PETAL POWER – An exhibition of floral fashion fabric designs

Design for dress print Madeleine Lawrence 1932 courtesy of the Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture

Chepstow Museum is bursting into bloom with an exhibition of floral fashion fabric designs created by female designers in the years following the First World War, when women began making their mark in a previously male dominated world.  Original hand drawn and painted textile designs intended for flowery voiles, muslins and silks, together with fabric samples, complete chiffon dress, images from catalogues and magazines show work produced by women of the Silver Studio, London from 1910-1940.

In the years between the two World Wars the floral frock was a stylish and versatile garment that could be worn for formal occasions and everyday wear. It was practical, smart and fashionable and various versions could be purchased to suit any pocket. Ready-to-wear clothing was available by the 1920s but wealthier women continued to employ designers and dressmakers, and many women had a sewing machine and the skills to make beautifully tailored clothes at home. Floral printed cottons, silks, chiffons and rayons were the fashion fabrics that filled the floors of department stores- the height of modern shopping – in inter-war Britain.

The Silver Studio of Design, thanks largely to its women workers built a reputation for producing designs for dress prints for many of the most fashionable retailers and respected manufacturers including Liberty & Co and Selfridges.

These were the first generation of female designers to work with industry for large scale printed textile production.  They were making their mark in a previously male dominated world and helped to pave the way for greater female influence in fabric design.

“Their names are now all but forgotten,” said Anne Rainsbury, curator of ChepstowMuseum “but because the women designers were expected to work from home, more evidence has survived about their working lives and the process of designing, through the letters that were written about their work.  This correspondence between Rex Silver and his satellite staff of women designers survives in the Studio’s archives now held in the Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture, together with their beautiful hand drawn and painted textile designs, samples of the printed fabrics, catalogues and advertisements that fill this exhibition – a fabulous flowering of the blossoming talent of these pioneering women in the world of fashion design.”

This exhibition is part of a focus on fashion at Chepstow Museum, leading up to our What is Fashion project this summer and autumn….

PETAL POWER

An exhibition of floral fashion fabric designs

created by women working for the Silver Studio, 1910-1940

ChepstowMuseum, Bridge Street, Chepstow

Saturday May 4^th –  Sunday June 30^th ,

Open Mon-Sat 11-5, Sun 2-5

Admission Free

 

Sammy’s Walks: Dog Walks in the Forest of Dean

Sammy’s Walks: Dog Walks in the Forest of Dean

New to the Forest of Dean? Just acquired a dog? Here on holiday? Bored with the same old dog walks?  Or you might not even have a dog,  but just like walking.

This book of 20 walks in the heart of the Forest, including route maps and detailed instructions, has been put together by dedicated dog owner and walker Cheryl Mayo under the guidance of her border collie Sammy. The walks start from well known spots such as Wenchford, Mallards Pike and The Cyril Hart Arboretum and vary in length from just over a mile to just over 4 miles. Summary descriptions tell you not just length and estimated timings, but how much uphill work is involved!

“Sammy lives for his walks”, says Cheryl, who with her husband David Harris, retired to the Forest five years ago. “I spent so much time exploring the Forest that my husband said to me one day: you should do a book of dog walks.”  The idea took off from there. “As far as we know, it hasn’t been done before. There are numerous general walks books for the Forest and the Wye Valley but this is targeted at people who want to stroll through the Forest with their dog for an hour or so, not go for a half day ramble.”

The book has been a family business, designed and published by David. “My main role has been to walk around the Forest with a notebook, writing down instructions – and then checking and re-checking them, not that Sammy has minded!” said  Cheryl.

And of course you don’t need a dog to follow these walks.  They mainly follow Forestry tracks and waymarked paths and make good family weekend or holiday strolls.

For information about the book or to order a copy, email sammyswalks@outlook.com .  “Sammy’s Walks” is also available from local retailers and gift shops and is priced at £6.50.

Train passengers enticed to visit the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley

Passengers travelling in the entertainment carriages of First Great Western Trains will be enticed to visit the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley from today.

Our area will be part of the Great Western Trail for three months on First Great Western Trains from London through to Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Dorset, South Wales, Cornwall, Devon, Bristol and Bath.

It is thought that over a million people a month will get to see the natural surroundings and attractions of the area brought to life by video and interactive features on the 3,500 touch screens in entertainment carriages.

Forest of Dean District Council is pleased that this initiative is more than just advertising what the area has on offer. It provides a fantastic opportunity for passengers to interact and request further information about the area, while also stimulating interest and getting travellers talking about our holiday destination.

Paula Burrows, Commercial Manager at Forest of Dean District Council, said: “Running from Monday 22 April through to 22 July, this promotion really gives us the opportunity to excite and engage with passengers about the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley in a way we have never been able to do before. We hope that once they see the full range of what is on offer here they decide to come and visit us for day trips or, better still, spend their holidays here.”

New Wye Heritage Book Launched

Illustration from Overlooking the Wye : A guide to the heritage of the Wye Valley by Ruth Waycott

A brand new comprehensive guide to the heritage of the Wye Valley was launched in March at Chepstow Racecourse.

This long awaited guidebook to the heritage and important sites in the Wye Valley between Ross on Wye and Chepstow has been produced by the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Partnership using a wealth of information produced by the recent Overlooking the Wye Heritage Lottery funded scheme.

The publication will make a perfect travel companion for tourists visiting the area or for local people who wish to understand and enjoy this historic landscape. As one of the earliest areas to industrialise, the Wye Valley was at the cutting edge of Britain’s industrial development over two hundred years before the industrial revolution. The Wye Valley also saw the first tourism trips for visitors seeking the Picturesque and the glorious Wye countryside.

This lavishly illustrated book opens the door for the reader into a fascinating historical past with stories, paintings, poetry and photographs and will inspire exploration of this internationally important landscape.

Priced at £7.50, copies can be obtained from local booksellers or from publishers Black Dwarf Lightmoor Publications Ltd (www.lightmoor.co.uk) or from the Wye Valley AONB offices (www.wyevalleyaonb.org.uk), tel: 01600 713977

Publisher’s Notes

Visitors have delighted in the landscape of the Wye Valley for centuries. British tourism was born here in the late 1700s, when the Wye Tour became fashionable as a two day boat trip from Ross on Wye to Chepstow. Tourists marvelled at the inspirational views and picturesque ruins, and loved the thick smoke and beating hammers of the ironworks which lined the river and added ‘grandeur’ to the scenery. As one of the earliest areas in Britain to industrialise, the Wye Valley was at the cutting edge of Britain’s industrial development some two hundred years before the Industrial Revolution. Much of this heritage was forgotten about and culturally overlooked, until the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Partnership ran Overlooking the Wye, a £3 million Lottery funded scheme, to help people understand and enjoy this historic landscape. Through conservation and interpretation works this hidden history was brought back to life. As a legacy of Overlooking the Wye, this book opens a door for you into that past, with stories, paintings, poetry and photographs illustrating the remarkable heritage of the Wye Valley. We hope you are inspired to explore this internationally important protected landscape, which straddles the England-Wales border. You will be continuing a tradition dating back hundreds of years.

Further information and sample pages

Mill Race wins the prestigious Flavours of Herefordshire award – Gourmet Herefordshire.

The Mill Race sources most of ingredients locally

The Mill Race in Walford near Ross-on-Wye has been awarded the Gold award in the Gourmet Herefordshire category of the prestigious Flavours of Herefordshire awards.  This award was open to any establishment that offers a high standard of cuisine, service and ambience.

The Flavours of Herefordshire Awards, now in its 14th year, celebrates the best of food and drink in the county. The aim is to encourage, recognise and award not only local restaurants, pubs, hotels, cafes and bed & breakfasts who used and promoted products from local suppliers/producers but also the producers themselves. This year Jules Hudson, presenter of the BBC’s Escape to the Country, who has recently moved to Herefordshire, revealed the winners at a special awards dinner held at Lyde Court on February 2^nd.

To win the Gold award in the Gourmet Herefordshire category the Mill Race showed excellence in the presentation and flavour of food, excellent customer satisfaction, cleanliness and proved that the staff are well trained and aware of their Herefordshire provenance. The Mill Race also prides itself on the fact its customers are made aware of where all their produce comes from and is committed to sourcing as much produce as possible from Herefordshire.

Receivers of the Gold Award, Head Chef Richard Kaye and Assistant Manager, Sally-Ann Lawson were intrigued to receive their individually crafted plaque made from the same oak timber used to make the “The Hereford Bull” – the replica Wye Trow seen in the Jubilee Pageant.

The Mill Race has been open now for 8 years under the management of Freeman Leisure which also owns and operates Bishopswood House as a wedding, conference and party venue.  Luke Freeman, Joint Managing Director of Freeman Leisure stated “We are thrilled to have been awarded this Gold Award. We are dedicated to supporting our home county and this award demonstrates that our high quality food has been recognised along with our ethos of sourcing everything as locally as possible.”

Not only did the Mill Race come out top of the category judged on the whole establishment, they also took a silver award in the Simply Herefordshire category for  the ‘Brisket and Rack of Bishopswood Lamb with Herefordshire Cassis Jelly and Pea Puree’ created by Head Chef Richard Kaye.

 

Forest of Dean cottage is energy-saving winner!

2 Danby Cottages – energy saving cottage in The Forest of Dean

The UK winner of the RELACS (REnewabLe energy for tourist ACcommodation buildingS) has been revealed as no. 2 Danby Cottages, near the village of Yorkley in the Forest of Dean.

2 Danby Cottages is a 3 bedroom holiday cottage nestled in the Forest of Dean which, despite its typical appearance, boasts a number of energy saving and environmentally friendly features.  The owners of 2 Danby Cottages undertook a major renovation project of this 1904 Foresters Cottage in 2007, seeing old solid walls stripped back before insulation and new plaster was applied.  At the time of the renovation, a timber framed extension was added, which incorporated more sustainable recycled paper-based insulation.  As well as the traditional central heating system, the cottage has a closed, log-burning stove, with a wood store in the cottage’s garden, and hot water is supplied by solar water heating panels on the cottage’s roof.  2 Danby Cottages also has very low energy LED lighting, AAA rated appliances, a guide for visitors on what they can do to be more environmentally friendly, and a real-time energy display to show how much electricity is being used.

A close runner-up was Upper Middle Road Farm B&B in the Brecon Beacons, which has wood-fuelled heating, solar water heating and photovoltaic (PV) panels to provide electricity, in addition to a range of other energy efficiency improvements including extensive insulation.  Many other excellent tourist accommodation buildings across the Brecon Beacons, Cotswolds, Forest of Dean and Wye Valley entered the RELACS competition, and their details can be seen on the RELACS website at www.relacs.eu.

The RELACS project has the key aims of encouraging tourist accommodation buildings to reduce energy use and to integrate renewable energy technologies.  Support has been offered to any tourist accommodation business in the Brecon Beacons, Cotswolds, Forest of Dean and Wye Valley over the last 3 years, and RELACS will draw to a close with the final competition.  Winners from each of the 10 countries participating in the competition will be put forward for the EU prize, and 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place winners will be invited to Berlin for a presentation ceremony within the ITB fair in March 2013.

Works On Paper – An exhibition of drawings and paintings by Becky Johnson

An exhibition of drawings and paintings by Becky Johnson

Taurus Crafts are looking forward to exhibiting a young artist, in her first solo exhibition.

Becky Johnson grew up in the Forest of Dean, in Aylburton, and worked at Taurus Crafts as a teenager.  Becky is now studying in Liverpool where she was awarded the Artinliverpool  Purchase Prize in 2011.

The exhibition called ‘Works On Paper’, includes drawings and paintings. ‘I am interested in how an object or a structure can evoke empathy in an audience by conveying an emotion.’  In university, whilst specialising in sculpture, she tried to achieve this by making objects that looked fragile, or helpless. Becky uses mixed media and often incorporates materials, such as tape and correction fluid.  ‘I’m interested in using ‘things’ that are familiar yet unexpected in fine art, that reinforce the feelings I am trying to provoke.’  Her intention is that the subjects of the works communicate an emotion or human state. In her imagination the objects and structures are mysterious – their original purpose is unknown and they no longer function.  The abandoned warehouses of Liverpool and the remnants of industrial activity in the Forest of Dean have been a major influence in this work.

It’s great to see Becky back at Taurus Crafts and back in her home village. She is showing us all how talented she is as an artist and how her work has developed in Liverpool. We have already sold two of her paintings and are sure that the 5 week show will be a success and provide a great point of interest in our cafe and conservatory.

The exhibition runbs at Taurus Crafts, Lydney until 17 February.

GLEWSTONE WINE DINNER RAISES £600 FOR CHILDREN IN NEED!

 

Glewstone Court raises £600 for Children in Need

Forty diners tucked into a sumptuous five-course dinner which was themed to accompany the six featured Bordeaux wines presented by Adrian Patterson of Tanners. Even the blind tasting was a smooth Bordeaux blend Australian red. At the end of the evening Adrian auctioned some fine wines for the Children in Need Appeal and the proceeds together with donations from other diners amounted to £600!

Wine dinners are a monthly event at Glewstone Court; held around the third Friday of every month these relaxed evenings are designed for lovers of wine and food, are great fun and next morning, if you can remember, you might think you have learned something of the magic of wine!

The next wine dinners will be held on Friday 18th January when Simon Clarke of Hay Wines in Ledbury will be presenting wines from Northern Italy and Friday 22nd February will feature wines from Concha Y Toro, a much admired wine brand with vineyards in Chile and Argentina.

An Exhibition of Sketches with Pastels by Mary Rose Young

View from Hang Hill Road Bream by Mary Rose Young

COLOURED – An Exhibition of Sketches with Pastels by Mary Rose Young, Taurus Crafts  1^st December 2012 until 6^th January 2013

When Mary Rose went to Venice last Easter on holiday she returned a rejuvenated and newly inspired artist, the beautiful coloured houses of Burano, the canal bridges and the architecture inspired her. She was soon finding bright colours in the water at Lydney Docks or on the roofs of Pillowell. Every evening and weekend since has been spent on a road side with sketch book and pastels.

We now can present the best of her new pieces at this exhibition at Taurus Crafts, “Coloured”.  ‘To hold an exhibition in my home town, just a few hundred metres from the school where I sat doing Art, means far more to me than the more “showy” destinations in the USA where further exhibitions will inevitably follow’.

Her fun and exuberance has always been visible in her highly renowned colourful pottery, and she hopes those assets shine through in this framed collection. Any form of artistic expression will always betray the inner character of the artist far better than they could ever do themselves in words, and thus her inspirations will be exposed for all to see. As a teenager learning her trade, she had a vision of the “adult me” being an artist, so with “Coloured” she is returning to her first love.

Many of these pastel sketches depict the Forest of Dean, including views of Bream, Pillowell, Drybrook, and Lydney Docks. “The Forest has a wonderful character of its own and to me it’s got little to do with trees or streams or perfect scenery. This has always been an industrial area and everything that’s unique stems from the communities – houses thrown together at random that aren’t picturesque in themselves at all, but yet with a flavour that’s so deep in our sub-consciousness that they’re crying out to be celebrated.”

This exhibition is of the Forest of Dean, through the eyes of somebody who trudged up these streets to school or who meandered around them on a Sunday afternoon searching for something to do, and as usual Mary Rose’s ever-present sense of humour helps bring these familiar village scenes to life.

 

AHOY THERE!! – I SAW THREE SHIPS

I Saw Three Ships – Brockweir Quay
Original Painting by D. Mariana Robinson

When you’re next eating your cornflakes or Weetabix, consider the multiple uses of the cardboard packet.  This year’s Christmas Art Exhibition is entitled “I Saw Three Ships” and includes a display of 1/200 scale model warships, battle ships and ocean liners painstakingly created over the last sixty years, by MichaelJ.Tunnicliffe.

The Mariana-Art Gallery Christmas Exhibitions is on a nautical theme this year, with new original paintings in both watercolour and Atelier Interactive on canvas, as well as cards and prints by D. Mariana Robinson and transport artist Michael J. Tunnicliffe.  “We’ve covered a number of unusual themes over the last four years and this exhibition will be no exception” says gallery owner, Mariana.  “We’re able to offer visitors a chance to see model ships, nautical memorabilia and naval binoculars as well as a range of gifts, photographs, silver jewellery by Debbie Aldecoa and ceramics by Sarah D’Arcy and Tanya Aplin.”

The Exhibition is open from Sunday 25^th November through to Monday 10^th December 2012 at The Mariana-Art Gallery, East Street, St. Briavels, Gloucestershire, GL15 6TQ.  Open daily from 10.30 – 5.00 (closed Wednesdays).  Do come along and see a wonderful array of paintings, prints, photographs, greetings cards, books and of course those model ships.  You’ll be so inspired that “Boxing” Day will have a whole new meaning when you start cutting up those cardboard cereal boxes to start something creative.