The Staircase House website have posted a press release about the Trust's donation to start the Staircase Stitchers Project. (Apparently it is over a month old, but Google has only just found it.)
Staircase House Press Release
STOCKPORT HERITAGE TRUST
After nearly two decades all the money raised towards the restoration of Staircase House by Stockport Heritage volunteers has been handed over to Stockport Council, the present custodians of the beautiful 15th C. gentry townhouse on the Market Place.
Already eight thousand pounds has been donated to pay for a replica 17th C. carved oak tester bed and now the remaining two thousand pounds is presented by the Trust, a registered local charity, to help pay for an embroidery project that will create copies of period bed hangings, linen and costumes, all made by local volunteers. The money had been gathered in a campaign to save the priceless building from bulldozers, which started in 1987 and ended in triumphant restoration when the house opened to the public in 2005.
Iain McLean, the first chairman of Stockport Heritage and current honorary vice-president , handed over the cheque to Sarah Cotton, co-ordinator of the embroidery project. Iain is one of only three Trust stalwarts who were involved in the early campaign to save the building, including Steve Cliffe and Sharza Dethick, who were present at the handover. Steve is editor of the independent Stockport Heritage magazine and Sharza works as a museum assistant with Stockport Heritage Services.
Other Trust volunteers busy with current projects include the present chairman, Jim Clare, who runs the Heritage centre in St Mary’s Church open on market days, Angela Kenrick who works as a stitcher on the embroidery project and plans costume displays in the Heritage Centre, and Coral Dranfield who is preparing an exhibition on local water tunnels for Stockport Story Museum with the help of veteran caving expert, Alan Burgess.
END.
Pr - 13.6.06
