Tregellas

The Tregellas Tapestry is a Cornwall tapestry. It was conceived and researched by the Cornish Bard Tregellas an Bluven - Rita Tregellas Pope, and designed and executed under her direction. In 1991, she brought together a team comprising two designers, Joanna Tucker and Annie Corey, and a group of skilled spinners, dyers and embroiderers. Using a variety of techniques including appliqué, embroidery and collage, the Tapestry took three years to complete.

This modern embroidery comprises 58 individual panels portraying the milestones of Cornwall's rich history and culture from prehistoric to modern times. The story shows how the Cornish took their goods and skills across the world through the centuries. Fact is interspersed with fiction, famous names are interwoven with legend. Cornwall's contribution to world progress is depicted in peace and war, in religion and folklore. Miners, fishermen and farmers are remembered with pirates, priests and inventors.

The Tapestry had never before been exhibited together in one place until Alma Place opened in Redruth Cornwall, England in October 2001. However, some panels had been displayed at different venues around England to mark the Millennium, including the museums in Callington, Helston, and Royston and at the Gorsedd in Falmouth.

The panels are displayed at Alma Place as a trail that starts at the entrance to the Cornish Studies Library. It continues down the stairs into the Market Way courtyard, where the majority of the panels are hung.

Rita Tregellas Pope was nominated twice for the UK Woman of Europe Award, in 1994 and again in 1998. In the same year she was also nominated for the Creative Briton Award. Rita established The Tregellas Foundation, which was incorporated in 1995, to advance the knowledge and understanding of Cornwall's cultural heritage. She planned to achieve this through recreation and education in the arts, literature, music, history and other recognised areas of study relating to the region.

Rita's first contribution to entertainment in the UK was a television series written for children: Vegetable Village. It was the BBC TV's first glove puppet programme, produced by Cecil Madden and broadcast in 1951. It went out live from Lime Grove Studios in the days before programmes were recorded so the series is never mentioned when early children's television is discussed. The twelve puppets' papier mâché heads were made by Harry Wanslaw. All the puppets and some of the original scripts are now in Cornwall.