Visit to the Royal School of Needlework

It is several years since the Needlemakers visited the Royal School of Needlework and a group visited on September 13. We are very proud that the Chief Executive, Dr Susan Kay-Hamilton, is a Liveryman.

The main focus of this visit was the exhibition that celebrates “140 years of the RSN” and it will be on until March 2013.  A brief history - 
in 1872 Lady Victoria Welby founded the School of Art Needlework in London with the first students being registered on 5 November 1872.  Within a month or two, Princess Helena, Queen Victoria’s third daughter became the President. By 1875 they had the Queen’s Patronage and became the Royal School of Art Needlework, exhibiting internationally for the first time in 1876 in the USA. The exhibition features 140 objects including archive materials, photographs and embroideries from the different decades.

One suspects that this is but the tip of the iceberg and there must be many more items in the archives of great interest.  The School is not locked in the past and while “ladies” may still embroider the students are looking to careers, which will use their skills, whether it will be in, for example, fashion or restoration and offers fully accredited degree programmes.

The School of course undertakes commissioned work whether it is restoration, a very special wedding dress last year, working from original designs or finishing a piece of work for someone. Not only churches and royalty are customers – anyone can commission a piece of work. (There is a lovely Paul Smith man’s suit on display with exquisitely embroidered motifs elegantly placed.)

My mother had an eighteenth century chair which had lost its covering and was just upholstered in canvas. She approached the RSN in the late 1970s and they did some research and produced a canvas for needlepoint, which replicated the type of design that would have been on the chair. They supplied all the yarn and she completed the chair, which I am very proud now to use. Have a look at some of the commissions they have undertaken.  See Studio work.

Horn: an everyday plastic!

The holiday is over and back to work – well, not really work.  The first function was the Court only dinner on Tuesday September 4, which we held at the Savile Club in the West end this year.  This was a change from what is normally a City venue and some of the men took the opportunity to wear their white tuxedos (not de rigeur in the City)! 

The various Needlemaker committees met on Wednesday where we reviewed the year to date and discussed plans for the year ahead.  In about a month I will hand over the reins to a new Master but no time to reflect on that just yet.

I ended the day at a fascinating exhibition by the Horners' Company.  The exhibition has been on throughout the summer.  Like many Livery Companies, the Horners has moved its focus from its original craft into a modern evocation. Horn is a natural plastic (keratin) which can be moulded into many articles from combs and buttons to beakers and pressed into translucent sheets for lantern leaves and even windows.

The Company’s charitable activities support science and the promotion of plastic design and technology.  The collection is held at the Museum of Design in Plastics within the Arts University College at Bournemouth.

The current Master, Georgina Scott, is also the first woman to be Master of the Company – here we are in front of one of the exhibition cases (thanks to photographer, Stephen Blunt, from London Metropolitan University for sending the photo).  

My personal favourites in the exhibition were a selection of fans made out of horn and some very elegant contemporary jewellery made by some of their prize-winners.

The Bishop, the sun and Southwark

The Needlemakers Company is very fortunate in our Chaplain, Rt Revd Christopher Chessun.  He has been Chaplain to the Company for over 20 years and is much respected and loved by the Livery. We were delighted when he was confirmed as Bishop of Southwark in January 2011 and enthroned at Southwark Cathedral in March 2011.

When he offered to hold an informal reception at his house during my year it is no exaggeration to say that I grabbed at it.  Clearly others felt the same as it was the fastest sell out of any event we have had. If you are thinking grand palace, you are mistaken. It is a large and pleasant house, right in the heart of Streatham and reflects the thoughtful and down to earth quality of the man.

Clearly he has a hotline to somewhere as the sun shone and we were able to stand out in the garden until time to eat a delicious cold buffet.  I tasked my Consort (aka John) to buy the wine and judging by the smiling faces his choices were popular!

It was a very joyous evening. Even more pleasant was to be able to hand over a cheque from the Company towards the creation of new copes for the bishops in the diocese.  We were also delighted to meet the Dean of Southwark, the Very Reverend Andrew Nunn and he has invited us to meet the broderers at Southwark Cathedral in due course – and of course to see the finished articles.

Something about Southwark: Southwark Diocese was formed in 1905 and now covers 317 sq miles, including Kingston, Woolwich and Croydon and just under two and half million people live within its borders.  Bishop Christopher is also the lead Bishop for Urban Life and Faith for the Church of England. This offers him an opportunity to contribute to debates and discussions on the importance of the Church’s contribution to urban and public policy within society.

Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, 16 July

No panic – I wasn't in the dock. Together with many of my fellow Masters of Livery Companies and others from the City of London we packed into Court Number 1 – to hear good news not bad.  I did avoid sitting in the dock – not that I am superstitious or anything but I preferred one of the other seats.

The occasion was the AGM of the Sheriffs’ and Recorder’s Fund. This charity, little known outside the City, has been helping ex-offenders make a new start in life and also relieved the hardship of families of serving offenders.  The grants it gives are not huge but they are many and each one is targeted and valuable. It is widely supported by the City Livery Companies and individuals but has a modest income with which it does a great deal.

The grants range from clothing which accounts for over 50% (many prisoners leave prison with only the clothes they are wearing), household equipment, tools of trade and education and training.  Social workers or probation officers make the applications so that they see that the money is disbursed appropriately.  A study of outcomes was carried out which found that about 10% of those who had been helped re-offended against the national rate of 53%.

We were addressed by one of the women who had been helped by the fund (no trivial task to speak to a packed courtroom of “suits”) who said how helpful the money had been – she had been a drug user for over 20 years and had now been clean for two and a half years and was volunteering helping others.

You can see more information on the website here.

After the AGM we were addressed by the Rt Revd and Rt Hon Richard Chartres, Bishop of London.  He is an outstanding speaker and his words were eloquent and to the point.

He ended by quoting Moses Maimonides, the mediaeval Jewish philosopher, who outlined eight levels of charity or Tzedakah.  The Bishop focused on the highest level, which is to help a person to help themselves so that they should not need to appeal for help.  This is what this fund does.

The next level, which is the one I like to use, is where someone gives charity without knowing to whom it is going and the person receives it without knowing from whom it came.  No glory for the giver and no discomfort for the recipient.  He also referred to the seventh level, which is where the giver gives less than he should, but cheerfully – as opposed to the eighth and lowest level – he who gives only because he is forced to – with a grumpy face no doubt.

In my years working for a charity I often used to think of these examples – I have met them all.

St Paul’s Cathedral School Speech Day, 13 July

I have got myself a bit out of synch with this rush of blogs and if I knew how to reorganise my blogs so that the last two would be in date order – I would!

However, the day after Max’s Walk I was standing in front of the sundial again.  This time I was going to the Speech Day of the St Paul’s Cathedral School, which was being held at City of London Boys School in their very impressive Hall.

The school is a co-ed school for ages 4 – 13 and also a residential choir school for about 34 boy choristers.  The Needlemakers’ support is for the choristers but I was still interested to learn something about the prep school as it is in the City.

It was a very efficiently run Speech Day and full of interest and entertainment.  The children were certainly enthusiastic and engaged and prizes covered the spectrum from science to sport to music to poetry and academic achievement.

The new Dean of St Paul’s, The Very Reverend David Ison, presented the prizes and broke with tradition and asked the children questions including what memories they were going to take away from school, what they had learned in their own development and received a very spirited response. The school has had excellent success with a number of pupils taking up scholarships, particularly music scholarships, in their new schools.

Women in the Livery, July 9

The City Livery Club shares the premises of the Little Ship Club and is a lovely venue – on the river with a wonderful view of the Thames – it would have been so nice had the sun been shining – rather than looking at a grey river through the grey rain.....

However, the atmosphere was anything but grey inside as it was hosting a reception for “Women in the Livery”.  You don’t have to be a Liveryman to join, but you do need some association with the Civic City – see Membership information.  I sometimes go there and relax between functions or between meetings – and the sun does shine sometimes too.

It was great to catch up with some old friends – Mei Sim Lai, the current Master World Trader, whose initiative this originally was, introduced some of the Lady Liverymen there so that any guests who were interested could identify someone to speak to.  She pressed me into saying a few words about my route to Master of the Needlemakers and after a charity presentation the networking began in earnest!

Max’s Walk, July 12

If I seem to be obsessed with the weather at the moment - well I suppose I am. The day of Max’s Walk was the first morning I  opened the curtains to blue skies and so it remained.

Max Nicholson was the father of Piers Nicholson the current Master Tyler and Bricklayer.  Under Max's chairmanship the Silver Jubilee Walkway, as it was known then, was originally laid down in 1977 as the main feature of the work of the Environmental Committee, set up by the London Celebrations for The Queen's Silver Jubilee. Her Majesty The Queen opened it by unveiling a plaque, on the night of the Thames fireworks celebrations on 9 June 1977.

Starting in 2006, a number of people who knew Max have commemorated this by walking a section of the walk and this year was no different, except of course that his son was Master of his company. Accompanied by a number of Masters of other Companies, Piers led the walk from the front of City Hall through the City, past the Guildhall, to the banks of the Thames, just in front of the City of London Boys School. We met up with the Lord Mayor accompanied by Sheriff and Alderman Wendy Mead by the large sundial above Tower Hill tube station and continued on our way and they accompanied us for part of the way.

The sun shone and as we were all wearing our badges we attracted some attention.  The Lord Mayor was side-tracked by a group of school children and stayed behind to talk to each of them before catching us up.

This is one of the quirky things that can happen during one’s year as Master. What was also interesting is that where the walk ended was in front of a Polar Sundial, designed by Piers and built by the Royal Engineers to present to the City Corporation for the Millennium.  You can see more information about the sundial here.

The photographs below show the opening of the Sundial in 1999 by the then Lord Mayor; the current Lord Mayor addressing the group before we continued on our way and Piers and the Lord Mayor, haloed by the sun.  Not the best quality photograph but I like it.