Creative Process

One to One Development Trust has a long history of creating archives and online galleries/ museums, so we were pleased to be approached by the Friends of Horbury Library who were seeking advice for creating a digital version of the Horbury Tapestry.

We were very impressed by the wonderful detail in tapestry and the story behind it, so agreed to lend our support and expertise to the project.

The funding from Wakefield Council enabled our creative team to have 5 days to work on the project including to photograph the tapestry and process the imagery. One to One provided in-kind support by matching this with another 10 days for back end development and programming, front end design and testing for the archive gallery, image restoration and archive video repair. As a longer term commitment to the project, we will also host the online gallery for four years.

Photographing the tapestry was no easy task as it is wall mounted, 8ft tall and sits behind glass. The fragility of the fabric means taking the glass off is not an option. We constructed a frame with black-out to minimise reflections and photographed the tapestry in small sections. The images then were stitched together at a later stage to recreate the whole canvas.

Photographing the tapestry in Horbury Library. Neil Thomas of the Friends Group monitoring progress as Dean Hinchliffe & Judi Alston of One to One Development Trust get set up.  

We enjoyed welcoming members of the group at our studio in the Art House Wakefield for a practical session looking at different aspects of image restoration, archive options and project planning. We also set up the webspace and email addresses for the project, and explored various technologies that we might use to display an ultra-high resolution scan of the tapestry in the fastest and most efficient way possible.

The Friends of Horbury Library working with One to One Development Trust’s Digital Director to explore different ways of archiving the tapestry.

We have really enjoyed helping to bring The Friends of Horbury Library’s vision for the Tapestry Project alive. The online gallery provides a resource not just for local people to learn more about the Horbury Tapestry, but people interested in Horbury, or in tapestry and needlework anywhere in the world.

Some of the members of The Friends of Horbury Library.

Gathering information for the picture gallery notes was a key part of the 2024 project.  This was undertaken by the Friends of Horbury Library team working with local organisations, individuals and Janet Taylor, the project leader for the tapestry made 20 years ago.

For more information about One to One Development Trust work please visit our website