Hi spiders It has been a very hectic week or so. Alice, I haven't forgotten about doing a write up about the trip to America - it really has been hectic - son getting married, daughter moved to Leicester, husband demolishing our cloakroom, teaching, helping with the organising of our lace day yesterday (Saturday with Veronica Main which was hectic but a good day) and a few other matters to boot including the exhibition of the Battle of Britain Lace Panel at The Forum, Norwich, (Norfolk, England) all last week.
It was a fantastic week, beginning with the RAF Central Band and a Guard of Honour from RAF Coltishall parading outside City Hall in Norwich, there was then a flypast by a spitfire over the city before the parade made its way escorting the Lord Mayor of Norwich to The Forum, the Colours were presented and the Mayor unveiled the Lace Panel. Reg Sheppard then gave a talk on the history of the Battle of Britain and the lace panel. Reg did a magnificent job of displaying the lace panel. Two thousand exhibition brochures were printed and these had gone in two and a bit days, a further 1500 were produced overnight! Reg was overwhelmed at the response of the various lace groups/guilds who contributed to his appeal to help fund the exhibition. He told me that had it not been for the response of the lacemakers the exhibition would probably have not been able to go ahead - and asked me to pass on thanks to all those who responded. It was a very emotional time for him a dream come true, (by the way Reg is fine, he was kept in hospital overnight as a precaution, but was back Wednesday giving his talk twice a day). Thank you lacemakers. Several thousand visited the exhibition during the course of the week, many were lacemakers, and many came out of curiosity having seen publicity about it in local press etc -everyone thought it stunningly beautiful. The lace panel is absolutely exquisite, quite breathtaking. I have never seen machine lace of such superb quality. There were also press photos taken during the bombing on display, and it was these photos that Harry Cross used for designing many of the sections of the panel. I particularly loved the image of Bow Church which has the reflection of St Paul's Cathedral in its window. It was lovely to meet Jean, the owner of the panel, she inherited it from her father John Sloman, who had been behind the panels tour of Britain back in 1946-48, when Reg Sheppard accompanied it around the country. Bill Rowe (who has written a book about it called The Battle of Britain in Lace)and his wife, Evelyn also travelled up to Norfolk for the week and it was great meeting them as Bill has helped me with information about the panels that I have used for various articles that I've written and am about to write!). We enjoyed lunch on the Monday with Jacqui Barber - Chairman of the Lace Guild who came up for the day, and it was great to talk to the various lacemakers who came Carole Morris and friends from Burwell lacemakers, Audrey from Littleport Lacemakers, Sheringham Lacemakers, Norfolk Lacemakers, Suffolk Lacemakers etc etc (excuse me for any I've missed). I was also able to get some really fantastic photos of the panel with the digital camera I bought in America - I got an album put together Friday night so that it could go on display at our lace day on Saturday and I hope to add a page on Suffolk Lacemakers web site in the near future (have a few gremlins to sort out on that thanks to that nice bug that did the rounds a few weeks ago). If you get a chance to see the panel do, photos just don't do it justice. It is beautiful. Nicky in a lovely autumnal but sunny Suffolk, where I hope to touch ground soon!!!!Or I shall be in need of another holiday - dream on. To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
