Mary and the Guild of St George

Mary’s connection with the Guild of St George was revealed on our visit to Sheffield to see her nature diaries which are held in the Ruskin Collection.  Apparently Mary introduced herself to the Guild in the early 1930’s (the first letter from her to the Guild held in the Sheffield archive is dated 1935) keen […]

The Herkomer Drawing

Just as Melanie told me she had unearthed a Herkomer drawing of Mary in the archive I came across a reference to it in the letters.  On Sept 11th, 1941 Mary writes about more things she is sending to the Art Gallery including …”a portrait in pencil – or chalk – of myself by H. […]

Alphabet Counters

Whilst researching horn books I came across an article by W.S. Churchill, ‘Nuremburg Alphabetical Tokens’ in Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, (vol.20, 1902). Churchill talks about traders who worked at the mint in Nuremburg around the mid 16th century. They would make metal counters, usually out of copper or brass with each letter of the […]

Value

I’ve been thinking a lot about value. It’s a common thread of discussion every time we meet. The value of the collection to Mary and the lack of value (or perceived lack of value) the collection has within the Art Gallery currently. I wondered if this was always the case. The letters certainly reveal that […]

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Its a messy business

June 16, 2009 Artist Responses 4 Comments


One of the hopes I have for this blog is that we can just collect all our thoughts and follow lines of enquiry, and use this as a record to edit later.
I have started a few projects based on things we found in the collection..
on the Chatelaine, keys, candles and threads..(more on all soon)…
The bodkin case keeps resurfacing in my mind.
It was a very ordinary looking item, a useful thin box for keeping your bodkins in.
I have made these small boxes over the last two years…(see pic)
still not sure why..or what for…
But I like the idea of little metal boxes made for a specific item, that would be carried on the person..especially with a name like Bodkin.

71 Grosvenor Street

June 16, 2009 Hidden Stories 1 Comment

This is a view of the east corner of Grosvenor Street and Upper Brook Street in 1959. The block of houses on the right of the picture almost certainly includes 68 Grosvenor Street, from which the second photo is taken a year later, looking west. I think this shows the demolition of the block on the corner, including the shop. I’m guessing that 71 must have been approximately opposite the block of houses in the first picture. Manchester City Council website includes an archive of 77,000 images of Manchester. It’s amazing!

A1Scrapmetal Collection

June 15, 2009 Artist Responses 1 Comment


These are two objects from my own collection..The rounded one is a needle case, but I am unsure what the other one was for.
Mary has a bodkin case in her collection and I am thinking about making something of a similar ilk…

Moving to London

June 15, 2009 The Letters 2 Comments

I have reached 1927 in the correspondence between Mary and Mr Batho, the Assistant Curator at the Gallery. Now in her 70s she is just leaving Coles, her marital home in the Hertfordshire Countryside, and moving to a newly built flat in Kensington High Street, London. St Mary Abbots Court

I checked and yes the mansion block of flats is still there. Seven storeys high, and purpose built. It puts me in mind of Howards End, and the new flats being built in Edwardian London just before this.

What a change in Mary’s life, but as she says in reference to her old and new homes:

I had for some time found living there too much of a burden & so lonely that I could not face another minute.

71 Grosvenor Street

June 15, 2009 Hidden Stories 1 Comment

Went looking for 71 Grosvenor Street on Friday but didn’t have camera on me. Most of the old buildings are gone and it’s all 1960s council housing and later. Closest I could find was 94-96 on the corner with Anson Road (big dual carriageway)? One way traffic system prevented me from going back but will explore further….and add pics.

pencil holders

June 12, 2009 Artist Responses 1 Comment


This is one of the most uncanny things so far… Mary’s chatelaine which has a holder for pencil stubs – just like ones that Hazel made before seeing Mary Greg’s version – and only 80 years later. I think Hazel IS Mary Greg!

Samuel Crompton

June 11, 2009 Hidden Stories 1 Comment

I found a Samuel Crompton living on Grosvenor Street in Chorlton, Manchester in the 1841 census! Must be Chorlton-on-Medlock which would make it Grosvenor Street next to MMU, over the road from the School of Art. How strange is that. Born in 1821, aged 20, profession given as a surgeon. Don’t know anything else, couldn’t see the rest of the result without paying 60 quid.

Is this his letter? How did the ‘lady from Lancashire’ come by it? Is it connected with the earlier Crompton? Who knows. Interesting though, a connection…

In search of Samuel Crompton

June 10, 2009 Hidden Stories 1 Comment

I’m going to look for 71 Grosvenor Street, Manchester

Believe me

June 9, 2009 Hidden Stories 1 Comment

Been thinking about Samuel Crompton’s bits of string too small for use…

In that moment of discovery, looking through a set of old brown files in the gallery office, we believed we had found something momentous (well, you had). And we had.

Something about Mary’s ‘believe me’ really excites me. Somebody spun those cotton yarns a long time ago. Somebody carefully annotated a series of small card tabs and wound the samples around them. And then went home and had tea. Maybe they got sent to Samuel Crompton. Somebody put them to one side, in a box or a drawer, and they became accidental survivors, archaeological fragments of something once real but now out of reach. And then, their potential really opens up. Such humble things become so potent.

I love the possibility, even if it’s only temporary and is shot down by research, that they could be the first yarns from the mule. That the reality of what they are is up for grabs. It’s the slippery-ness of story-telling, filling in the gaps between the bits and pieces with bits and pieces of other stories and making it momentarily true. Not a very curatorial response, more a romantic one.

Samuel Crompton

June 6, 2009 Artist Responses 1 Comment


Having just looked at Samuel Cromptons history, I wonder if this letter is real. He lived in King Street, Bolton and died in 1827.
Mary has a number of items in her bygones collection that have wonderful stories, they give worthless objects excitement and meaning.
This idea has always been a main part of my work, I like to take the banal and try and show its importance.
Fluff, gravel, string and rusty nails are some of the items I have created “stories” and inventions for
Once an item has a story it is like touching history.
There is the first shovel of earth they dug when the Manchester ship canal was dug in one museum I visited.
Relics abound in religion…there are meant to be so many splinters of the cross.

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Comments

  • Liz Mitchell: No, Laura has been through the archives and there is nothing...
  • Alex Woodall: Wow - this is so exciting - must go and see this exhibition ...
  • Margery L Brown: I am a direct descendant of Samuel Hope and would like to co...
  • Anthony J B Hope: Hello, re post by Joan Borrowscale regarding connection betw...
  • Alex Woodall: I like these very much! Can you use them to actually do the...