National Embroidery & Textile Centre to be opened by late 2008

22 Sep '06

3 min read

The UK's first National Embroidery & Textile Centre is to be established thanks to funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) it was announced.

The Centre, which will be based in Manchester, will become home to the Embroiderers' Guild which was set up 100 years ago to protect and share important examples of embroidery which are of historical, educational and artistic significance, and to inspire creative embroiderers.

The grant of £995,000 will go towards helping the Guild relocate from their current base at Hampton Court Palace to establish a National Centre within St. Peter's Church in the Ancoats area of Manchester. It is hoped the Centre will open by late 2008.

The Guild has outgrown its premises in Hampton Court Palace and much of its unique collection of historical textiles is kept in inadequate conditions which give rise to all sorts of challenges for the long term care of the collection. Provision for disabled visitors to this Tudor part of the Palace is poor, and lack of display facilities mean that the public can only access the collection through individual appointments on one to two days a month.

Ancoats offers the Guild a very appropriate new home. Once teeming with textile mills it is renowned as the world's first industrial suburb. Sadly many of the old buildings are now empty and derelict, but plans are afoot and a major regeneration programme is currently underway. St Peter's Church, which has been closed since 1960, has recently been rescued and renovated thanks to a separate HLF grant and will provide an excellent home and exhibition space for the new centre.

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