Sunday, 15 June 2014

Mayor: Woodhorn Matters

Was invited to open the Woodhorn Matters 21st Anniversary Exhibition in Chantry Bagpipe Museum

I may be Morpeth’s first ‘Green’ Mayor but Woodhorn Matters and the generations of people who have been making proggy mats are the real recyclers – making useful and beautiful things out of scrap material and wool.

Woodhorn Matters was set up to help revive a craft which has been part of northern culture for centuries. Dating from times when people couldn’t afford to waste anything with thrift and recycling essential not just trendy virtues, proggy and hooky mats became oldfashioned and unpopular through the 1950’s and ’60’s and have only in the last couple of decades come back into style again.

Now modern designs and fabric colours mean that humble proggy mats can be superb works of art.

They prefer to use wool rather than cotton or synthetic fabrics – and they are always   The group started off based in Woodhorn Museum and although they now meet in Morpeth Methodist Church, they’ve kept the original name. They are always happy to welcome new members – and because they prefer to use wool rather than cotton or synthetic material – there’s always a demand for old fabric and yarn.

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