Collection

Quilts & Textiles

Our textiles collection is varied. It tells the story and paints a picture of life in Victorian Weardale — not in books and not in oils, but in stitch. Anything to do with textiles was mainly ‘women’s work’ (although some of the best professional quilters were men). Yet women’s work was largely unrecorded in the written word. Our textile collection therefore gives us a window into the past — into what most women were doing alongside their all-day (and half the evening), everyday domestic and, often, smallholding tasks: keeping the family together and ensuring the wage-earners got to work. Quilting, particularly Durham quilting, is featured through the legacy of Amy Emms, who was — along with others — instrumental nationally in saving this craft from extinction. Interestingly, frame quilting is once again in danger and now features on the Endangered Heritage Crafts List. Weardale is surely the spiritual home of Durham quilting, and nowhere else, apart from Weardale Museum, can truly claim Amy — and our feature exhibition — as their own. We have samplers, which demonstrate how girls learnt their reading, arithmetic and scriptures, and rag rugs, which added warmth and comfort to cold stone floors. We have costume to show how people dressed, and items relating to knitting, spinning and weaving — all essential to producing the thread and fabric needed to make clothing. We are proud to display the superb and unique ‘Weardale Story Tapestries’ — five embroidered panels describing the history of the Dale — alongside our signature ‘Methodist Tapestries’ collection (which has its own webpage). The collection is not huge, and we are excited that the extended museum will allow us to grow it further. We even discovered a mystery quilt tucked away in a cupboard — now the subject of research. Perhaps there are more treasures still to be found. Come and see…