130-year-old embroidered quilt found by chance during spring clean at Yorkshire church

The patchwork quilt was discovered in a sacristy cupboard at St Bartholomew’s Church at Marsden, near Huddersfield, during a clean-up for the church’s reopening as Covid restrictions eased.

Church warden Val France said: “We were having a clearout and I thought what on earth’s this? There was a bit of plastic sheeting, I pulled it out and unravelled it all and just couldn’t believe it.”

The discovery also included an excerpt from a church magazine at the time which revealed the quilt had been sown as far back as 1893 by the local ladies’ needlework group to raise funds to help build the church.

The quilt has an array of red and white octagonal patches featuring a wide variety of embroidered images. The magazine excerpt said the white patches were for gentlemen and the red for ladies.

“It’s beautiful,” said Mrs France. “There’s horses, a dog, schoolteachers – there’s even a coalman delivering coal. It’s a beautiful piece.”

The church magazine of the time was similarly impressed with the outcome: “The Church Needlework Committee, and all who worked so zealously in their homes and at the meetings, may be justly gratified at the result of their labours.”

The charge for each patch was sixpence and the quilt was subsequently sold before returning, at some point, to church ownership.

The years 1893 and 1894 was embroidered on to the quilt, suggesting it might have taken 12 months to sew.

It is now on display in the lady’s chapel at the church and will take pride of place at St Bartholomew’s summer fair on 21 August between 10 am and 3pm.

Mrs France said the discovery had prompted plans to sew a new modern-day quilt to raise much-needed funds for upkeep of the church.