In pictures: Quaker tapestry on show at Cathedral
The world's largest modern community textile project is on show at a free exhibition at Blackburn Cathedral throughout February 2011
The Quaker Tapestry, made between 1981 and 1996, provides a fascinating embroidered narrative of social history from a Quaker perspective. It was made by 4,000 men, women and children from 15 countries and depicts stories from the last 350 years
It came into being after a chance remark by an 11-year-old boy to his teacher, Anne Wynn-Wilson. Anne devised a new rope-like stitch for the work that can be worked in different weights, recognised by the Royal School of Needlework as the Quaker stitch
Many of the panels celebrate the lives of local people including Judge Thomas and Margaret Fell of Swarthmoor Hall, near Ulverston which became effectively the headquarters of the nascent Quaker movement in the 17th Century
A popular panel was embroidered by the Armitage sisters, one of whom lives in Blackburn. 'The Underground Railroad' tells the story of American Quakers who helped fugitive slaves to escape to safe havens in Canada during the 19th Century
The selection of panels chosen for the Blackburn exhibition covers subjects as diverse as unemployment, industrial welfare, marriage, the Irish potato famine, the slave trade, banking, science, criminal justice, botany and railways
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