Visit to the Royal School of Needlework – Wednesday 11th February 2015

The Royal School of Needlework, based at Hampton Court Palace, is an international centre of excellence for the art of hand embroidery. Booking December 2014 and January 2015

This visit follows up the lecture ‘With Just a needle and Thread’ last April. Founded in 1872, the School’s original purpose was to revive the art of embroidery and provide employment for educated women who might otherwise have fallen into poverty. Now the School is dedicated to teaching, practising and promoting the art of hand embroidery. It runs courses at all levels from beginners to degree level, maintains a major collection of the finest examples of embroidery, conserves and restores historical work and accepts commissions for major new work. Famous examples of their work include the Coronation Robe of State for the Queen’s coronation in 1953, the 34 panel Overlord Embroidery (which took five years to make) now in the D-Day Museum in Portsmouth and embroidery on the Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding dress. Our morning visit coincides with the School’s ‘Inspired by the Garden’ exhibition. We shall have a talk, a tour and an opportunity to handle and inspect in detail, items from the Collection.Members may also opt to visit Hampton Court Palace in the afternoon at reduced rates. Numbers for this visit are limited to 24. We will therefore drive our own cars to Hampton Court but we will try to make sure lifts are available of those without cars or who prefer not to drive.