Gawthorpe Hall

Today we visited Gawthorpe Hall in Padiham, near Burnley in Lancashire. The building, as you can see is pretty impressive. Inside, it is just as impressive, and yet manages to feel homely as well. The plasterwork ceilings in the drawing room are an absolute wonder. But, the main reason for our visit was to check out the incredible textiles collection, gathered by Miss Rachel Kay Shuttleworth who was an incredibly talented needlewoman, but who also played a big role in the community with her work in the Girl Guiding movement. She made her home into a Craft House, and invited visitors from all over the world to share and learn. The pictures of her show a kindly face woman, and the dedications to her would seem to back this up. Apparently there are a lot of women in the area named after her.
I first became aware of this National Trust property when a blogger I follow visited as part of an Arts Council Project. It then turned out that a neighbour of mine is the curator of the textile collection. What a fantastic job she has! If you want to see photos of some of the collection visit Kate Davies' blog here and here and here as photography is not usually permitted.