Author: Roger Cunliffe

On Sunday, July 20, 2025, the Friends of Haworth Art Gallery hosted a viewing day of strange and wonderful items from around the world which were mainly from the gallery collections. Artefacts originally owned by William and Anne Haworth included an incense burner from Japan, Vienna vases, an ivory snake charmer ornament from China along with a carved ivory card case. Some ancient items were featured from Greece, Egypt and Italy including carved mummies, Roman tear bottle, knife money and cowrie shell money.  The money caused a lot of curiosity as did the tear bottle as they were curious items that most people hadn’t seen before. Ceremonial Japanese pattens and Chinese slippers were on show along with Dutch clogs. Two large frames of replica ancient coins from around the Mediterranean were on view. A replica American Wild West revolver, that was brought by one of the friends, proved popular.

It was a quiet afternoon in the gallery probably due to the heavy rain as well as the start of the school holidays. Even so, we had 30 visitors who stayed with us for some time looking at items and we had some interesting conversations with them.

There was considerable interest in the Russian icons we had on show. The Friends have just commissioned the conservation and reframing of these so this was the last day they were on view before going to the conservation service.

A well worth while event.

June 29, 2025

What a great and busy afternoon.

The Friends of Haworth Art Gallery and Gallery Staff hosted a viewing day of World War 1 artefacts from the gallery collections. These included dress and mess uniforms from the Royal Artillery field regiment, trench art, medals, death pennies, letters, cap badges and shell cases. Pictures of the Accrington Pals included one of Second Lieutenant Basil Arthur Horsfall VC, who was serving in the 11^th Battalion of the East Lancashire Regiment (the Accrington Pals) when he was killed. One group of pictures showed a soldier with a severe facial wound along with ones of his face before and after pioneering plastic surgery. Others showed soldiers marching, at their camps and with their families. One photo of the Entwistle family was poignant in that it showed parents with their eight sons, seven were serving soldiers and five of those were wounded in battle.

Reproductions of WW1 posters were fascinating especially showing women at war and their uniforms. Also on show, was a large poster showing British, French and German lines as they changed during the battle of the Somme.

Photographs from the trenches graphically showed the horror of life in the trenches and included soldiers “going over the top”.

On a lighter note, several cartoons from the era relating to soldiers and the war caused a few wry smiles.

Many thanks to all those who came along and helped set up, spent the afternoon talking to visitors, answered many questions and then helped taking down all the exhibits. Many hands made light work.

During the event, we had 55 visitors, many of whom spent a long time looking at the displays and talking to us. There were quite a few new faces amongst them, so we hope they will come again to our events.

The Friends were treated to a talk by Roger Cunliffe on Friday, May 9, 2025 in the gallery.

Roger’s talk was interesting, amusing and informative with a lot of interaction from the audience. Twelve Friends came along and were regaled by stories, legends and funny quips, while Roger walked us through transport from pack horse trails, old walkways, stagecoach travel, trams, canals and buses with an emphasis mainly on Baxenden and Accrington. As well as illustrating his talk with projected images, he also brought along many models of packhorses, stagecoaches, trams, buses and books.

The gallery staff are hoping to arrange with Roger to do his talk again in the gallery, this time for the general public. Something to look forward to, as I am sure many of us would like to listen to his talk again.

A walk in Haworth Park is a must this spring. The birds are singing, the trees are now showing their fresh-green leaves and the wild flowers are so beautiful. On the banking, a carpet of forget-me-nots delights the eye. Bluebells, especially near the quarry, scent the air. Elsewhere in the park, there are swathes of pink purslane and large clusters of ransoms. Cow parsley, buttercups, daises and dandelions are in profusion, while the tiny germander speedwell can be found in the grass. In the rose garden, the cherry tree is full of pink blossom. Round the park, the horse chestnut trees are sporting their large white cone flowers. Below the house, the rhododendrons are flowering. The large areas of bistort are now in leaf, so the flowers won’t be far behind. Butterflies are starting to appear and the mining bees are back under the hedge. The squirrels can still be seen, even though the trees are no longer bare. It’s a special place.

If anyone has a copy of these images before they became water damaged, please contact The Haworth Friends or the Haworth staff. We want to restore them to their full glory, especially the top one!

The day saw several of the Friends in the gallery early, as we had a load of items to get out on display for our Art Deco Viewing Day. For this event, all the items we used belonged to the various Friends of Haworth Art Gallery.

Our Art Deco included items of Davidson glass, many dressing table items, decanter, brush and dustpan sets, condiment sets, tea set, bon-bon dishes, grape scissors with tray, kitchen items and lots more. We amazed ourselves with the variety.

  We also set up a “Curiosities” table with lots of weird and mysterious things, many of which we asked visitors to guess their use. There was a shove ha’penny board, rune stones, old hair curlers, worry doll, peg dolls, ogham stones, roman lamps, old coins, slide rule and first calculator, leather punch, pack horse bells, rickers and lots more. Visitors were fascinated by the collection of things. And a lot of strange guesses too.

There was also the opportunity to have a go at making a rag rug, something a lot of our visitors hadn’t seen or done before. Several visitors tried their hand at the rug.

We also had documents giving information on the luxurious and opulent Art Deco era for the rich, as well as documents detailing life for the ordinary worker, which was hard. The General Strike, the Wall Street Crash, the miners strike, the reduction in workers wages while they were forced to work longer hours, the workhouse system and paupers graves also featured.

   There were around 60 visitors who came into our displays and who stayed for a long time viewing artefacts, asking questions and telling us their recollections.

It was a great day. Well done to all those who offered their precious things, came along on the day to help and also thanks to those who made our super poster and publicised our event.

 

Saturday February 8 2025 in the gallery. Today the artist, Becky Atherton, whose exhibition on Anne Haworth is currently displayed, gave a talk on her paintings. She gave an entertaining insight into the inspiration for each picture, which featured many aspects of Anne’s life. Talking about Anne’s social conscience and her generosity, she showed a picture which featured Anne with her two housemaids, who were both unmarried mothers. Anne employed both of them even though, in her social circle, unmarried mothers were considered the lowest of the low and were never employed. Anne made her own decisions and wasn’t bound by convention in this respect. Her generosity was also shown by two hands cascading coins, as well as a depiction of her house which she gave to Accrington to be used as an art gallery. (Now Haworth Art Gallery)

Another picture featured the car Anne had converted to an ambulance for Accrington. Others showed her with her brother, William, and her companion, Ellen Priestley, and denoted their travels in Europe and Egypt. Several paintings also included cameos of items from the house, which Anne and William had had built. They had chosen all the fixtures and fittings, the house reflecting their love of the arts and crafts movement.

As Anne had loved ceramics, Becky had taken some vases and made sculptural pieces from them on which she had painted aspects relating to Anne’s life.

On view, we had several of Anne’s belongings on display: vases, incense burner, ivory card case and ivory fan as well as her miniature of her brother

William. We also had on display photographs of William, Anne and Ellen together with our books on their lives and those of their staff.

The exhibition was an amazing tribute to Anne. The people who came to the talk were really interested, viewed Anne’s items from the gallery collection and then tried to find them depicted on the paintings.

A most enjoyable and interesting afternoon. Thanks to the Friends of Haworth Art Gallery who helped with the display and looked after the items on show, as well as talking to visitors and answering their questions.

On Saturday February 8th at 1pm, Becky Atherton will talk about her current exhibition of portraits of Anne Haworth here in the gallery. There will also be a display of some of Anne’s possessions held by the gallery.

The Friends of the Haworth are putting on a display inspired by Art Deco design (think Poirot the detective). That date is Sunday March 9th from 12:30. There will also be a Wierd & Wonderful  stall for visitors to guess what each was used for!!!      (This glass ornament is an R. Lalique Car bonnet design)

 

 

 

 

It was a happy, cheerful, warm and friendly day when Santa came to the gallery on December 15. Santa (alias Harry) and the elves (alias Liz, Dom and Roger) created a   wonderful time for the children. Each child was greeted individually and had a few minutes with Santa and the elves. Each child got a small gift courtesy of the gallery, who also provided popular Christmas crafts.

While the children were waiting, Jean, Frances and Sandy had Santa letters for them to fill in and post in Santa’s post box. We also had a tree with baubles that people could either write on their name or a Christmas wish which they then stuck on the tree. People thought this was a lovely idea, with parents and older siblings joining in enthusiastically. Roger entertained the children with a mouse and robin finger puppets.

In the hall, Ann and Marilyn had a bottle stall to raise funds towards the restoration of the icons. This was so well patronised that we ran out of bottles! £92 was raised. A brilliant result.

Thanks to Harry, Roger, Jean, Frances, Sandy, Ann and Marilyn from the Friends and to all the gallery staff. A really lovely event for families in our community.

Many thanks also to all those who supported us with bottles and best wishes.