Prestonpans Tapestry
Encyclopedia
Embroidery
Embroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins....
created - and normally situated in - Prestonpans
Prestonpans
Prestonpans is a small town to the east of Edinburgh, Scotland, in the unitary council area of East Lothian. It has a population of 7,153 . It is the site of the 1745 Battle of Prestonpans, and has a history dating back to the 11th century...
, East Lothian
East Lothian
East Lothian is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and a lieutenancy Area. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Scottish Borders and Midlothian. Its administrative centre is Haddington, although its largest town is Musselburgh....
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
Its full title is "The Battle of Prestonpans Tapestry 1754".
The design, size and style were inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry
Bayeux Tapestry
The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidered cloth—not an actual tapestry—nearly long, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England concerning William, Duke of Normandy and Harold, Earl of Wessex, later King of England, and culminating in the Battle of Hastings...
; however, the Prestonpans version deals with the events before, during and after the Battle of Prestonpans
Battle of Prestonpans
The Battle of Prestonpans was the first significant conflict in the Jacobite Rising of 1745. The battle took place at 4 am on 21 September 1745. The Jacobite army loyal to James Francis Edward Stuart and led by his son Charles Edward Stuart defeated the government army loyal to the Hanoverian...
in 1745.
The Tapestry is – like the Bayeux Tapestry – an embroidered
Embroidery
Embroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins....
cloth, rather than a woven tapestry
Tapestry
Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven on a vertical loom, however it can also be woven on a floor loom as well. It is composed of two sets of interlaced threads, those running parallel to the length and those parallel to the width ; the warp threads are set up under tension on a...
. It is annotated in English. More than two hundred embroiderers created the work over a two year period; about half of these reside in Scotland, but other participants have come from as far as New Zealand.
The complete artwork measures 104 metres (341.2 ft), and it consists of 103 panels, each about one metre long. It is about 30 metres (98.4 ft) longer than the Bayeux example.
The completed work was unveiled on July 26, 2010, at Cockenzie power station
Cockenzie power station
Cockenzie power station is a coal-fired power station in East Lothian, Scotland, capable of co-firing biomass. It is situated on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, near the town of Cockenzie and Port Seton, east of the Scottish capital of Edinburgh. The station has dominated the local...
close to Prestonpans, and it has travelled around Britain until September 2010 when it returned to Prestonpans to coincide with the Battlefield Trust's annual commemoration of the Battle.
Further opportunities to exhibit the work have included the Scottish Parliament
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...
and the Scottish Storytelling Centre
Scottish Storytelling Centre
The Scottish Storytelling Centre the world's first purpose built modern centre for live storytelling, located on the High Street in Edinburgh's Royal Mile, Scotland, United Kingdom. It was formally opened on 1 June 2006 by Patricia Ferguson MSP, Minister for Culture in the Scottish Executive...
. For almost three months, the Tapestry was exhibited at St. Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, to coincide with the Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
.
Inspiration
The Prestonpans Tapestry is the brainchild of the Prestongrange Arts Festival, the Battle of Prestonpans 1745 Heritage Trust, the former Chairman of the Trust (Gordon Baron Prestoungrange), and the designer Dr. Andrew Crummy, who is also the youngest son of the renowned and highly respected community activist Helen CrummyHelen Crummy
Helen Crummy, MBE was a founder of The Craigmillar Festival Society , and served as the Organising Secretary for the group until 1985....
MBE
MBE
MBE can stand for:* Mail Boxes Etc.* Management by exception* Master of Bioethics* Master of Bioscience Enterprise* Master of Business Engineering* Master of Business Economics* Mean Biased Error...
. Historical and architectural advice was obtained from Professor Martin Margulies, from Arran Johnston and from Gareth Jones.