After eight years, more than 1.5 million stitches and the dedication of hundreds of volunteers, a remarkable embroidery recreating Peterborough Cathedral’s medieval painted Nave ceiling will be revealed FULLY COMPLETED for the first time on Thursday 3rd September.
Peterborough Cathedral is inviting the general public and members of the press to join the Bishop of Peterborough, embroidery team and project supporters at an open morning displaying the completed work, with an opportunity to hear the fascinating history behind the project, speak to the volunteers who have brought it to life, and see the extraordinary detail of the finished embroidery.
At 11am, Bishop Debbie will place the final stitch, marking the completion of a project which began with a commission made almost 40 years ago and has involved at varying levels, more than 100 embroiderers.
The finished embroidery is a large-scale needlepoint interpretation of the Cathedral’s thirteenth-century painted Nave ceiling, one of the most important surviving examples of medieval decorative schemes in England. Measuring 12 ft 2 in (approximately 4 metres) and containing more than 1.5 million stitches, it recreates a remarkable medieval world of kings, bishops, saints, the Seven Liberal Arts and a host of fantastical and humorous creatures.
The story of the embroidery itself is almost as remarkable as the medieval ceiling it depicts.
The project was originally commissioned in 1986 from the Royal School of Needlework by local supporter, Mrs Freeman, who had close connections with Peterborough Cathedral. Mrs Freeman died in 2008, aged 90, without having begun the project. After passing through several hands, the materials were eventually gifted to the Cathedral in 2018, the 900th anniversary of its foundation.
That same year, seven initial volunteers began stitching in May, starting what would become a hugely significant community project. Working on canvas woven at 18 threads per inch, 30 regular volunteers have painstakingly reproduced the intricate medieval imagery. The design is based on William Strickland’s 1849 lithographic drawing of the original painted ceiling, but the team has made careful adjustments as the work progressed to reflect the Cathedral ceiling more accurately. These include correcting the goat originally drawn upside down, revisions to the monkey and owl panel and refining the depiction of the organistrum player.
The imagery itself tells a fascinating story. Alongside Kings, Bishops and Saints are the Seven Liberal Arts, Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, Geometry, Arithmetic, Astronomy and Music, as well as the Agnus Dei and Saints Peter and Paul.
Then come the creatures: a wyvern, a harp-playing donkey, a pig-like ogre, Janus, a human cannibal and the famous goat carrying a backwards-riding monkey with an owl.
Scholars believe the change from sacred imagery to humorous and sometimes bizarre beasts may reflect the medieval division between the Nave, where townspeople sat, and the Quire, where monks worshipped, perhaps providing the clergy with their own medieval visual joke.
The stitching has not been without its challenges. Early in the project, rotated pattern charts and the difficulties of aligning such intricate designs on the fine canvas created setbacks. Initial estimates suggested that completing the embroidery could take as long as 70 years. Instead, the dedication of the volunteers has seen the project completed in just eight years.
The final stage has involved unrolling the entire canvas so that the team could return to the earliest sections and complete part of the border which had not been fully understood when the project began. For many of the volunteers, this meant seeing the first sections of the embroidery again for the first time in years.
The Very Reverend Chris Dalliston, Dean of Peterborough said:
‘Peterborough’s Nave ceiling is one of most extraordinary medieval pieces of artwork in the country, but we are in awe of the wonderful team of volunteer embroiderers who have translated this into an amazing tapestry to shine a new light on this unique artefact . It has required great patience, commitment, skill and love and involved such a big team of people. We honour their work and look forward to seeing the Bishop’s last stitch complete the picture!’
Now, with the final lozenge and border complete, the Cathedral is preparing to celebrate the finished work and consider how this extraordinary piece of modern craftsmanship and medieval history will be permanently displayed for future generations.
The opening day on 3rd September will provide an opportunity for press and the general public to:
- See the fully completed embroidery in its entirety
- Hear the history of the project, from its original 1986 commission to its completion
- Meet and interview the volunteers who have contributed to the 1.5 million stitches
- Ask questions about the project, its medieval source material and the stitching process
- Photograph and film the completed work
- Witness Bishop Debbie place the final stitch at 11am
- Speak to project organiser Elaine Harburn, and Cathedral representatives/fundraisers about the future of the embroidery
- Discuss the team’s exciting next embroidery project