The results were staggering. We finished up with 48 banners !
As everyone who lives anywhere knows, it is very difficult to keep pace with all the activities that go one around you, even in a village ~ or should I say especially in a village ! So I thought it would be a good idea to make up "story boards" - firstly, to give the background to Abbotsbury Music and the whole St Catherine Project, but also to introduce ideas about mediaeval banners (which used no words, just colours and shapes). I added a modern board, showing symbols like traffic signs, and a board based on a wheelwright (which is what my banner will depict), using just grey, white and black paper, and just three shapes - a wheel,fire, and sparks.
At our first meeting in the village hall, we had a table for registering everyone who came in, I set up my story boards, Abbotsbury Music had a display of the book about St Catherine which was due out before Christmas, and I laid out a collection of small sketch books, and books on design and embroidery on another table. Around 20 people arrived for that first encounter with the project ~ enthusiastic support indeed, even if some of them were not quite sure if the skills they had would suffice.
At the second workshop, ideas and designs were drawn on the backs of envelopes, others were sketched beautifully, and all of us had plenty of ideas in our heads. All very relevant to a community project, and all equally important. At that workshop, we stuck to using white, grey and black paper, and limited ourselves to shapes rather than detail.
As the weeks have gone by, our skills have kept expanding and everyone's confidence is growing. We have moved on from black, white and grey paper to working in coloured paper on sheets the size of the eventual banners, to background fabric, and some of us are now thinking foreground....
For a time we were given access to an empty shop in the village square, which was really useful. I made up story boards for each stage we went through, and hung them in the shop. Visitors to the village could learn all about the project from the display of boards, and everyone who was making a banner could refresh their minds as to what the last workshop had been about ~ exactly which side of the fabric do you iron on Bondaweb ?
By now, if you meet anyone in the street in Abbotsbury, and ask about banners ~ if they don't know themselves, they will know someone who does ! At Christmas, we took a few moments off a workshop to enjoy mince pies, courtesy of Joan Bristow, and mulled wine from Barbara and Peter Laurie.
I've had a wonderful idea ~ why not adapt the banner designs into kneelers for the church ??? We have had a workshop in Wheelwrights: we all agreed it was a useful morning, and we shall have another workshop here next week. Because only a few people came, we were able to discuss ideas, and started another five banners on their way.
We are now well into the new century, and at least eight banners are completed. We're all thrilled at the way they look. We have been having regular workshops, with the Hall full every time. I have been keeping a scrap book of photographs, showing how the banners have progressed: some time, I must take a photo of my settee before I leave for a Tuesday workshop because, from the Tuesday before, I pile up the things I mustn't forget. This week, for the first time, I think my sewing machine will be in the heap ~ that's how much we have progressed. Barbara staggers along with the boxes of material, and we meet on the steps of the Hall. My ironing board is showing the signs of some of our experiments with Bondaweb.
Just recently I think people have started to realise what the banners mean to them, and how personal they have become: the question is being asked, what will happen to them after they come down from St Catherine's ? Abbotsbury Church have been offered them, and the new village hall in Portesham has asked if they can have them. Somebody mentioned Strangways Hall or the Tithe Barn as suitable venues, but wherever they go, it will be up to the individual banner makers, as they will belong to each of us.
As the fabric banners start to take shape, we are able to pin them up in the Hall, and stand back to view them. This helps to show perspective and scale, remembering that in the Chapel they will be hanging 15 feet above our heads.
Jack Elwin is making a video of our workshops for Abbotsbury Music, to tie in with the assembly and construction of the costumes, and the writing of the words and music for the Opera. Anne Elwin is going to everyone's home to photograph the banners and their makers, and to collect information about where the inspiration came from, and how many people were involved in making each banner. Abbotsbury Music are also going to have displays advertising the performances and the banners during Dorset Art Weeks. At the beginning of the project, I asked a few people who didn't feel they could commit themselves to making a banner, if they would keep small books with anything that inspired them about Abbotsbury. I hope a few of them will go on display as well.
March 28th was the date for the last get-together, with everyone's banners finished. 
They were all pinned up round the Hall, we had a drink, and photos were taken enthusiastically ~ it was a splendid evening, and at last we had time to look at and appreciate our own and everyone else's achievements. I was walking 2 inches off the ground for the best part of a week.
Next decision ~ when to mount the banners ? We thought we could do them all in one day, but later found out that the beaters' room is locked at 4.00pm: this meant a change of plan. As Wheelwrights is closed on a Monday, it seemed obvious to use there all day, and then go to the Hall all day Tuesday. I rang everyone in walking distance to tell them of the change in plan and to ask them to bring their banners to Wheelwrights on Monday 27th; and to ask for anyone who felt they could help pin, tack, or machine to come for as little or as much time as they could. After a really slow start, we picked up momentum, and managed to mount about 22 banners by 5 o'clock. At 8.15 on Tuesday morning, we took the sewing machine, ironing board, banners, threads and whatever in two cars up to the Hall and collected the keys from George Hawes. We used both rooms, with banners waiting to be mounted (and the finished banners) in one room, while the other room was full of tables where people were pinning, tacking and machining. We had two machines going full pelt, and at 2.00pm precisely ... we were finished !
They were then transported to the beaters' room, all labelled and covered in black plastic. When they were all hung up, I threw moth balls all over the floor ~ we don't want any little holes gnawed in our banners by over-enthusiastic mice !
Friday 19th at 11.00am ... Today was the most nervous I've been during the whole of the project. The final banner carries the signatures of everyone who has taken part in designing or making the banners, and it has had to be the last to be made. I had given the monumental task to Mike and Caroline of Wall Art. It was an enormous task ~ scanning 166 signatures into a computer-generated design and then deciding in what order they should go. Anyway, at 11.00am precisely I was at the tearoom window watching every parcel van that went past. At about 2 minutes past eleven, I opened the door, thinking one had just headed down the road, and the driver of a white van stopped and asked where he could find Wall Art, I said I would show him, and jumped in beside him: He later said I'd hijacked him ! After Caroline and Mike had inspected their work, I was back at Wheelwrights: we closed the tearoom as I couldn't machine the heavy material without Nigel holding the other end. At 11.30am, I was on my way to the Chapel with the St Catherine banner folded at one end and the signatures machined at last on the other. The deadline for taking down the scaffold tower was 12.00 noon: Richard Simonds (whose Range Rover had carried all the banners up the hill to the Chapel) gave me a lift, and I just made it in time !!
The idea of banners in the Chapel sprang fully formed into my mind. That was easy. More difficult was getting permission to hang them there. Strangways Estate, who own the Chapel, replied by return that we had their blessing. English Heritage and the Department of Media, Culture and Sport, however, have a more complex process which took a mere eighteen months and produced a file an inch thick. Their final written consent arrived two days after the banners were finished.
The only snag about this scheme was that the upper beams were 25 feet off the floor. The men had to hire a scaffolding tower to put them up ~ and then to take them down again a fortnight later. However, it all worked well. The transparent nylon string proved almost impossible to see, so the banners appeared to be floating in space.
What was their problem ? The Chapel is a listed building. No nails, screws or other attachments may mar the walls or ceiling. Peter, my husband, and his friend Spin Shackleton produced a scheme for hanging the banners which relied on a two-stage structure. There are quite deep ridges running horizontally and vertically on the inside ofthe ceiling, so they could wedge a sturdy timber across the arch of the vault at each of the six rows of banners. From each end of this timber transparent nylon fishing line (with a breaking strain of 100 lbs) hung down about 15 feet. The longer, lighter wooden beams that carried the banners rested in loops of this line.
THE STORY CONTINUES ....
with the Millennium Kneelers !
Now read about the Millennium Kneelers,
or the Strangways Hall quilt
and the grand piano cover
Back to our home page,
to our tearoom and garden,
and our new gift shop
Read about Abbotsbury's colourful past ~ and how to get in to crafts
