Village Tapestry

This tapestry was worked by Mrs Joy Wilkinson and took her three years to complete. 

The numbers of windows, the position of doors etc are correct and she walked out around the village counting them all. The Copper Beech trees she marked because she loved them; the crops are those present in the fields in 1971. The perspective had to be altered to fit with the stitches, but it’s as accurate as she could make it.

The tapestry measures some 26” x 19” and has 18 stitches to the inch – that’s over 160,000 stitches.

Even more remarkably – Joy had had polio in 1955 and lost the use of her left arm, her right arm moved only from the elbow downward. Every stitch required her to insert the needle on top of the canvas then move the same arm underneath to draw the silk through – then insert it into the next hole from underneath, move her arm to the top and draw the thread though again … and repeat.

It was a labour of love for a village she loved.

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