Needlework question: have you ever heard of Winchester work?

[dangermom]

I was reading a book yesterday that mentioned ‘Winchester work’ as a particular type of needlework based on pieces produced by the Winchester Broderers for the cathedral, led by a woman named Louisa Pesel. Apparently it generally called for silks in many gradations of blue, or perhaps pink/plum, that were specially made by someone or other.

I can’t find much of anything online, except for this: Winchester Cathedral. But I’d like to see more examples, perhaps some patterns, and an explanation of what makes this special or different from other types of needlework.

So, does anyone know what Winchester work is?

[astro]

This person had a similar question might be worth emailing her.

I am reading an interesting book by Penelope Lively called “A House Unlocked.” , which is a sort of memoir of her family home in England. Each chapter takes as its starting point some of the objects in one room of the house. Her grandmother was apparently a formidable needleworker, and needlework enters into the book in various places. (Her grandmother, for
example, was keen to examine the kneelers in any church she visited, and usually was quite scathing about the design, colours, and stitches, dismissing those done entirely in cross stitch.)

Last night I read about Winchester work, which her grandmother did, which is a kind of woolwork on fabric involving shaded colours and “scrolly” sorts of patterns around a central design. I’d like to see some, but Google has so far come up empty for me. Does anyone know about this form of needlework, including whether it has alternate names that might help me search?
Dawne

[dangermom]

Yep, that would be the book. Thanks for the link, I’ll try that. Anyone else, now that it’s a weekday again?

[Profane]

I’ve never heard of it before, it sounds interesting, though.

You could try emailing the The Embroiderers’ Guild of America: http://www.egausa.org/

Or the Royal School of Needlework: http://www.royal-needlework.co.uk/

If you get an answer, could you share it with us?

[dangermom]

LunaSea, I’ve gotten an answer from the EGA, but it’s not very helpful, since what I was looking for a style developed in the early 20th century. But FWIW, here it is:

Hello,

I checked in the EGA library about Winchester work and discovered the
following in an English embroidery book.

Winchester, the Saxon capitol was the origin of embroideries in the
Anglo-Saxon era. Queen Matilda had many pieces done there as were
embroideries for the churches in the area. The eccelastical items were
strips of embroidery with designs of flowers, fruit, leaves, etc. All the
embroideries were surface couched gold thread and silks using split and stem
stitches on silk.

It wasn’t identified specificially as Winchester work, but in 3 different
books when looked it up it was described as work from Winchester.

Hope this answers your question and thank you for adding to my embroidery
knowledge by having to do this research!

*****, EGA Director of Education

I hopefully await answers from two more sources, both British.