Lancaster Priory

Church kneelers, cushions and seat backs, designed by Guy Barton and stitched under the supervision of his wife Maire, are among the glories of twentieth century textile art.  The dramatic choir stalls display canvaswork panels on the 14th century stallbacks.  Below, the embroidered seatbacks lead down to the embroidered cushions.

The stallbacks on the north show scenes from the life of Mary.  Those on the south show images of the resurrected Christ together with the meeting of Mary with Elizabeth and the meeting of the three Marys with the seraph at the tomb.  The four stallbacks on the west show the saints closely linked with the Priory Church.

Seatbacks and cushions refer to the human world with references to Lancaster’s history and the local environment.  The glorious seatback showing Jonah and the whale is a reference to St Nicholas, patron saint of shipwrecked mariners and one of the Priory Church’s patron saints.

This magnificent range of textile art unfortunately does not easily fit the template imposed by the website design.  The standard template orientation is landscape and the stallbacks are portrait.  Be sure to click on the individual images to bring up the exceptional detail of design and stitching.

Copyright Lancaster Priory PCC.