The Prestonpans Tapestry

In March, 2009 Dr Gordon Prestoungrange, founding chairman of the Battle of Prestonpans Heritage Trust, visited the Bayeux Tapestry and was struck that this was something that could be done back home for the trust. They enlisted a local artist Andrew Crummy to design the panels, as well as seeking historical and architectural advice from experts. Originally 79 panels we planned, but as the number of volunteer stitches grew to around 200 and other suggestions for scenes were made, the number of panels grew to 104. It seems remarkable that, 10 million stitches later and 25000 hours of work, the Tapestry was finished only the following year in June 2010 and unveiled at Cockenzie Power Station Near to the site of the battle.

The tapestry, which is actually an embroidery in reality, has been on tour around the country and we saw it when it was displayed in St Mary's Cathedral during the festival. It covers the 1745 Jacobite uprising up to and including the Battle of Prestonpans. Here is a selection of my photos of it.

Although each embroiderer or group of embroiderers had to complete the panels according to the instructions, in a little square in the bottom right hand corner, they were free to embroider something, of their own design, which would act as a signature.

 

The Tapestry website can be found here

More Festival Madness

The festival in Edinburgh is over and most of the colourful and frankly mad people have packed up their suitcases and gone home. Perhaps some have gone to cause chaos in some other city but most have probably climbed back into their civvies and returned to the nine to five or are now sharpening their pencils in preparation for a return to another year of textbooks and learning in the countries fine institutes of further education.

With the number of superheros that abound, I should wonder that any crime happens during the festival.

He's a one man band, nobody knows or understands. 

The chap in the middle of the road is a member of the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club. We were nattering to some of his mates that we had seen the previous afternoon in a rather funny version of As You Like It. They had a second show on at the fringe called Interruption, which we didn't take much persuasion to go and see. It was a powerful, well written and acted, short play, which ended without a curtain call. Not a peep was to be heard from the audience as it filed out. I'd be very surprised if we don't see some of these people on our screens before too long.

 "Tempest sir?"  I didn't go to The Tempest but I thought I had better take the leaflet.

Nor did we feel the need for a further dose of tunes from the lads and lassies of Lancaster University.

We stopped for a while and watched Tom Ward playing a few tunes on his guitar. His guitar was made by his Dad, Ian - maybe it's been cleverly designed to look stressed or perhaps Tom just gives it a hard time on the road. Either way he manages to get some great sounds out of his beat up old instrument - have a listen here and here.

 

Lying down on the job seems quite a popular way to attract attention.

This fellow taped to a pillar by his own show posters amused us - not enough to go and see his show though.

 We found the people of Zambezi Express drumming up a bit of custom on the corner of Princes Street. We had been to see them only a few hours earlier, they were great. Here's the trailer for their show on Youtube.

Honourably mentions must also go to New Zealand comic, Andre King, who we met in the street and who also nattered to us for a while after his show - nice guy and funny too, which is handy when you tell jokes for a living.

After all that, it was rather nice to find the White Hart none too busy. Macaroni cheese and Belhaven Black :)

STOP PRESS

This picture just in. Seems another mad person has been spotted on a bollard during the festival.

See the heights I go to to get pictures for you (about 2 feet max)

Wallace Monument

As you zoom past it on the motorway or train, Stirling is a distinctive city. Not only does it have an impressive castle sitting prominently on a hill in it's middle (we visited it last year here) but on another hill just outside it it has a rather unique structure which is the National Wallace monument. This picture of it was taken from our campsite a couple of weeks ago.

Here it is from the hill just below it when we went to visit it. By the time of Victoria, the Jacobite rebellions were a distant memory and there was quite a surge in Scottish nationalism. So, through a campaign to raise money by public subscription, this monument was raised to the great Scottish hero William Wallace in 1869. Most of the world know him through the film Braveheart which may be a jolly good film but not the place to go to find out about the man - here's the Wikipedia page for him where you'll find no mention of his face half painted blue.

This is the Wallace sword. It may or may not have belonged to William Wallace (The monument rather fails to mention the "may not" part). It certainly had some connection to Wallace a couple of hundred years after his death when in 1505, James IV had the hilt replaced, suggesting that, what he called the "Wallas sword", had some importance. There are some suggestions that some of the other fittings aren't right for the period and place but they don't remove the possibility that some or all (minus the handle of course) belonged to Wallace.

In a room on the first level of the tower is a collection of busts of other prominent Scottish characters. Here's the other great hero of the Scottish wars of Independence, Robert the Bruce. When he was dying he asked his right hand man, the Black Douglas, to take his heart on crusade, which he did. By some accounts he cast his heart into the midst of a battle crying, "Lead on Braveheart" (sound familiar!).

Four more Scottish types carved in marble. Clockwise; mighty penster and party animal, Mr Robert Burns; missionary and African Explorer, Dr David Livingston (who appeared in the last post too); another mighty penster, the better behaved Sir Walter Scott; and last but not least, good old James Watt who came up with some cracking ideas about steam while making himself a cuppa one morning.

Above the busts are these stained glass windows. Here is Robert the Bruce.

William Wallace and that famous sword.

I don't know who the other two windows are meant to represent - I could see no information. 

The design of the Wallace monument, much like the Scott Monument, was result of a competition. The winner was John Thomas Rochead who belonged to Edinburgh. The drawing below was for a sculpture suggested for the competition by Sir Joseph Noel Paterson (also mentioned in the last post). It was suggested that, for all Scotland and England didn't get on all that well in Wallace's days, things were much friendlier in Victorian times when the monument was built and perhaps Sir Joe's entry was a touch inflammatory.

The way to the top of the monument was by a long spiral staircase which I did not like. I've already been up to the top of the Scott monument this year  - no more high places this year, I can tell you. There are no pictures of the stairs but here are some pictures of the top.

The view from the top is really cracking. The Battle of Stirling Bridge (a good day for Wallace on 11th of September 1297) happened on this loop of the River Forth.

The campus of Stirling university.

If we could see the monument from the campsite, it stands to reason that the reverse view was possible. Our tent was hidden from view by the trees on the left hand side.

Stirling castle as seen from the monument.

A quick snap over the edge. I didn't look at this when I took it and was quite surprised to see a pile of money had been thrown into the guttering (who would expect that in Scotland)

A view of the tower from the bottom.