Events – Project to Recreate Two Civil War Standards at the Commandery Museum, Worcester
Other projects:
In February 2017, the Worcester Embroiderers’ Guild was approached by Kerry W., a member of staff at the Commandery, to see if anyone in our branch would help to reproduce two standards from the opposing sides in the Civil War, as exhibits for the museum.
The original cavalry standards are housed in St. Mary’s Church, Bromsberrow, in the Mortuary Chapel. They are in a fragile state and have had some conservation work carried out on them by the Royal School of Needlework. The Royalist standard is of white silk and bears the words “Religio Protestantium, Leges Angliae, Libertates Parliamentorum”. The Parliament standard is of red flowered silk, with a painting showing an arm in armour, thrust from a cloud and a hand holding a sword. On the flag are the words “Ora et Pugna” and “Juvit et Juvabit Jehovah”.
Following a visit to St. Mary’s, a small number of members agreed to take part in the project. However, it was realised that the work would not really involve embroidery as such, but other skills such as dyeing and stencilling. Experimentation to ensure that the new flags were as close to the originals as possible meant that the project took much longer than anticipated; it was finally completed in August 2018.
