Lockdown community group art: Stitch Train Worcestershire
12/09/2020
2020 has been a tough year but we’ve seen examples of people at their best. Communities and groups have adapted their services to give support where most needed. People have fundraised, donated and campaigned to drive positive change.
Many people have found creative ways to stay positive throughout lockdown. From virtual VE Day celebrations to Zoom choirs and baking, people have developed new skills and interests. Here we meet a community art project which thrived.
The project was a collaboration between Worcestershire Community Rail Partnership (WCRP) and Woolly Mammoth Stitch Works CIC, a social enterprise with the mission to use collaborative tapestry artworks and wool stitch projects to increase wellbeing and connectedness.
About Community Rail
Community Rail is a grassroots movement and network. It’s made up of almost 70 Community Rail Partnership groups who work with the rail industry and local authorities to promote their local line and improve stations and services, and more than 1,000 station-based voluntary groups. The partnerships bring together local groups to deliver a range of community engagement and promotional activities. They promote understanding of the importance of local railways, community cohesion and wellbeing, and social and economic development.
Stitch Train
In May 2020 Worcestershire Community Rail Partnership (WCRP) commissioned Woolly Mammoth to start a new project. The aim was to involve existing WCRP volunteers while usual activity at stations stopped during lockdown, and to connect new people across the county with their local train station.
The idea of creating a train tapestry at each of the 18 train stations, representing the two rail companies operating along Worcestershire lines, was born during discussions between the WCRP Officer Peter Chapman and the Woolly Mammoth team.
“Large-scale community tapestry stitch projects are what we do. Usually we would run a programme of in-person stitch events and workshops in our projects but this has not been possible this year. Posting home tapestry kits during lockdown was a great way for us to help people feel part of something and enabled people who might not usually come to an event to get involved too”, said Suze Carter, one half of Woolly Mammoth.
“Every project we run is bespoke to a theme or place and we were really excited to run a project with a train focus, where the community could not only contribute but could stitch themselves into the artwork. Our values and aims as a social enterprise are really similar to those of the community rail movement, so we were delighted to be invited to work with WCRP”.
Working from drawings and images supplied by Peter at WCRP, needlepoint tapestry artist Tina Francis, the other half of Woolly Mammoth, created designs of carriage windows, doors and front pieces to represent the Worcestershire trains. In total there were 10 different designed pieces, each measuring 8cm sq with corresponding wool colours for the trains. There were 300 kits available to be stitched as part of the project.
The kits contained step-by-step stitch guides and easy design grids to follow so even absolute beginners could have a go. Woolly Mammoth encouraged people to stitch themselves or others into the windows to make their individual pieces unique. The first carriage windows were sent out to staff members and project funders to test. With positive feedback and the go ahead, it was time to get the Stitch Train volunteers on board!
Tina said: “We were amazed at how quickly volunteers signed up. Every time a local paper ran the story there was a flurry of emails. Within a few weeks, all the kits had been allocated.
“It has been brilliant to see pictures of people’s stitched pieces shared on social media. This was a great way for our stitchers to feel connected to each other. We have enjoyed hearing about who has been stitched into the windows of the carriages and the stories behind some journeys.”
The completed trains
“The project was open for stitchers aged 16+ and our eldest stitcher is most likely to be Elsie whom we were told has just turned 102! It was great to see so many men stitching as part of the team on this project too. We asked people to record how long it took them to stitch their piece and collectively volunteers contributed an impressive estimated 678 hours.
“In the end, we had 254 squares returned and all of them have been included in the artworks, which are digital at the moment. We have shared these virtual trains on our website and through a film. The physical display of the artworks will be in the stations in 2021 when restrictions have lifted.”
While neither Woolly Mammoth or WCRP have been able to meet the Stitch Train volunteer team in person yet, they’ve been really pleased to hear about their experiences of being involved and what they think of the digital artworks. One stitcher shared on Instagram: “It’s been a year since I lost mum. When I had the opportunity to stitch this train carriage I could think of nothing else but the occasion Mum and her friend after seeing a show boarded an intercity train Birmingham to Bristol. They should have been on a local service Birmingham to Redditch. What an adventure they had that day!”
Suze adds: “We’ve had a really lovely response from people. Many said they’d tried cross stitch for the first time and are now ‘converts’, that taking part has been really enjoyable and a great, relaxing activity to do during lockdown. People have especially liked seeing all the faces, people and dogs in the train windows. There’s also a rainbow and NHS workers wearing face masks stitched into the train artwork, capturing the spirit and life of 2020.”
We have really enjoyed working on this project with WCRP. They understand the importance of creativity for wellbeing and how a collaborative craft project can be used to create community spirit, even if delivered remotely. The people of Worcestershire have been at the heart of this lockdown project and this is such a great example of how the community rail movement works, putting local people at the heart of their railway stations. We can’t wait to reveal the framed artworks at the stations in the future. We’d like to say a huge thank you to Community Rail Network and the Worcestershire Community Rail Partnership for funding this project.”
The digital artworks can be seen in this celebration film and on the Woolly Mammoth website where you can find out about Woolly Mammoth’s other community projects.
Read more about Community Rail in this post about some of the thousands of volunteers who are part of this movement.
