The Story

The Greenwich Millennium Embroideries

Tudor

Stuart

Georgian

Victorian

20th Century

Golden Jubilee

The Story of the Embroideries

The Embroideries are the concept of the late Beverley Burford, Curator of the Greenwich Museum at Plumstead

In February 1998 she put forward the idea as a community project to commemorate the Millennium by recording the colourful history of the London Borough of Greenwich from the year 0 to 2000. It would become an enduring educational resource for the people.

A small group of women who had worked together previously on embroidery in the museum were very enthusiastic and local artist, printmaker and embroiderer, Maureen Black, was asked to co-ordinate. There being too much history in the Borough for one panel she decided on the eight panels. They would be linked by the River Thames across the top of each panel because the river was such an important part of the Borough.

The Rotary Club of Woolwich gave a grant to buy materials, which were supplied at a discount by John Lewis, Oxford Street. The Woolwich and District Antiquarian Society, some of whose members were part of the embroidery group, provided additional funds and helped with historical research. Great emphasis was to be put on correct historic detail, even down to the trees and flowers being correct for the period.

The news spread and additional embroiderers joined. The entry test was to embroider a tree so that Maureen could judge ability and experience. Members soon found themselves to be experts, and specialised in buildings, people, animals or ships.

In 1999 the BBC’s ‘Songs of Praise’ came from St Alfege’s Church. The programme featured a group of the embroiderers, the Saxon & Viking panel which depicts St Alfege’s martyrdom, and the Medieval panel which shows Chaucer and his Canterbury Pilgrims. Subsequently, further panels were displayed to great public acclaim in St Alfege’s church, then in the Greenwich Pavilion of the Millennium Dome, as part of the Greenwich Weekend and in the Alexandra Palace exhibition.

The Tudor panel was exhibited in the nationwide ‘Yours’ magazine competition at Bournemouth and won the 2^nd ‘Highly Commended’ prize.

The Town Hall in Woolwich displayed the first seven panels at Christmas 2000, with a blank 20^th Century panel. The public was invited to suggest items for the final panel and many of their ideas were taken up.

Since their completion, the eight panels have rarely been displayed together. They are kept in environment-controlled storage at the Greenwich Heritage Centre until costly archival frames can be bought. An appeal is underway to raise the funds for these.

It is intended that a ninth panel will be created by local textile students using the same techniques to celebrate Greenwich's provision of several locations for the 2012 London Olympics.