‘Explore textiles and heritage’ exhibition - Bowlees Visitor Centre

 North Pennines Textile Group

LoLasses Project

The LoLasses Project follows on from the Land of Lead and Silver ‘Explore textiles and heritage’ workshops run in Nenthead through June 2025. LoLasses is funded by the North Pennines National Landscape's Land of Lead and Silver community grant fund, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. 

Through the community grant scheme, 2-years of funding has been secured to cover equipment, materials, activities, and research trips to develop a sustainable North Pennines Textile Group. Skill sharing and research will be at the heart of the LoLasses Project. We will explore heritage textile crafts and skills, as well as engaging in basket making and pottery tile making. There will be 18 funded places.

Meeting monthly for 3-hour sessions, the LoLasses will be researching into women and their role in Lead Mining Heritage, their homes and the clothing that they and their families wore. We will look at fabric types and style, and about the heritage crafts that they used to create clothing and items for their homes.

There will visits be to the Bowes Museum, Weardale Museum and Killhope Museum, to look at historical textiles. Each year there will be three workshops from professional tutors of our choice. Julia Neubauer will be match funding the project through free use of the workshop space at Brewhouse Studios and her time as Facilitator. 

The group will examine the effects of lead mining on the miners’ clothing by visiting Nenthead Mines and leaving fabric in the mine to see how it is affected by the environmental conditions in the mine. We will also explore the effects tallow candles had on the clothing. Using this fabric, and re-imaginations of the miner’s shirt, we intend to produce a contemporary art installation.

We will source equipment to allow us to explore Spinning, Weaving, Tapestry Weaving, Batik, various printing and mark making techniques, Embroidery, Peg loom weaving, Rag Rugging and Quilting, to name a few. Future session topics and artists will be led by the group and its research and interests.

First session will be Sunday 27^th July 10am to 1pm at Brewhouse Studios, The Brewery, Alston.