User:Robertguylane

The Adventurers for Virginia Tapestry was designed by Tom Mor and illustrates 18 of London's livery companies who in 1620 funded The London Virginia Company's colonisation attempt at Jamestown, Virginia.

The first stitches were made by London's Lord Mayor, Sir Roger Cork at Barber Surgeon's Hall, London, in 1997.

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is the largest stitched embroidery in the world, larger than the Bayeux Tapestry. It depicts English colonisation attempts in Newfoundland, North America, the Guyanas and Bermuda between the years 1583 and 1642, when the English Civil War began.

Work began on the tapestry in 1980 and continued for twenty years. When it is not on tour, the tapestry's home is the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum in the original 1840s terminal station designed by Brunel near the modern Bristol Temple Meads railway station in central Bristol, England.

The panels
The New World Tapestry, which in its entirety measures 267 ft x 4 ft (81.3 m x 1.2 m), consists of twenty four panels,  each of which depicts the narrative of a particular phase in the period between 1583 and 1642.

The stitchers
Tom Mor could not have seen his canvasses brought to life without the help of his friends and the expertise of the dedicated tapissiers. When the very first stitch was made in the New World Tapestry in 1980, the team working in Prysten House numbered twenty. By the time the last stitch was made in March 2000, the number of tapissiers had increased to two hundred fifty-six with the addition of another eight centres. In Devon there was a second in Plymouth at HMS Drake (the Royal Navy’s panel), Ivybridge, Chillington, Exeter, Bideford, Totnes and Tiverton Castle. Dorset’s Tapestry centre was in the Guildhall at Lyme Regis and it was there that the Great Gardeners and Herbalists panel was stitched.

The first Oblique Gobelin stitch was made on 26 September 1980 in Prysten House in Plymouth, by U.S. Ambassador the Hon. Kingman Brewster. The coat of arms of His Excellency's ancestor, Pilgrim leader William Brewster, appears on the 1620 Mayflower Panel.

The last Oblique Gobelin stitch was made by HRH Prince Charles on 3 March 2000 in the Orchard Room of his home at Highgrove House in Gloucestershire. Most fittingly, with his interest in history and a keen gardener himself, the Prince put his golden wool stitch in the date of the 1642 Great Gardeners and Herbalists’ Panel.

Stitches have also been added by HM the Queen, HM the Queen Mother, HRH Prince Philip, HRH the Princess Royal and HRH the Duchess of Gloucester.

The Library
The New World Tapestry Library material includes histories of the years 1583-1642, much of it original research, files on the two hundred sixty four people named on the tapestry, plus heraldic information on over three hundred individuals, companies, towns, counties and universities.

Supporters
Supporters of the New World Tapestry include the Adventurers for Virginia patrons of the New World Tapestry and Library. Their names are inscribed for posterity in the Adventurers for Virginia Record Book. Supporters who join the Adventurers for Virginia may also:


 * In London, celebrate the Adventurers for Virginia Day every 10 April to commemorate the granting of Royal Charters by James II of England to the London Company and the Plymouth Adventurers (Plymouth Company) in 1606 to establish colonies in Virginia


 * Help fund the production of the book, The Jamestown, Sagadahoc and Bermuda Story, for schools and researchers.


 * Help fund the production of the Yeardley/Flowerdew Brasses for presentation in England and America.


 * Help make grants to the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum at Temple Meads in Bristol to create the permanent exhibition of the New World Tapestry, expand and enhance the New World Tapestry Library and help the development of three-way educational research between England, the Americas and Bermuda.


 * Receive a tie showing the Adventurers’ badge plus a lifetime pass to view the tapestry at the museum in Bristol.