My mother’s contribution to perhaps the most overlooked British folk art of the past 90 years: the canvas-work church kneeler
It’s probably too soon to suggest, as the Rev Richard Coles recently did, that Elizabeth Bingham’s Kneelers is the best non-fiction book of 2023. But, like him, I’m a little in love with this guide to the most practised (and overlooked) British folk art of the past 90 years. Bingham is an authority on Anglican church canvas-work kneelers, and in her lovely book she traces their history from their beginnings in 1930s Winchester, through their zenith after the coronation of Elizabeth II, to the present day, in which a dedicated few keep the tradition alive.
Kneelers celebrate and memorialise every aspect of life, not only the religious – though Bible stories do feature, if you’re in the market for a tapestry of Jonah and the whale – and this makes them both touching and surprising. My favourites so far: a grey whippet (St Peter and St Paul, Deddington); a Second World War ARP warden fighting a fire (St Mary Magdalene, Woodstock); Sizewell nuclear power station in the sunshine (St Edmunds, Southwold).
