Sheffield embroiderers’ giant tribute to the threatened beauty of Windermere

At 10.5 miles long, a mile wide and 220 feet deep, Windermere is the largest natural lake in England. It is a glistening jewel of the Lake District, an area that attracts more than 15 million visitors annually and was described, even in 1810, by Wordsworth, as a “national property, in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive and a heart to enjoy”.

But its beauty is under threat, ironically, from those who come to perceive and enjoy its charms, prompting Yorkshire artist and athlete David Morrish to pose the question “Windermere Am I Still Beautiful?”, the name of his giant embroidered tapestry documenting the lake and the litter he ran past while competing in the Brathay Windermere Marathon last May.

A Fashion Design teacher and lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, David is a practising, multi award-winning designer and academic. The embroidery project forms part of his own MA studies at Nottingham Trent University and is a collaboration with the Sheffield branch of the Embroiderers’ Guild, whose members use a variety of embroidery techniques from traditional to free-style and mixed media.

David, 42, lives near Huddersfield with his wife, Alison, design manager for fancy dress and costume company Christy’s in Barnsley, and eight-year-old son Sebastian. Alison was brought up in the Lake District and both her grandparents were athletes, one a fell runner and one a swimmer who swam across the lake. David started running seriously two years ago, to get fit, and the Brathay was his first marathon. There is also a video on YouTube accompanying the work documenting his run. Completed earlier this month, the 26.2ft-long work of embroidered art is in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry. To create it, he first used Google Maps to identify key geographical features of Windermere and drafted the artwork onto wallpaper. To document the litter on the marathon, he set his watch to beep at every mile mark so he could stop to photograph whatever rubbish was around, ending with 27 images at completion. Then he researched each area. “Say, for example, mile four was Hawkshead,” he says. “It had the picture of the litter, which was a cider can, and I researched Hawkshead, so that’s the home of Beatrix Potter, Peter Rabbit.”

He created archive boxes with images, information, materials and a template for the embroiderer and asked each to work in a depiction of the litter in whatever way they chose. Then he joined the 27 sections together, forming the elevation of Windermere, with each section also telling the story of its particular location.

“Some of the litter you can see is obvious and some is hidden,” he says. “There were 21 of us in total who contributed so there are lots of different styles, different colours and approaches.”

Some sections have not been completed due to some of the original stitchers needing to concentrate on their families during lockdown, and David decided to leave these as they are, simply as white patterns, to represent the strange times in which we now live.

“The Games of Thrones Interactive Tapestry was a key influence on the direction I eventually took,” David says, referring to an online piece of art also inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry, which allows viewers to zoom in to see the detail and learn more about the epic TV drama.

The tapestry ought now to be on view at Nottingham Trent University’s graduate show, and then later at Sheffield Hallam. “But obviously that’s knocked on the head,” David says. It was also due to go on display at the Knitting and Stitching Shows at Harrogate and Alexandra Palace later this year. Instead it has been in storage at David’s home but he hopes to display it eventually, not least in the Lake District.

Since graduating in 2000, David has worked as a freelance design consultant and lived in Latvia for a time. He taught at the University of Lincoln, and now at Sheffield Hallam, where he has found access to both equipment and minds a huge boost to his creativity and his interest in storytelling through traditional crafts and new technologies.

He has his own brand, Kingfly Tailoring, specialising in unusual printed linings for his menswear pieces. Initially, he thought that tailoring would be the focus for his MA, rather than embroidery. “I started looking at Edward Carpenter and William Morris,” he says. “They proposed this utopian way of living, which is quite fitting – anti-industrialisation, they were worried about waste and resources. They lived together briefly just outside Sheffield in the late 1800s.”

David describes long-distance running as the ultimate test of physical and psychological strength and endurance, entering different states of mind as he focuses, reminisces, plans, creates, dreams and visualises – “anything to take me away from the pain I am encountering and the overwhelming desire to stop,” he says.

He has produced a life-sized running sculpture of himself using 3D scanning and laser technologies, mounted on a trophy-inspired plinth etched to pay homage to Morris and Carpenter, and he has made a plague of rats from plastic and wood to highlight the consequences of littering.

The MA project has been a massive undertaking (the next stage will be a PhD). “You don’t realise how many hours you’re spending on it because you love it,” David says. “I enjoyed meeting the ladies, even the panic emails they sent me. I enjoyed helping them and seeing them be inspired.”

A combination of athletics, art and activism, through the tapestry, David highlights that the Lake District is a World Heritage Site for Natural Beauty. “Surely we are looking after it and not using it as a litter bin? Are we?” he asks.

* Find out more about the project on Instagram @kingflytailoring - David is also looking for support and funding for his PhD project.

*Stephanie Smith Instagram @yorkshirestyleQ

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