THE MILLENNIUM CANVAS

Canvas stitchers have been busy in the villages of Churchill and Sarsden. Since the spring of 1996, plans have been made and completed to commemorate the Millennium. In April, 1996, a committee of three was formed to design a Tapestry illustrating the history of the two villages during the second millennium, from the Doomsday book, in which Churchill is listed, to the present day.

To get the project off the ground, a coffee morning was held, both to raise some funds and to provide a clear idea of the project for the information of all villagers. It was decided that each building or event should be shown as it was, at its point in history, not as affected by the alterations of later generations. Archives were searched and historians consulted. It took over two years to discover all the information needed. Then came the design stage, when local artists created original pictures on which the tapestries would be based. Finally the pictures had to be converted into a form from which the 23 stitchers from Churchill and Sarsden could work.

By mid-1998, all was ready for the actual making of the tapestries to begin. 518,400 stitches later the canvases were completed. 200 feet of oak and 36 square feet of specialised ultra-violet light protective glass were needed to mount and frame all 23 tapestries They have now been put on permanent display in the Village Hall at Churchill, in the form of a mural, approximately eighteen feet by two and a half feet.

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