A while ago I visited the Cannon Hall Museum for their Tales of a Wedding Dress exhibition, showing handmade historical dresses from local people and we heard about their stories. Last weekend I was back at Cannon Hall for their Farm Food Festival (which was lovely!) and I decided to go back into the museum and realised they have more wedding dresses in that were from films and television series. They were spread through the rest of the museum where the rooms are set up as they were once before which made the dresses look very settled in their environments.

Here's the photos I took of the dresses, they were so beautiful and so detailed. Some of the dresses were on spinning podiums, enabling you to see all sides of the costumes. I really recommend seeing all theses beautiful gowns if you are ever visiting Cannon Hall!

The Civic in the town center has a few fashion related exhibitions coming this weekend and all are a must-see! The first being 'Fashion & Freedom', based around the first world war as inspiration to leading fashion designers to create contemporary pieces. The second 'VS David Bowie' is about a local Illustrator who has challenged nearby designers and artists to colour in images of David Bowie drawings, as well as a Life Size Paper Doll workshop inspired by them. There will also be a Pop-Up Print Showcase from Barnsley College students.

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From Saturday 11th February, the exhibition 'Fashion & Freedom' will be showcasing fashion items from designers such as Vivienne Westwood, Holly Fulton, Roksanda, Emilia Wickstead and more. All inspired by how the First World War has impacted women's life and work and how fashion changed to accomodate that. This exhibition that was commissioned by 14-18 NOW has come from Manchester Art Gallery and is here until April 8th.

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'VS David Bowie' is an exhibition celebrating local Illustrator and Adult Colouring Book designer, Mel Elliot. One of her bestselling books was based on David Bowie images and The Civic has asked numerous local artists, designers, illustrators and creatives to 'colour-in' one of her many images in their own way. This exhibit is on 11th Febraury to 8th of April.



To go alongside both of the above exhibitions, there will be a life sized paper doll workshop on 22nd February & 15th February to create your own designs and have the fun of modelling them on the runway. You can book onto the workshops here www.barnsleycivic.co.uk/events/lifesize-paper-doll-workshop



In light of The Civic's upcoming Print Fair in July, they are showcasing some of Barnsley College's students print work from textiles, to lino prints, etching, screen printing and digital prints. Available for viewing from February 8th also.

Let us know what you think to all the exhibitions when you go and visit this weekend!

All photos belong to The Civic.

 

'The Stories of the Somme' exhibition at the Experience Barnsley Museum began 24th of August and runs up until 20th of November. Alongside their other Barnsley memorabilia, stories from the Battle of the Somme were presented with items, literature and memories of by-gone soldiers. Dotted around the museum were also garments created by Barnsley College Fashion students from their World War one project earlier this year which brought the theme more to life. The exhibition is definitely worth a visit as well as seeing all the other items within the museum.

Here's the photo journal of the visit.



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Whilst at the Barnsley Archives the other day, I found out about this wonderful event called the Barnsley Shopping Carnival. In the archives they had the booklets from 1910 and 1922 and found them so fascinating to look at and read through. These booklets were actually more like an entire book and properly bound. Inside were drawings, photographs, advertisements, all about Barnsley, shops, competitions and more.

The 1910 booklet was less illustrious and more text based, as you'd expect. This was the first year Barnsley held this week-long event and it wrote how other towns had also done in and Barnsley wanted to join in. The carnival meant gathering all the shops throughout the town and to work together to create a massive attraction to all customers new and old, they would host special offers to get them into their shops and also import some special products that could only be bought during this week. The main part of the carnival was the window dressing competitions, they had different categories such as Ladies goods to wear, Mens goods to wear, Goods to eat, Best outside decoration and Best novelty window exhibition. To entice the shoppers, they urged them also to take part in guessing who would get the awards and also written essays about the carnival.

The 1922 book had far more visuals and even the first page was printed in colour as seen above.It echoed the previous book but had far more pages as it had grown in popularity. This time, the window dressing competitions had simplified down to the categories Things to eat, Things to wear and Things to use, but had extra special prizes given by  companies if they had put any of their products amongst their window displays. The Barnsley British Co-operative Society is featured quite heavily throughout this book, advertising each and every of it's departments, right down to particular products. Here's a selection of images from the 1922 booklet. Can you imagine if Barnsley still did this?

All content from the Barnsley Archives.

The other day I got invited to go visit the Barnsley Archives and I got so excited seeing what they'd found for me, I got a bit lost in the reason why I was originally there and ended up just reading through old booklets and staring at photographs a bit too long. However there was some more gorgeous old photos of the Barnsley Co-operative Society that I had already done some delving into and it was because of this that I got invited to go and see more. So here is a few of the photos they had found for me.







These three photos above are from the 60's in it's ladies wear department. I love how happy the women in them are and that the styles of clothing in them can still be found in high street stores today. Something that stands out to me in all the photographs though, is that carpet!

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This was one of the make-up areas, featuring some brands that have obviously stood the test of time! You can also see the hair dyes, hair products and then for some reason...umbrellas at the back?





The Haberdashery department! If I had been around then, this would be where I'd spend all my time! All those rolls of fabric, mannequins, buttons, ribbons and so, so much more!

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The lingerie department looks typical of the 60's, full length nighties and under-slips. And there is that wonderful carpet again, it's growing on me!







The three photos above were taken in 1959, so a little earlier than the others and are of the Menswear departments. Here you could buy off the rack and have things made-to-measure. They also have all the school uniforms, shirts and accessories.

I find all these so fascinating and learning more about our town of Barnsley and it's history can still inspire you today. Massive thanks to the Barnsley Archives for your help, I'll definitely be coming back.

All photos from the Barnsley Archives.

Yesterday I got invited to go and look at the Barnsley Archives which are based inside the Town Hall. The Archives are open to the public to view anytime, however if you are looking for something in particular, it's best to email in advanced and see what they have on the subject.

I went there to find out more about the Barnsley Co-Operative building and found some beautiful old photographs of it from the 50's and 60's, featuring some of their departments and shoppers.

However I also found out about a wonderful event that used to be held called the Barnsley Shopping Carnival. This type of event had already been held elsewhere and Barnsley wanted to join in too. It gathered all the independent shops throughout the town to make a week long carnival, featuring special deals, window display competitions and public competitions. Everyone worked together to attract new customers to the town and they produced a 'booklet', which was actually an entire book detailing all of the events, history of the town, advertisements and stories about certain shops.

I've got lots of pictures to share, keep an eye out on the blog!

In recent news, a beautiful Victorian building has gone up in flames in Barnsley. It's recent use was a nightclub and now under renovation to become a restaurant, but all has been wasted away to a large fire destroying it. Originally built in 1862 and was a Grade 2 listed building, it housed many different departments from butchery, pharmaceutical, tailoring and also drapery.

It's with great shame that this building has slowly deteriorated over the years and has now been engulfed in flames. We're going to take a look at it's fashion sided history through these beautiful old photos from the 60's and a memories video from Experience Barnsley. Photo Credit to the left: Yorkshire Post.




The Experience Barnsley Museum have been delving into this topic and created this wonderful video of people who used to be members of the Co-Operative and their memories.