choices of subject were widely varied. They include family homes, public buildings, features of village life such as Ashbury Cricket Club, the “Goride” minibus that serves local communities, and the post van with its driver Des Elbrow who was soon to retire after 40 years.
Family pets appear, as do farm animals, and the local wildlife. Foxes, badges, squirrels, hedgehogs and rabbits all appear, with pictures of other wildlife for which the downland surrounding the village is an important habitat. There are butterflies, the white-lipped banded snail and the violet oil beetle, and from overhead the skylarks, falcons and red kites. From nearer home there is a robin, a blue tit, an owl and the swifts which are summer visitors.
Each stitcher contributed to the book, with information about the reasons for their choice and, for pictures of houses, details of their earlier history and of their family’s own associations with them. Some added the details of their stitching methods.
Two houses, Waylands and Waylands Lodge, have names that derive from the legend of the mythical blacksmith on the Ridgeway above the village. Stuart Roper, the designer of the map, chose an image reflecting the history of the downland — the Battle of Ashdown, where King Alfred the Great defeated the Danes in the 10th century.
St. Mary’s Church in Ashbury dates back to the 12th century. The Reverend Norma Fergusson, a member of the clergy team, says that the first sight of the church from the north connects her with pilgrims who have come to worship there for hundreds of years.
“Stitching the church made me look at it in a new way, and I feel I have come to know it better,” she wrote.
Ashbury’s Free Evangelical Church is much more modern. Its most recent building dates from 1972, when it was known as the Mission Hall.
The Village Hall naturally features centrally on the map, and was illustrated by the current hall committee chairman Maggie Simons. It had just one large hall for the classes when it was built in 1864 as a National School; when replaced by the present school building in 1961 it was given to the village for public use. The recent refurbishment has returned it to being more nearly to its original design, with the ceilings opened up. Until 1961 village organisations met in the Jubilee Hall. As well as social functions there was a travelling cinema, and it was the headquarters of the local Home Guard during the war years.
Together with the present Rose and Crown, dating from the 16th century, two former public houses are pictured. Diana Leppard stitched her home, Alyn House, built in 1806 and originally The Cross Keys. She describes how the ale was brewed in a single-storey room at the back of the house, which is now the kitchen. The Trip the Daisy at Idstone has kept its original name. Anne Bunce chose it as her subject as her motherin-law Blanche Bunce was housekeeper there for 30 years; the name was that of a famous greyhound.
Another interesting name is that of Billy’s Cottage. Lynne Jilbert and her family discovered when they moved there two years ago that it is one of the oldest in the village, dating from the 15th century. It was named after a local shepherd, and her design includes two sheep in the garden.
The allotments in the village are always a scene of activity, and on behalf of the plot-holders Pauline Smith pictured their choice of vegetable and fruit crops. Marina Tombs added a panel showing the hens which her family have kept on their allotments for more than half a century. Gardens feature too, with their primroses and snowdrops, and garden birds such as the robin, goldfinch and blue tit.
The production involved a serious commitment from stitchers. Jane Aylward depicted 2 Lower Mill at Kingston Winslow, a 300-year-old cottage with an original bread oven stretching back as far as about six feet.
“Each line took as long as two hours to stitch, probably over 200 hours altogether, but I thoroughly enjoyed doing it,” she says.
Linda Bunce was at first apprehensive about sewing Trip the Daisy, saying that it was many years since she had done such work — but her enthusiasm grew so much that she eventually contributed five of the pieces.
One house in the village has a wider historical interest. Eastwood (Thomas Stock) Cottage was the home of the Revd. Thomas Stock who in 1777 started the first Sunday School in England; from the chancel of the parish church it moved to his home here. Deanna Lecoyte explains that her illustration was printed, showing his figurehead, and adds that memorials to him can be seen both in his own former church and in Gloucester Cathedral.
The stitching completed, well to schedule, the next stage was the arranging of the pieces on the map, and fixing them in place.
“Rosemary Rousell, Anne Griffiths and I undertook this,” says Margaret Smith. “Each piece was photographed, then pinned, tacked and finally stitched into place. A handful of volunteers stitched additional pieces, mostly local flora and fauna, to fill in spaces as required.”
Such a work of art deserves a suitable means of display and in the Village Hall the map can be seen in its full glory in a solid oak cabinet, weighing 20 stones, which was designed by Roger Baker. Further grant funding was sourced for this.
Just 13 months after it had begun, the project reached a fitting conclusion. On a busy weekend (18th-19th April 2015) 200 people joined in the celebrations of the hall reopening, the map unveiling and an open afternoon with cream teas on the Saturday, and a historical walk around the village on the Sunday. Ashbury School’s children attended a special assembly in the hall where the Revd. Norma Fergusson dedicated the map.