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).

 

Fascinating and amazing! Our viewing day today was all about coins, medals and tokens.

Replicas of ancient coins astonished visitors with their detail, depicting people with helmets or intricate hairstyles, animals and insignia. These replicas represented coins dating from 700BC to 336BC. British coinage from a coin of Elizabeth l up to Elizabeth ll were on view and visitors were able to compare old sterling coins and current decimal coinage.

Tokens were most interesting with the story of their origins in ancient times and their usage in Britain in the 17th and late 18th century. Provincial coins were manufactured in towns and cities when the Royal Mint wasn’t producing coins. These were attractive with each having the name of the place and reliefs showing their important aspects eg. t he Rochdale one showed a sheep’s fleece on one side, which represented the town’s woollen trade. Also on show were workhouse tokens, protest tokens, merchants tokens and several tokens from Accrington and Church Industrial Co-operative Society. Some visitors

remembered these and there were discussions about the Co-op “Divi” which was paid in coins or tokens – this compared to present day supermarket Club Card rebates. Tokens from the local soft drinks firm, Stantons, were shown along with one of their stone jars for which people had to pay a 2/6 deposit.

Transport tokens were also shown – tram tokens being sometimes given to workers to ensure they got to work. Truck tokens were given to workers in part payment of wages. These could only be spent in the company shop, where prices were often inflated. Whilst the idea was that workers couldn’t spend their wages on getting drunk, the employer also made a profit on the truck system.

Amongst the tokens were two issued to commemorate the acquittal of two men accused of treason. They both had taken part in the Radical Movement in the 1700’s protesting against Government repression. Others in the movement were imprisoned and some hanged.

Much interest was also shown in two love tokens. These were common in the times of George ll and George lll. They were used by the rich to indicate either a secret romance or a token of esteem prior to a formal engagement. These were made from coins which had the initials of the couple on the reverse.

As for the medals we had on show, these included the Accrington Womens Temperance Society medal and ribbon and a medal and ribbon from Accrington Baby Day in 1929 in Oak Hill Park, which was attended by nearly 700 mums and children. Entertainment was provided and everyone was served an afternoon tea, demonstrating how good Edwardian organisational skills were.

 

Our event was the second viewing day we have organised and was a fascinating day for those who came along. Several people asked for more viewing days and there are more planned for later in the year.

 

Well done and thanks to all those who made this such a good event.

 

 Santa at the Gallery

Sunday December 17th 2033

Yo Ho Ho          Santa arrived at the gallery ringing his bell.

Santa came to the gallery for a short visit. He could only stay for two hours as he was very busy and had another place to go today as well.

So many families came, we were overwhelmed. 300 visitors in two hours. But it was a free event so that probably accounted for the numbers coming.
The gallery staff had set up a grotto in the morning room and Santa’s elves were there to help entertain the children, who all got a small gift.

The Red Rose singers performed and their Christmas songs echoed through the gallery creating a merry atmosphere. Lovely to hear.
The gallery staff had created an elf trail inside the gallery and the children loved searching for the elves and solving a puzzle on the way. Outside in the Rose Garden, there was a reindeer trail. Children had to find the names of all the reindeers who were hiding. But we had a problem –Rudolph had gone missing, so children were searching through the bushes and trees to try to find him. But no luck. So had he set off back to the north Pole, gone exploring, gone for his tea or been kidnapped? No-one knew and no-one found him. So we were all hoping he would be found soon.

Christmas crafts were also provided by the gallery and so many children and their parents enjoyed taking part.
The Artist’s Studios were open for visitors and there was a lovely selection of crafts, pictures and cards on display for sale, with a warm welcome for everyone.
Altogether, six of our Friends group took part in the event. Well done to them and the gallery staff for creating such a great event for our local families.