#honiton

I'm so so so happy with how it came out!!! Please admire closely that left leaf and pretend the right one isn't there. The filling isn't super pretty but a vast improvement to the leadworks I've done so far. Some of the ones toward the right side are even sort of held their shape and are almost even! It took me a while to figure out how to end them so that they stayed square and didn't distort going into the next stitches.

There was lots to learn doing this pattern again. One, it was the first project on my new pillow so had to get used to the new shape and stuff. I also got some Honiton bobbins now which I did end up really liking!! And of course, the new thread. At first it was a huge pain, I kept breaking the runners off and wanted to cry, but once I got used to how much tension to use ( basically none. since the pillow is so round and domed, the way the bobbins hang off the edge really provides all the tension needed) I really got going! The coarse thread is also now a better size compared to the main thread and I can see how it is adding better stability to the piece (and looks nicer, especially for the petals)! For size comparison, here it is next to the other sunflower I did:

What an awesome find, a survey of the town of Honiton and its slightly northern and north-western environs from 1765.

What particularly intrigues me is that the one closer to the left has been labelled Cockenhays or Hembury Fort House.

Samuel Graves, upon acquiring the estate in the early 1750s, enlarged and improved the manor house locally known as Cockenhays and was quick to re-name it Hembury Fort House after the local landmark, an Iron Age hill fort.

His reasons for doing so are unclear, though I would presume that, albeit a sailor and somewhat notorious for being "rough in his manner", Cockenhays just didn't suit the kind of genteel air an officer and a gentleman would have wanted to cultivate.

The locals, it seems, did not take to Graves's re-branding scheme; it may have been out of habit, out of a sense of preserving local tradition against a newcomer, or simply for reasons of speech economy; Cockenhays, after all, is one word, whereas Hembury Fort House (known among the Graves-family as The Fort) amounts to three.

Another instance of people defying Samuel Graves's new estate name can be found in the London Gazette, in which he, dated 10 February 1764, published two blackmail letters he had received, in which an unnamed person or group of people threatened that he would have his "House bloed abouet Your Years derickly [house blown about your ears directly]" if he would not agree to depositing the sum of fifty guineas "behain ye Gate Poss that goth into Cockney Street [behind the gate post that goes into Cockenhays Street]." These two letters were each time addressed to "Admardel [or in the second letter, Adrelmel] Graues at Cockney", indicating that the perpetrator(s) were locals-- people Graves knew who weren't local to the area would refer to his residence by Graves's preferred names of Hembury Fort House or more casually, The Fort.

These published letters reveal another potential issue why the name Hembury Fort House did never fully replace Cockenhays; in the context given describes "ye Gate Poss" where the blackmail letter was found, and where Graves was supposed to leave the fifty guineas as "the Falling-Gate Post [...] that leads into the Honiton Road, commonly called Cockenhay Street."

What is Cockenhay Street? Comparing the 1765 map with footage from Google Maps, the street going towards Honiton in the 18th century map has almost the exact same course as today's A373.

While time has since favoured Graves's choice of Hembury Fort House over Cockenhays, presumably connected to the the Honiton road, also known as Cockenhays Street, being renamed over time.

Another, less controversial discovery on this map is that it lists the Wolford church estate, which would some two decades later would be purchased from the owner, a Mr. Genest, by Graves' niece and godson Elizabeth and John Graves Simcoe, who tore down the old house, built a much bigger one on the site and dubbed it Wolford Lodge. The distinction became necessary because they also renovated the medieval church ruin and made it a place of family worship, now known as Wolford Chapel.

A small white silk hexagon forms the central piece of this patchwork wedding quilt top which was donated to the Collection in 2005. It is printed with the words “SAMUEL MILTON MARRIED TO SARAH SAGE ON JANUARY, 30TH 1868”. Very typical of the printed silk inserts used in greetings cards of the time, it may be from one of their wedding invitations. According to the Accession Register entry, the quilt was bought in the Devon/Cornwall area in 1993.

Newest finished piece!! Pretty happy with this! The leaves look a bit funky, I think I'm still using too much tension and maybe not enough bobbins for them. Super happy with the stems and the petals! And hey look! My square lead works are becoming more square! The new technique learned in this one was crossing over a braid. So for example the two bottom leaves use the same bobbins and are not sewn on separately.

What a workout 😴😴😴 so many days of cloth stitch, so many flowers, so much sewing. This was a lot of fun to make. Definitely improved on some skills I've been working on. I think one of the biggest improvements from this piece just came from the actual approach. I found myself making decisions on how to approach different elements, when to hang in and cut out pairs for different spots, and stuff like that that was no longer written into the instructions in the book. Speaking of the book, by finishing this piece, I officially graduate from the beginner patterns chapter 🥳🥳🥳 My plan next i think is to go work on some torchon pieces again because I need a break from sewing while I work on ordering some finer thread. I want to repeat the sunflower pattern at the actual size, and then move on to the next chapter!