Walsall Silver Thread Tapestries

The Walsall Silver Thread Tapestries is a set of eleven artworks in tapestries, designed by the artist Hunt Emerson in conjunction with the various communities of Walsall, England and hand-stitched by local people there in 2016. They depict the people, places, history and wildlife of the towns and districts that, since 1974, have formed the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall.

The works were commissioned with grant funding of £73,740 from Arts Council England to commemorate the 25th (or silver) anniversary of Walsall Council's Creative Development Team.^[1] The team was disbanded before the project was completed.^[2]

The tapestries are in three sizes: a large one for Walsall itself, six medium size and four smaller pieces. In total, they cover over 12 square metres (130 sq ft).^[3] Work was carried out under the auspices of Creative Factory, a community interest company.^[2]

In January 2017, they were exhibited at The New Art Gallery Walsall, and afterwards at several venues around the borough, including St Matthew's Church, libraries, and Walsall Leather Museum.^[3]^[4] As of 2019, the tapestries are exhibited at Walsall Arboretum Visitor Centre.

The work is dedicated to Maxwell Bailey, manager of the Creative Development Team, who secured the Arts Council grant, but died before the work was completed.^[2]

The tapestries

Each tapestry depicts several subjects:

Aldridge

Aldridge war memorial

Aldridge
Aldridge in Bloom
Aldridge War Memorial
St Mary's Church and croft
Old High Street, Aldridge, with a gold post box commemorating Ellie Simmonds
Aldridge Airport and a Swallow Doretti automobile
Aldridge Manor House
The Elms, a public house
The Avion, a cinema
Rosie's walk, a charity event
A brick from the Victoria Works
Johnny Bullock, jockey
Charles Holland, cyclist, and Charles George Bonner VC

Barr Beacon

Walsall Lodge, Great Barr Hall

One of the smaller tapestries.

Barr Beacon with stars
Streetly, the BIP works there, and the latter's role as a World War II munitions factory
Park Hall, Merrions Wood, and Great Barr Hall's Walsall Lodge
Pheasey and a dimpled golf ball
John Curry OBE, Olympic skater

Birchills

One of the smaller tapestries.

Birchills and Smiths Flour Mill
Reedswood Park swimming pool (demolished)
Beechdale and Noddy Holder, who was born there
Blakenall and the building of Walsall's first council houses, in 1920, at 94 and 96 Blakenall Lane
Sir Harry Hinsley OBE
Rob Halford of Judas Priest

Bloxwich

Bloxwich fountain

Bloxwich
Bloxwich Memorial Fountain
A preaching cross
Awl blades, needles and tacks, as manufactured locally
Sailing dinghies on the reservoir at Sneyd
Haymaking with a horse and cart, at Dudley Fields and Mossley
The Showman cinema, latterly The Electric Palace
The Royal Exchange, a public house
The Bellfield, a public house
Robert Plant and a Cavalier
Sir Harry Smith Parkes
Pat Collins, and one of his carousels

Brownhills

The Brownhills Miner

Brownhills
The Brownhills Miner, a large public statue by John McKenna
Clayhanger Country Park, with a red deer stag, red fox and a hoopoe
The Brownhills canal festival
A clock, known locally as the three-faced liar, as it was said to never show the same time on each dial
The Staffordshire Hoard
Brownhills Memorial Hall, known as; The Memo
Brownhills Activity Centre
St James' Church at Ogley Hay
Reg Morris
Erin O'Connor
Howdle the Butcher
Wild flowers, a dragonfly and a blue tit

Butts

One of the smaller tapestries.

Butts, and the archery butts from which it takes its name
Walsall Wood
Stubbers Green
Shelfield
Goscote and a public artwork there
Coalpool and Ryecroft engine sheds
Rushall Hall
The Rushall Psalter
Edward Leigh MP
A bee

Pelsall

Pelsall's fingerpost

Pelsall
Knitted poppies
Pelsall Colliery
Pelsall Canal Festival
A butcher's bicycle
St Michael's Church
Cilla Black attending the first 'Blind Date' wedding at St Michael's Church in 1991
Pelsall's fingerpost
Daisy Coates, a Pelsall postwoman of the 1960s
Boaz Bloomer, proprietor of Pelsall Iron Works

Palfrey

One of the smaller tapestries.

Palfrey and its statue of the type of horse from which it takes its name
Chuckery and local firm Crabtree
Highgate and its windmill tower
Caldmore
Pleck and its Hindu temple
Bescot and the badge of Walsall FC, who are based there
The White Hart, a former pub now residential flats

Darlaston

Darlaston
The statue of Saint George and the Dragon at St George's Church
Rubery Owen, an engineering company, and the company's David Owen
The Sanna, Moxley, site of a sanatorium ("sanna"), now a wildlife reserve, with a Staffordshire knot
Bentley Cairn at Bentley Hall
St Lawrence's Church
The Columbarium, a listed building
Nuts and bolts of the type manufactured by local companies
Billy Muggins, a local peddler
Jane Lane