Author: Roger Cunliffe

On Sunday, June 28, the Friends hosted a viewing day of World War 1 artefacts from the gallery collections, which included death pennies, medals, letters from the front, cap badges, information and photos of the Accrington Pals along with trench art, an artillery WW1 dress uniform and a great coat. We were also privileged to have on display an OBE which was awarded to Walter Scofield for his role in firefighting at Cote Holm Chemical Works in Church on April 27, 1917 after an explosion. The company manufactured picric acid, a vital component of explosives for shells. We had newspaper cuttings on display about this explosion in the picric acid drying rooms at the works. As well, a copy of the government report on the disaster was on show for people to read.

Jean told the story of this tragic event in which local policeman, PC Hardacre, lost his life with four others being injured. She told the story of her grandmother’s recollections of, on the 26th, having a strong premonition of danger and feeling dreadful all day. She was of Scottish ancestry and had some measure of second sight. In the early hours of the morning of the 27th, she got the children out of bed and set off to run as fast as they could to safety with their Stokes family in Accrington. As they ran, policemen were dashing down the street, knocking on doors and telling people to run for their lives. Damage outside the works included the shattering of the Burns-Jones stained glass windows at St James church. The glass roof and wall at the factory across the canal from the works were destroyed. In Accrington, the windows of the Coop drapery store on Abbey Street were shattered.

The story of female munition workers in Lancashire was also told. Their skins turned yellow due to the chemicals, so they were nicknamed Canaries and some women had stillbirths, had babies who were deformed and also suffered from cancer, all due to chemical exposure. We had large photographs of the women workers who worked at Blakes (Howard & Bullough) and Linda, using these photographs, made two female munition workers costumes which were modelled throughout the afternoon by Linda, Ruth and Janet. The women, for recreation, formed football teams and, as they weren’t allowed to play in local leagues with the men, they made their own league, played knockout competitions and held the finals at Derek Kerr stadium in Preston. So women’s football is not a new thing! Women, in WW1, took over so many of the traditional men’s jobs including farming, factory work and fire fighting.

The afternoon was busy. 55 visitors were counted. Many stayed all afternoon and the room was buzzing with conversations, questions and family recollections.

Well done everyone who helped to make the day a big success.

In 2019, the Friends of Haworth Art Gallery had the 1921 Hollins Hill photograph album, containing contemporary photographs of the house, conserved to protect it for many years to come. The Friends also presented a copy of the album to the gallery to allow visitors to flip through the copy at their leisure, instead of risking damaging the actual album. (The original album can be viewed by appointment if wanted)

By this year, 2026, the copy album had been so well used by the many visitors to the gallery, that it was dropping into pieces. So the Friends have made a new copy. The photograph shows Harry Emmett, chairperson of the Friends, handing over the new copy to Alison Iddon at the gallery.

The Friends of Haworth Art Gallery are doing some research into munitions workers who were often known as “Canaries” because their skin turned yellow as their bodies absorbed the chemicals used. This group of women all worked together at Howard & Bullough, Accrington and this picture shows them in the uniform they wore. We only know one person in the photo and that is Ellen Moore seated first left. Can anyone identify any of the others? Maybe there is information in your family archives or in family stories told. If you have or find any information to help us, please can you email us on howarthaccrington@gmail.com. Thank you.

The Santa Day at the gallery was a great success. Families from our local community came along so their children could visit Santa for free, the only local Santa event with no charge.

On the day, our Santa, Harry, was ill, so Paddy stepped into the breech and did a magnificent job. Roger reprised his role as Santa’s helper and other friends of the gallery and gallery staff also dressed as elves and fairies.

The gallery looked so Christmassy and friendly. There were lots of Christmas crafts organised by the gallery for the children. As well, there were trails to follow round the house and the grounds, though the weather put off most people from the outdoor one.

Our gift bag stall sold out and we raised £134 for our funds, which will go towards conservation of the two items we have at Lancashire Conservation.

As always, the Friends rallied round and provided loads of items to go into gift bags for a stall at Santa Day. We had a great fun filled morning putting items in all the bags which we had collected and we were amazed at how many we had.

Thanks to everyone who saved bags, donated items and came along to fill bags.

For the National Heritage Day, the Friends, along with two young people who volunteered, were deeply involved in organising and running the Fun Day alongside the gallery staff.

The tombola raised funds for our accounts, which we will use for the benefit of the gallery. Guess The Name of the Teddy raised a few laughs, as people chose from a provided list of silly and strange possibilities. No-one chose the correct name, which was Rupert. Perhaps it was too normal a name alongside all the odd ones! The finger puppet theatre was popular with the younger visitors, who told stories with the puppets.

In another guessing game, we had several artefacts from our own and the gallery collections and visitors were challenged to guess their age or which era they were from. Dates ranged from 340 million years ago (crinoid fossils), Bronze age, Roman era, through the 1800’s, Victorian and Edwardian eras as well as art deco. Artefacts included apothecary pots, a bronze age pot, Roman pot, miner’s lamp, china pieces and a printing block, as well as a woven piece of cloth showing the face of Edward Vlll, made for his coronation which never happened as he abdicated. Visitors spent some time at this table, but it turned out that some of the children visiting were more accurate than their parents!

The Heritage Games were popular, as always, both with children and adults, and competitions between family members were fierce. Outside, the giant bubbles caused loads of fun for everyone and the near neighbours also enjoyed the show, as the bubbles soared over the surrounding area.

One of the Friends, masquerading as the coachman, William Beach, took visitors round the Motor House and Stables which were built 1908/09, telling the story of the coachman and chauffeur, transporting people back to the era when cars were the privilege of the rich as were private carriages. There was also a tour of the house by gallery staff looking at the architecture and the art and craft interior. Upstairs, there were craft activities for the children visiting. These were based on features of the house and were good fun.

The morning room was transformed into a lecture theatre and visitors were treated to a talk on Simeon Marshall, who was the landscape architect responsible for planning and planting out the grounds when the house (now the gallery) was first build, together with maps and information as well as a short walk to look at several areas of the grounds. A really interesting talk.

Our visitors came from all ages, backgrounds and abilities, with everyone being able to take part and chat to us. We were given a lot of positive feedback, some of which is recorded at the end of this document. In all, 80 people took part in our activities.

Some comments from visitors:

· One Asian mother, here with her disabled children, stayed all afternoon and said it was wonderful to be able to bring them and find they were accepted like everyone else and got to play on all the games and try the bubbles.

· Several people commented on the “What Era” guessing game having had a laugh and learnt about artefacts

· Very friendly atmosphere coming into the building

· Can we really have a try at making the giant bubbles?

· Several people thanked us for providing the heritage games

· It was good to play the games – so much better than being on screens all the time

· One family said they hadn’t been here before but will definitely be coming back

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.