The Battle of Prestonpans Tapestry 1745, or simply the Prestonpans Tapestry, is a large

embroidery Embroidery is the craft of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to apply thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen ...

created in 2010 in

Prestonpans Prestonpans ( gd, Baile an t-Sagairt, Scots language, Scots: ''The Pans'') is a small mining town, situated approximately eight miles east of Edinburgh, Scotland, in the Council area of East Lothian. The population as of is. It is near the si ...

, East Lothian, Scotland. It depicts the events before, during and after the

Battle of Prestonpans The Battle of Prestonpans, also known as the Battle of Gladsmuir, was fought on 21 September 1745, near Prestonpans, in East Lothian, the first significant engagement of the Jacobite rising of 1745. Jacobite forces, led by the Stuart exile C ...

on 21 September 1745, when

Bonnie Prince Charlie Bonnie, is a Scottish given name and is sometimes used as a descriptive reference, as in the Scottish folk song, My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean. It comes from the Scots language word "bonnie" (pretty, attractive), or the French bonne (good). That ...

triumphed over the Hanoverian Army led by Sir John Cope. The design, size and style were inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry.

Description

The Tapestry is, like the Bayeux Tapestry, an

embroidered Embroidery is the craft of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to apply thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen on c ...

cloth, rather than a true woven

tapestry Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads ma ...

. It is annotated in English but an animated DVD is also available in French and text materials in French and Gaelic. More than two hundred embroiderers created the work over a two-year period; more than half these reside in Scotland from the places where Bonnie Prince Charlie marched to his victory. Other embroiderers with family links come from as far as the US, Australia and New Zealand. The complete artwork measures , and consists of 103 panels, each one metre long and 500mm high. It is about longer than the Bayeux Tapestry.

Design and execution

The tapestry was the brainchild of the Prestoungrange Arts Festival, the Battle of Prestonpans 1745 Heritage Trust, the Founding Chairman of the Trust (Dr Gordon Prestoungrange, Baron of Prestoungrange), and the designer Dr Andrew Crummy. Historical and architectural advice was obtained from Professor Martin Margulies, Arran Johnston and Gareth Bryn-Jones. The embroiderers were led by Dorie Wilkie. The completed work was unveiled to a private gathering of 500 of the embroiderers and their friends on 26 July 2010, at The Greenhills near

Cockenzie Power Station Cockenzie power station was a coal-fired power station in East Lothian, Scotland. It was situated on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, near the town of Cockenzie and Port Seton, east of the Scottish capital of Edinburgh. The station dom ...

, which is on the edge of the Prestonpans battlefield itself.

Exhibition

Since its creation, the Tapestry has since travelled around the Highlands and Lowlands, and to England and France, attracting over 150,000 visitors in its first two years. Exhibitions have included the Scottish Parliament and the

Scottish Storytelling Centre The Scottish Storytelling Centre, the world's first purpose-built modern centre for live storytelling, is located on the High Street in Edinburgh's Royal Mile, Scotland, United Kingdom. It was formally opened on 1 June 2006 by Patricia Fergus ...

, St. Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, to coincide with the

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...

in 2011 and 2012, Alexandra Palace in London and Pornichet, St Nazaire, in France (from where the Prince embarked to launch his campaign in 1745). In September and October 2013 it was exhibited in Bayeux by invitation of the tapestry that was its inspiration. Exhibitions have continued across Scotland and in June/July 2017, after more than 500,000 had seen the artwork, it was displayed in the Scottish Parliament followed in August by exhibition at '' Festival Interceltique'' in

Lorient Lorient (; ) is a town ('' commune'') and seaport in the Morbihan department of Brittany in western France. History Prehistory and classical antiquity Beginning around 3000 BC, settlements in the area of Lorient are attested by the presen ...

in Brittany. The Battle of Prestonpans

745 __NOTOC__ Year 745 ( DCCXLV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 745 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era ...

Heritage Trust expects to be able to find a permanent home within the next five years that will also be a "living history centre" for all other aspects of the battle and a hub for a nationwide and international Jacobite Trail.

Successor works

After seeing the Prestonpans Tapestry,

Alexander McCall Smith Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE (born 24 August 1948), is a British writer. He was raised in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and formerly Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. He became an expert on medical law an ...

commissioned the Great Tapestry of Scotland. Designed by historian and co-chairman

Alistair Moffat Alistair Murray Moffat (born 16 June 1950, Kelso, Scotland) is a Scottish writer and journalist, former director of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and former Rector of the University of St Andrews. Education Moffat graduated from the Universi ...

and artist Andrew Crummy, with contributions from approximately 1000 stitchers from across Scotland, it depicts the history of Scotland from prehistoric times until the present day. The longest tapestry in the world at that time, it was unveiled at the Scottish Parliament on 3 September 2013 where it hung for 3 weeks.Susan Mansfield and Alistair Moffat (2013) ''The Great Tapestry of Scotland'' Birlinn Books More recently, the Scottish Diaspora Tapestry has been developed by the Prestoungrange Arts Festival, with support from the Scottish Government, Bord na Gaidhlig, Creative Scotland and Homecoming 2014. Dr Gordon Prestoungrange led a team across the globe to embroider the tapestry, telling stories from 34 countries where Scots have settled. Andrew Crummy was again the designer. It was exhibited throughout the 2014 Year of Homecoming in Scotland, at locations in Scotland, England, Norway, the Netherlands, Italy, and France. In 2016–17 it toured in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US and Iceland, before returning to be shown in London, Edinburgh and Prestonpans. It is intended that it will find a permanent home in Prestonpans alongside the Prestonpans Tapestry.

References

External links