Photo: Manager Jenny Mabbott, Museum Guide Clare Hirst and Volunteer Steve Collins.
ROCHDALE PIONEERS MUSEUM The Toad Lane premises, where the Rochdale Pioneers set up their cooperative grocery store on 21 December 1844, is well-known around the world. Now, an unusual tribute to the iconic building has been revealed. Head of Heritage Resources at the Co-operative Heritage Trust, Gillian Lonergan, has painstakingly recreated the Pioneers’ famous store, complete with the famous Co-operative Tea advert on the side. Working in minute detail, she has replaced bricks and mortar with coloured wool and stitches. Gillian’s knitted tribute to the building was finally unveiled recently after several months of stopping and starting and returning to the museum to take photos of each wall, which were then transferred into a knitting pattern via graph paper. Knitting the building was a long process, and one which Gillian says “kept my husband entertained for a few months!”. Gillian started with the tea advertisement, she explains, because: “How you could recreate the tea advert in knitting is something which has always intrigued me. I have knitted lots of images and patterns before and the tea advertisement is a lovely image.”
Coming from a family of knitters, Gillian has been knitting since she was ten, but she took it up with particular enthusiasm when she was a teenager and has always carried knitting around with her. “It’s creative and it’s something you can pick up and do. You can spend hours or just a few minutes doing it, and it’s something you can do wherever you are or in front of the TV,” she explains,
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adding. “I like to have a challenge and I like to knit things which are different and not too simple.”
The Toad Lane store is the latest in a series of Gillian’s knitting projects, but it is her first building and the inspiration came from the unlikeliest of places: a tardis! Gillian explains: “I knitted a tardis a few years ago and realised there isn’t that much difference between a tardis and a building!”
Although she likes making things, Gillian admits that she doesn’t really think about what she will do with them afterwards. It’s hoped, however, that the knitted Pioneers store will now become a permanent fixture at the museum. “It’s quite large and very squishy, so it might be an addition to the museum’s resources,” she explains. “I imagine there will be a lot of bouncing about on it!”
You can visit the Museum and view Gillian’s creation during museum opening hours which are Tuesday to Saturday 10am – 5pm.
EXCELLENT QUALITY EXPERIENCE’ OFFERED BY PIONEERS MUSEUM
The Pioneers museum was recently assessed by VisitEngland’s Quality Assurance Scheme (VAQAS) and credited for its efficiency and the one-to-one personal welcome given to each visitor. Chris De Vere of VisitEngland commented: “The Rochdale Pioneers Museum offered the visitor an overall excellent quality experience. This is one of the gems of Rochdale and Greater Manchester. It deserves much greater awareness. The Rochdale Pioneers Museum fully merits the award of VisitEngland’s accreditation of ‘Quality Assured Visitor Attraction.”
Jenny Mabbott, Manager of the Museum stated: “We are very pleased that VisitEngland has recognised the quality of visit offered by the team at the Rochdale Pioneers Museum. The museum reopened in October 2012 following an extensive HLF refurbishment and during that time we have welcomed over 13,000 visitors from across the globe. We will build on this excellent assessment and continue to provide and develop engaging visitor experiences during the year ahead.”