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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.

The Friends of Haworth Art Gallery hosted a visit to the gallery on November 21 by volunteers and Friends of the Harris Museum, Preston. 20 visitors came and were greeted by six of the Friends. After their lunch, Amelia from the gallery welcomed our visitors and gave short talk about the Haworth’s Tiffany Glass collection and Joseph Briggs, explaining how he sent a large number of specimen pieces to Accrington. These formed the majority of the collection we see in the gallery today.

Jean then talked about the house, which was built in 1908/1909, and its Arts and Crafts features, illustrating the talk with pictures of the interior of the house taken in 1921, though up to the present day, the house is little changed. The plaster ceilings, carvings, windows, window seating, fireplaces, electroliers and the lattice windows were featured and are all original.

 

 

 

Dining room with ornate plaster ceiling with central dropped pillar holding the electrolier.

 

 

 

Drawing room with barrel vaulted plaster ceiling, lattice windows, window seating, original electroliers and fireplace – all arts & crafts features.

 

 

Billiard Room showing smoking dais. China cabinets, carvings, arches and fireplace are typical arts and crafts features. Carvings around cabinets are all different and depict local animals, birds and flowers. Note the arches. Similar ones are in the hall and corridors. There was a fitted carpet in these 3 rooms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

William Haworth                                                                            Anne Haworth

The talk then covered the lives of William and Anne Haworth and the staff they employed at the house. William and Anne had the house built as their retirement home, though William still supervised his mills, and Anne was involved in local charities, the Baptist church and school. Their philanthropic nature, the Baptist church and their liberal party values coloured the whole of their lives and they gave their time and money for the benefit of the local people. Anne employed two unmarried mothers as housemaids which just wasn’t done in their social circles, which showed Anne’s belief in socialist values. Anne’s bequest of the house and grounds to Accrington to be used for an art gallery, museum and public park has resulted in our magnificent building and the gallery we have today. An incredible gift which gave back to Accrington a lot of the riches that they had made.

It was a good day today at the Haworth. We started with a tour lead by Anne Alston, one of the gallery volunteers, who showed off all the arts & crafts features of the building. She explained how the decorated plaster ceilings were made in London and brought up in pieces to be erected on site. We looked at the panelling and carvings and the significance of some eg the acorns representing Accrington. We saw the wooden pegs in the staircase which the carpenters had used to erect it in the Arts & Crafts tradition of craftsmanship. The huge staircase window was viewed. This featured the coats of arms of Accrington and Lancashire together with William Haworth’s Initials. The significance of the roundels was explained – the cotton trade represented by the spinning wheel, cotton plant. ship etc.

A Jacob’s Join lunch was then enjoyed by us all and some of the gallery staff joined us in sharing the meal.

After the meal, we had a talk by Jean about William and Anne Haworth and the staff who worked for them from when the house was finished in 1909 to the death of Anne in 1920. Details of Anne’s will looked at how every member of staff was remembered by her and the gift of the house and grounds to Accrington.

Finally we viewed the Russian Icons that we are fundraising to restore, along with the miniature of William Haworth, William & Anne’s music albums as well as some items from WWl which also need conserving.

A really good day.

Thanks to all who came and provided the lunch. Thanks to Anne and Jean for the tour and talk.

On Sunday September 15, the Friends of Haworth Art Gallery took part in this event. It was part of the National Heritage Week events across the country. The theme was Routes, Networks, Connections.

We had some artefacts out of the gallery stores which had come from Russia, China, Ireland and Vienna. Guests to the gallery were invited to place a dot on maps of the UK and the world showing where they or their family originated. There were quite a few stories of family members uprooting, with many settling in Lancashire. The Russian icons amazed visitors and we used the occasion to fundraise to have these conserved. Also on display was the 1921 photograph album of the gallery – again many people were interested and surprised how little the house had changed. We had out the replica album that one of our members had done, so the photographs could all be viewed without having to touch the original.

Our usual heritage games were well used, as was the puppet theatre. The tombola and the bottle stall attracted lots of people, as did the Guess the Name of the Teddy. The ukulele lessons in the Billiard room proved popular as did the picnic lunches served by the gallery kitchen.

 

 

 

 

 

A most enjoyable day and there was lots of positive feedback from visitors. It was int1resting that quite a few visitors were new to the gallery and, along with the good comments, people said they would be coming again so when was the next event? It was the last day of the current exhibition too, so it was another opportunity to view the paintings.

It was a great day at the gallery on Sunday. We had out all sorts of weird and interesting items from the galley collections and the Friends had brought lots of items as well. The topic was “Old Household Items” mainly from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Some were labelled, asking people to guess what they were used for. This caused some hilarity. There was one item that we didn’t know the use of – a visitor correctly identified it as a biscuit/shortbread pricker.
There were around 50 visitors into our display and many stayed for a long time. People reminisced about items they remembered from their grandparent’s homes. The dolly tub, rubbing board and hard soap aroused interest, as did the patchwork quilts and the letter scales. Kitchen items too. The crochet demonstration showed one of the things women passed their spare time with, as did all the sewing related items. An interesting and informative afternoon for us as well as for visitors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Sunday at the gallery, the Friends held a viewing day of items from the gallery’s permanent collections. The theme was Accrington and District and the items on display were an eclectic mix from books, to Stanton’s stoneware pop bottles, to presentation keys and trowels, pictures of pubs dating back as far as 1868, pictures and much more.

While the numbers visiting the display were small – around 25 – the people who came in stayed for a long time, viewed the items, talked to us and asked lots of questions. A really good afternoon with lots of positive feedback from attendees.

 

 

 

 

On Sunday, 26th May, visitors were treated to a tour and talk by Sam, one of the Haworth Art Gallery staff.

We went on a tour of the Tiffany rooms looking at the various beautiful pieces of glass. Sam explained how Tiffany, as a young man, had been on archaeological digs in Cyprus and was fascinated by the glass items unearthed. Having been in the ground for hundreds of years, glass pieces had acquired a natural textural iridescence and he wanted to recreate this effect in his glass.

With a great deal of experimentation over several years, his team of chemists and craftsmen were able to produce textured iridescent glass using metal compounds, producing differing colours of blue, purple, green, silver and gold. Pieces of this glass were used in mosaics, some of which were huge and decorated many public and private buildings in America. Special vases and display pieces were also made and the gallery has a wide selection in their permanent collection, some of the pieces being rare. We have to thank Joseph Briggs, originally from Accrington, who rose to be the top man at Tiffany Glass, as he sent back to Accrington so many pieces of Tiffany glass for our town when the works closed, rather than have the pieces destroyed. Today, the gallery’s collection of Tiffany glass is the best in Europe, having such diverse examples, some of which are rare.

The talk ended with a viewing from the gallery’s collection of an ancient vial of Roman glass unearthed in Cyprus. This piece showed the natural iridescence which had developed in the hundreds of years the item had been buried. Sam also had several iridescent Tiffany tiles for us to view and explained the process of their manufacture.

A most enjoyable and fascinating afternoon. If you go along to the gallery, you can see the Tiffany collection and read about its manufacture and how it came to be here.

There will be fun and Games at Haworth Gallery on Easter Sunday, 12 noon ’til 4pm. Egg Hunt, Crafts, Games and your chance to create Giant Bubbles (or dozens of little ones).