On the 5th of July 2022, Humphries Weaving featured on Nick Knowles Heritage Rescue: Boston Manor (Quest).
The program covered the complete restoration of Boston Manor, one of the finest Jacobean houses in England.
Humphries Weaving worked in collaboration with the Textiles Historian Annabel Westman, and Harriet Pillman from Purcell for this important restoration. Purcell are a team of Architects, Master Planners and Heritage Consultants “fascinated by extending the life of the old, providing excellent new design for the present, and advising on how to create robust futures.”
Heritage Rescue Boston Manor showcased the skills of the talented artisans and heritage crafts people who helped to restore this prestigious building to its former glory. Rather than picking one period in history on which to anchor the restoration the project team set out to create each room in a different period of the house’s history, in order to bring to life a multitude of interesting stories. We supplied fabrics for three rooms, including the Blue Pure Silk Damask featured in the show.
Built in 1623 and located in West London, Boston Manor is a fine example of a Jacobean Manor House. It had fallen into a state of neglect, and Humphries Weaving were consulted to provide historically accurate fabric to bring the house back to its former glory.
The bespoke fabric development began in November 2019. There was no remaining fabric within the room to replicate but during restoration work tiny fragments of blue thread were discovered which set the colour direction. After careful consideration a period appropriate design was selected from our vast archive, the New Pavia, which is documented within the V&A archive.
In conjunction with Annabel Westman, Harriet Pillman from Purcell and our internal colour archive, and selected a rich blue shade which was appropriate to the period of the room.
Once these important elements had been decided, we custom dyed silk yarn in the chosen shade and wove the fabric for the silk walling and upholstery of the Drawing Room in June of 2021.
The fabric walling was installed by Pierre Vuillemenot, and the upholstery completed by A.T.Cronin. The intricate plaster work of the ceiling and great marble fire place were restored by other talented crafts people, to return the room to when it would have originally been furnished hundreds of years ago.
In addition to the Drawing Room, Humphries also wove bespoke fabric for the Bed Chamber; which features period appropriate red damask on bed drapes. Also for the Antechamber, which features shot repps in red and blue loose hung.
Heritage Rescue Boston Manor was aired on the Quest discovery channel in July of 2022, and available to watch on catch up services.
