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Arts & Crafts
Arts & craft related events happening in Macclesfield and the surrounding areas.
If you have an event you want publicised here then please email us via the contact form
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Tue23Jan2018Tue27Nov20187:30 pmThe Salvation Army Church, Roe Street, Macclesfield SK11 6XD
Meetings are held at the Salvation Army Hall, Roe Street, Macclesfield beginning at 7.30pm. Non members are very welcome. Admission £2.
Tuesday 23rd Jan
Vintage tools and other unusual items with John Hambleton.
An entertainment in the form of a talk and a quiz about articles from the past.Tuesday 27th Feb
What to do with 323 post cards a talk by Julie Bagnall.
The background to the story of the cards that were in an Edwardian album left by two sisters.
Bella married a Macclesfield man and had close connections with his family after her marriage.Tuesday 27th Mar
The impact of Macclesfield’s Mayors in the Great War: Joseph Whitmore, Edwin Crew and Joseph Frost a talk by Peter Ramsden.Tuesday 24th Apr
Tiptoe though the Tombstones a talk by Rina Tillinger.
Uncovering poignant & quirky gravestone inscriptions and epitaphs many of which are local. £70+expenses from ChesterTuesday 22nd May
Family History Top Tips a talk by Jean Ingram.
Expenses
Tuesday 26th Jun
Reminiscences of Parkside Hospital a talk with many illustrations by Dennis Whyte.Tuesday 24th Jul
A visit to King’s School with a chance to see the school and their archives.Tuesday 28th Aug
The Munificent Sir John Leigh - the 'rags to riches' story of how his father (also John Leigh) developed into a leading cotton waste merchant a talk by Leslie Turner.
Leslie talks about the closure and exhumation of 20,000 bodies from one of Manchester's top cemeteries, the horrors of the First World War, a story of landscape gardener Thomas H Mawson, the boll weevil and something about some of England's grand estates.Tuesday 25th Sep
AGM & Talk about the FHSC website by Alan Bennett the webmaster.Tuesday 23rd Oct
From copper to velvet; Havannah Cheshire's deserted village a talk by Ian Doughty. Havannah was one of the first industrial villages to be built. For over 200 years the village’s powered mills were used in the manufacture of copper sheet and brass wire, the spinning of silk, the production of Havannah cigars and of velvet. In the early 20th Century Havannah became a deserted village.Tuesday 27th Nov
Monarchy and Dunham, the grey area - an illustrated talk by Peter Braun covering the history of Dunham Hall, the families, royal claims, intrigue, executions, power, passion and scandal. -
Sat10Feb2018Sun30Sep2018Little Moreton Hall, nr Congleton
Sweet smell of the Tudors! Gentlewoman Anna Fielding with a nosegay of lavender, rosemary and bay, at Little Moreton Hall ⓒ Alan Ingram National Trust
Little Moreton Hall Opens for 2018 Season on 10 Feb
Not just the sights and sounds but the smells of the 16th Century will be featured at Little Moreton Hall during 2018.
When the hall re-opens on 10 February, ‘Welcome to the 16th Scent-ury’ will focus on the aromas of Tudor times, with a special ‘You Smell’ trail appealing particularly to families. You will be able to sample the aromas of herbs such as tansy, lady’s bedstraw and meadowsweet; rich spices such as cinnamon, cloves and ‘grains of paradise’, and some exotic Tudor perfumes.
But not everything will be idyllic. Odours of sweat and damp wool, the smell of the privvy and the stench of rough, harsh tobacco will also be part of the experience.
Little Moreton Hall ⓒ Alan Ingram/National Trust
Anna Fielding, from the Hall, explained, ‘Country life in Tudor times involved a lot of hard physical toil. And you were dressed in heavy wool clothes. So some perspiration would be inevitable. You also tended your animals, undertook gruelling work in the dairy and had ‘interesting’ ideas about waste disposal.
We would probably not be very happy about some of the smells wafting round. Even some of the perfumes favoured by the Tudors would not be to our taste.
On the other hand, the Tudors would feel people today give off the scent of harsh chemicals. Sixteenth century ideas of keeping clean and of the way bodies interacted with the environment were not the same as ours. The smells we like or dislike would be different to those the Tudors felt strongly about and the reactions people had to various smells of everyday life in the past can give us a real insight into their way of thinking.
‘This wonderful old house is the ideal setting to explore those different attitudes and discover the way people really lived in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Last year we looked at the way the Tudors slept. Visitors had a great time discovering the rules and guidelines the Tudors followed to ensure a good night’s sleep. Once again, their ideas were different from ours.’
Another feature of the new season at Little Moreton Hall will be Candlemas, a religious festival which centred on taking a candle to church to have it blessed.
From 10 February you will be able to make your own candle and take in the aromas of beeswax and incense. Then, from Monday 19 February to Sunday 25 February dozens of artificial candles will bring a warm glow to the principal rooms of the hall.
Little Moreton Hall is open seven days a week from 10 to 25 Feb, then Weds – Sun, 11am – 5pm.
Candlemas Festival: 19 February – 25 February
For more information visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk/littlemoretonhall or call 01260 272018.
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Wed07Mar2018Mon31Dec2018The Tytherington Club, Macclesfield
An adult-only, part-time 14 week course you will explore four different media: Drawing, Painting with Watercolour, Acrylics, and Oil Pastels, highlighting their individual characteristics, learning the basic techniques and secrets needed to create beautiful pieces of original art.
All courses are designed to be fun for absolute beginners, who have never picked up a brush before, through to Improvers.
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Sun15Apr2018Thu06Dec2018Arley Hall & Gardens, Northwich, Cheshire, CW9 6NA
April
15th, Sunday Hearing Dogs for Deaf People Charity Dog Walk – to register Click Here
22nd, Sunday Spring Plant Fair – to book tickets Click Here
28th & 29th, Saturday & Sunday Guided Estate & Bluebell Walks – to book tickets Click HereMay
6th & 7th, Sunday & Monday Guided Estate & Bluebell Walks
– to book tickets Click Here
11th, 12th & 13th, Friday – Sunday Galloway Antiques Fair – to book tickets Click Here
26th, 27th & 28th, Saturday – Monday Geronimo Family Festival – to book tickets Click HereJune
2nd & 3rd, Saturday & Sunday NGS The Old Parsonage tickets will be released soon
8th, Friday Houghton Weavers Summer Picnic – to book tickets Click Here
16th & 17th, Saturday & Sunday Rough Runner – to book tickets Click Here
23rd & 24th, Saturday & Sunday Garden Festival – to book tickets Click Here
28th – 1st July, Thursday – Sunday Spirit of the Horse – to book tickets Click HereJuly
8th, Sunday Fairy Tales & Trails Day – to book tickets Click Here
14th, Saturday NMC Outdoor Concert on the Park – to book tickets Click Here
19th, Thursday Walled Garden Theatre – The Importance of Being Earnest – to book tickets Click Here
26th, Thursday The Arley Summer Soiree – tickets will be released soonAugust
5th, Sunday NGS Arley Hall & Gardens normal daily entry price applies
23rd, Thursday Walled Garden Theatre – The Tempest – to book tickets Click Here
25th, 26th & 27th, Saturday, Sunday & Monday Caravan & Camping Rally – to book tickets Click HereSeptember
9th, Sunday Autumn Plant Fair – to book tickets Click Here
15th, Saturday Firework Champions – to book tickets Click Here
22nd & 23rd, Saturday & Sunday The Great British Food Festival – to book tickets Click Here
28th, 29th & 30th, Friday – Sunday Galloway Antiques Fair – to book tickets Click HereOctober
7th, Sunday Wedding Open Day – to book tickets Click Here
14th, Sunday Mushroom Walks – to book tickets Click HereNovember
13th & 14th, Tuesday & Wednesday Shopping Spectacular – to book tickets Click HereDecember
1st – 6th, Saturday – Thursday Christmas Floral Extravaganza - tickets will be released soon -
Sat09Jun2018Sat22Sep2018The Silk Museum, Old Park Lane, Macclesfield
'The Macclesfield of America' - Paterson, New Jersey
The Silk Museum, 9 June - 22 September 2018Hundreds of Maxonian families emigrated to the U.S. city and built a successful silk industry there, and the towns marked their special relationship in WWI with an exchange of flags, a ceremony that is being repeated this year to mark 100 years since the Armistice.
This free exhibition ties in with the Barnaby Festival Roots/Routes theme.
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Sat09Jun2018Sun28Oct2018Little Moreton Hall, nr Congleton
Visitors stood on the bridge over the moat on the south front of Little Moreton Hall.
Standing in front of the black and white frontage of Little Moreton Hall you’re easily transported back to a bygone era when this time capsule of the past would’ve been bustling with Tudor life. However, this year Little Moreton Hall will be revealing a side to its past that’s a little closer to home and showing that it wasn’t just the Tudors who lived at the National Trust property.
View through a lead window into the courtyard
From Saturday 9 June to Sunday 28 October a never-before-seen area of the house will open to visitors for the very first time.
Over the last ten years, National Trust staff have come to call this unique building not only their place of work but also their home.
New exhibition ‘The Other Side of the Hall’ will tell the stories of four families from the twentieth century who lived here, from a young couple to new parents. Visitors will discover more about these modern inhabitants and what it was like to live in a wonky Tudor house in an era when boxy new builds and high rise flats are all the rage.
One of the Hall’s previous occupants, Anna Roberts explains “It was a huge privilege to live somewhere like this and be one of the very few people in Little Moreton Hall’s rich history able to call this hidden gem my home. It was such a novel experience and one which will stay with me throughout my life. I’m thrilled to be sharing my story alongside others who lived here and invite visitors in to see this other side of the hall for the first time. In an age where we tend to look very far back in time in historic building it’s great to reveal a more modern side to the past which is still very much in living memory among those who work here today."
The spaces have been recreated to reveal more about the occupants who lived here and will include an introduction this recent side of its history with video interviews, as well as personal photographs of the previous occupants who lived here.
Although modern life has occupied Little Moreton Hall and continues to rush by on the busy road outside, Little Moreton Hall survives very much as a Tudor time capsule with quirky charm and homely intimacy.
As Rebecca Alexander, a previous occupant of the Hall and current employee explains, “Even though the Hall itself has changed very little in the last 500 years, it has been the home of many life changes and memory making moments including engagements, new born babies and festive celebrations.”
Through the four stories of staff who have recently lived at Little Moreton Hall, the new exhibition will tell the modern story of this remarkable Tudor survivor and give a unique perspective on the conservation of the Hall and what it means to work for the National Trust.
The Other Side of the Hall from 9 June – 28 October 2018. Normal admission charges apply for the property.
Entry is by timed ticket only and can be collected from the Welcome Building upon arrival.
For more information visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk/littlemoretonhall or call 01260 272018.
The south front of Little Moreton Hall
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Sat16Jun2018Sat22Sep2018Macclesfield Slik Museum, Old Park Lane, Macclesfield SK11 6TJ
Renowned artist Zarah Hussain returns home to launch Barnaby Festival at The Silk Museum with an exhibition of her work entitled Invisible Threads
Invisible Threads will run at The Silk Museum, 16 June – 22 September
Free admission during Barnaby Festival, every day Saturday 16 June – Saturday 23 June.
Macclesfield-born artist Zarah Hussain has created a new light sculpture, Invisible Threads, commissioned for the Barnaby Festival.
Many items in The Silk Museum’s collection illustrate the connections between Macclesfield’s silk industry and India, and last year’s Inspired by Indiaexhibition celebrated the design influences reflected in the work of Macclesfield School of Art students. For the Barnaby Festival, a newly-commissioned artwork will further explore and celebrate these links.
Zarah Hussain’s distinctive colourful artwork combines painting and hand-drawn Islamic geometry with high tech digital art, animations and even interactive apps. She has won acclaim with high-profile exhibitions and numerous commissions; the Barnaby Festival is the perfect opportunity to showcase her exciting work.
Invisible Threads is a fusion of Zarah’s Indian heritage and Macclesfield roots. Her Kashmiri grandfather emigrated to Macclesfield to work in textiles; her parents also worked in the trade, her mother adding fringe to silk scarves. The “invisible threads” linking her family and Macclesfield’s silk industry with India have inspired her piece.
Zarah has created an immersive installation made of 3D shapes and programmable LED lights with multiple colourways. Visitors will enter a darkened room to experience the almost hypnotic changing patterns of light and colour.
Invisible Threadswill launch the Barnaby Festival in a special event on Friday 15 June, then the exhibition opens to the public on Saturday 16 June.
The exhibition is free to visit during the Barnaby Festival (every day from Saturday 16 to Saturday 23 June, including Sunday 17 June); charges apply to visit the rest of The Silk Museum (children free).
From Monday 25 June to Saturday, admission will be included in the entry price to The Silk Museum (£4.50/£4 concessions/children free), or you can visit just the Special Exhibition for £2 (children free)
Another special exhibition will be on show at The Silk Museum linked to the Barnaby Festival: Paterson, New Jersey – 'The Macclesfield of America' The Silk Museum, 9 June – 22 September 2018.
The centre of America's silk industry, Paterson, New Jersey is known as 'Silk City USA'. As part of this year's Barnaby Festival, tying directly in with the theme of Routes/Roots, The Silk Museum on Park Lane will be hosting an exhibition highlighting the close historic ties between Macclesfield and Paterson, and those who made the journey to start a new life there.
The silk industry in Paterson was founded by a Bollington man, John Ryle, whose older brothers ran a successful silk mill in Macclesfield. In 1839, Ryle sailed to America and within a few years had his own mill in Paterson. His success led to others from Macclesfield moving to Paterson to open mills there and by the 1870s business was booming, as opposed to Macclesfield where it was on the decline. Hundreds of families emigrated there to continue working in the silk industry.
The Silk Museum is open Monday-Saturday, 10am-4pm. Admission to the Paterson exhibition is free, admission charges apply if you wish to visit the rest of the museum.
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Fri24Aug2018Sun30Sep2018Cellar Bar at Five Clouds Tap and Bottle, 8 Market Place, Macclesfield
Following a successful exhibition during Barnaby Festival 2018, a specially extended 'House of the Magus' will magically rematerialise in the ancient Cellar Bar at Five Clouds Tap and Bottle, 8 Market Place, Macclesfield from Friday 24 August until Sunday 30 September.
This innovative installation by the artists Richard Chadwick and John Eastwood provides a brief opportunity to enter a magic portal into an alchemical world of art, allegory and illusion. Here the Plague Doctor, Fairground Mystic, Fortune Teller and Apothecary reside, and the legendary long-lost magical Macclesfield Tarot Cards are revealed. Discover the secret hidden history of Macclesfield's ancient and mysterious 'Order of the Darkened Room'. Your destiny awaits!
The exhibition at Five Clouds is open daily from 12pm. Admission Free.
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Sat25Aug2018Quarry Bank, Styal, nr Wilmslow
On Saturday 25 August visitors to Quarry Bank, will again be able to step back inside one of Cheshire’s most famous mills – when the doors reopen to reveal brand new galleries created to tell the complete story of industrial life at Quarry Bank for the very first time.
Visitors will have the opportunity to find out about the people at the heart of Quarry Bank’s story – through new displays, experience a snapshot of the conditions that the workers faced through powerful imagery and facts, and discover how cotton cloth was made through watching the heritage machinery live in action.
Quarry Bank Mill, Styal, Cheshire. The mill was founded in 1784 and produced cotton until the 1950s.
Quarry Bank’s discovery trail for families ‘Journeys of the Imagination’ will also be brought to life in a newly transformed area of the cotton mill. Little explorers will be able to follow in the adventurous footsteps of people from Quarry Bank’s past and learn about their stories through interactive play spaces, including an indoor swing. During the summer, the ‘Journeys of the Imagination’ trail has taken visitors on their travels around the gardens and grounds, but the mill reopening will see something new for families to return for to complete the journey.
Over the last three years, Quarry Bank has been at the centre of one of the National Trust’s biggest projects with areas previously closed off to visitors being opened up to show the many different sides of Quarry Bank’s past. These new areas include the mill owners’ family home, a worker’s cottage in the village of Styal and a nineteenth century curvilinear glasshouse in the gardens. The most recent work has seen the doors of the mill building close for 9 months while much of the indoor spaces have been transformed to tell the stories of the people that worked there, as well as improving access to visitors through the installation of a lift.
For more information, visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk/quarrybank
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Sat25Aug2018Mon27Aug2018Tatton Park, Knutsford, Cheshire, WA16 6SG
A traditional weekend of rural crafts and fayre will make the perfect family day out this August Bank Holiday. The event complements the new ‘Field to Fork’ story at the Farm which opened this summer to national acclaim.
Dry stone walling
During the weekend skilled local craftsman will demonstrate fascinating rural farming practices such as dry stone walling and traditional spinning. Visitors can also meet Tatton’s Rangers to learn more about the Park’s wildlife as well as lots of rare breed animals including the chicks in the hatchery.
Sheep dog, or is that duck dog training?
There’s a farmyard full of fun including the chance to have a go at plate spinning, riding a uni-cycle at the circus skills workshop and taking part in traditional games such as the three-legged race and tug of war.
Archery tuition
Morris dancing and songs from a local theatre company will appeal to all ages and on Sunday local sheepdog trainer Richard Heath will entertain with his working sheep dogs.
Caretakers cottage - where Aunt Mary will be making butter
The Farm is set in a corner of the Park know as Tatton Dale and was, in its heyday, at the heart of the vast Egerton estate, feeding family, guests and staff at the mansion. Visitors will be able to take a step back in time to meet some of the characters who lived and worked there including Aunt Mary making butter in her Cottage as well as the recently restored Mill and machinery in action.
The Farm’s old traction engine has also been repaired and visitors will be able to see it running during the weekend as well as meeting the farm animals such as Molly the rare Middle White pig and her seven cute two week old piglets.
Traditional stalls selling local produce from companies including Stanway pies, Great Budworth ice cream, Darlington’s jams and Haughton honey will complement the fun and on Monday the Northern Piping Band will accompany the activities.
Jayne Chapman, Farm Manager said ‘This weekend provides a packed programme of summer farmyard fun with events for everyone to enjoy from sheepdog demonstrations to uni-cycle riding and piglets to homemade ice cream! It’s a unique celebration of Cheshire’s country heritage and everyone is welcome”
The Traditional Country Weekend at the Farm takes place on Saturday 25th, Sunday 26thand Monday 27th August. Normal opening times and charges apply.
Tatton Park Farm opening times and prices
The farm is open for high season (until October 28, 2018) Tuesday to Sunday (and Bank Holiday Mondays) from noon-5pm (last entry 4pm). During the rest of the year it is open weekends from 11am-4pm (last entry 3pm) and school holidays.
Prices for a Farm single attraction entry: adult £7, child £5 (aged 4 to 15 years of age), family £19 (two adults and up to three children).
Totally Tatton Ticket (entry to three attractions: mansion, gardens and farm): Adult £13, child (aged 4 to 15) £7, family (two adults and up to three children) £33.
National Trust members enjoy a 50% discount on entry to the Farm and free entry to the mansion and gardens. Park vehicle entry charge of £7 per car applies to all. Walkers and cyclists enjoy free Park entry.
