Neither Nenia or Ros Hills were responsible for setting up the City & Guilds course, it was Margaret Clark of The Lace Guild here in the UK who was the driving force behind setting it up. All the prominent lace teachers in the UK were invited to be one of the Guinea Pigs, as they had to start somewhere! Nenia was invited to be one of the Assessors to mark/assess the work of the Guinea Pigs, having sat their examination and displayed the practical work required in the syllabus. However, she was in poor health at the time and unable to take on the responsibility, so I was invited to take her place, being the only other person with sufficient knowledge of needlelace to meet the requirement, along with Susanne Thompson, and Anne Collier for the bobbin laces. We three assessors were housed in a nearby hotel well away from the Guinea Pigs, who sat their written exam at Knuston Hall. This all took place over a weekend and I believe this was in September 1987?
A number of the successful Guinea Pigs then went on to become Assessors themselves eg Cynthia Voysey, Barbara Underwood, Gil Dye, Sue Willoughby (I think chair of The Lace Guild at that time?), Carol Williamson, Anne Dyer and many well known names. The first C & G 2 year course held at Camberley Adult Education Centre is where both Ros Hills & myself taught the class of 18 students to make needlelace and Pat Earnshaw taught them how identify the various types of lace. She had an amazing collection of lace and of course had written several books on the subject, so what a treat it was to be able to examine/handle many of her exquisite laces. By sheer coincidence my book Needlelace Designs & Techniques had just been published and the first three types of needlelace, namely Venetian Gros Point, Hollie Point and Point de Gaze, were three of the needlelaces that had to be covered in the C & G examination. The Westhope Group was formed shortly after the Guinea Pigs had sat their exam with a few f the successful candidates being invited to join the group, numbers limited by the number of beds available at the college. Several well known authors/tutors were members and came from North, South, West and East to enjoy our weekend get togethers, planning exhibitions etc and picking each other's brains. What a wonderful time it was! Sadly nothing lasts forever and the C & G lacemaking course is no more! The main reason for setting up the C & G Lacemaking course in the first place was to do away with the so called 'cowboy' tutors, who having attended a couple of lacemaking courses, considered themselves qualified to teach but if they had a C & G qualification that would guarantee a higher standard of tuition. Yes I think the introduction of the C & G course did play a very large part as a major drive in the lace movement. Catherine Barley Catherine Barley Needlelace www.catherinebarley.com ----Original message---- >From : [email protected] Date : 29/03/2018 - 14:39 (GMTDT) To : [email protected], [email protected] Subject : RE: [lace] Nenia Lovesey-City and Guilds I am trying to write the catalog for the exhibit. Since Ros Hills is in the show, I sat down to reread her books. In Colour and Texture in Needlelace, she makes reference to Nenia Lovesay. I was surprised to hear that Nenia made bobbin lace, as I had always associated her with needle lace. I had not realized what a major figure she was, though. Both she and Ros were involved in the City and Guilds program which I am beginning to realize must have had major impact. I get the impression that this program is no longer in existence? Is that right? Was the City and Guilds program a major driver of the lace movement in the UK? Devon - - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
