A remarkable embroidery recreating the medieval painted Nave ceiling of Peterborough Cathedral has been fully unrolled for the first time.
A 900-year story in stitches: Historic Nave ceiling embroidery to be fully unrolled for the first time.
It will be the first chance people have of viewing the piece in its entirety since work began on it over eight years ago.
Measuring 12 ft 2 in (approx. 4 metres) and containing more than 1.5 million stitches, the work is a large-scale needlepoint interpretation of the Cathedral’s thirteenth-century painted ceiling – one of the most important surviving examples of medieval decorative schemes in England. The embroidery 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 starting the project. After passing through several hands, the materials were finally gifted to the cathedral in 2018, the 900th anniversary of its foundation.
The design is based on William Strickland’s 1849 lithographic drawing of the medieval painted ceiling. As the embroidery has progressed, small adjustments have been made to match the real ceiling more accurately including correcting the famous upside-down goat, monkey and owl panel and refining the organistrum player. The canvas, woven at 18 threads per inch, allows extremely fine detail.
The design includes:
Kings, Bishops and Saints, The Seven Liberal Arts (Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, Geometry, Arithmetic, Astronomy and Music), The Agnus Dei and Saints Peter and Paul, Mythical and comic creatures including a wyvern, harp-playing donkey, pig-like ogre, Janus and a human cannibal, and the famous goat carrying a backwards-riding monkey with an owl.
Scholars believe the shift from sacred imagery to humorous beasts may reflect the division between the Nave, where townspeople sat, and the Quire, where monks worshipped – a medieval visual joke for the clergy!
Seven volunteers began stitching in May 2018. Today more than 20 embroiderers, men and women work in five weekly sessions, with around 80 visitors and clergy contributing at least a stitch. Despite early setbacks (including rotated pattern charts and alignment challenges caused by the fine canvas), the team has now completed approximately three-quarters of the embroidery.
Initial estimates suggested it might take 70 years, completion is now expected within the next year!
The Very Reverend, Chris Dalliston, Dean of Peterborough said:
‘Peterborough Cathedral’s painted medieval ceiling is a unique and extraordinary work of art. Our wonderful team of embroiderers have over the last few years, recreated this treasure through a skillful, patient, and painstaking process that honours the original but also represents its historic imagery in a new medium and a new way, a work of art in its own right.’
Photo Credit – Paul Marriott
