Castleford Industrial Heritage Textile
Industrial lives and past local industries impacted and shaped Castleford and the people who live in it.
The Friends Of Castleford Library commissioned textile artist Julie McCready to create a piece of work that would portray Castleford's Industrial heritage in a unique and colourful textile that will educate and give a visual record for generations to come.
Julie led a series of four workshops within the library in January 2023 teaching the community creators new skills in textile art. Their work contributed to the final textile.
The three textile wall hangings have been built up using layers of 40 weight machine embroidery thread, gently merging the colours to give a painterly effect. Using basic mechanical sewing machines and also included hand embroidery. The stitches used have varied from zig zags to straight stitch and free motion stitching. Base layers of cotton and calico and 'stitch and tear' stabiliser together with synthetic fabrics where needed for them to melt. A mixed variety of media was used including acrylic paint, water colour, sharpies, wax crayons, oil pastels, heat reactive paints and fabric pens. By combining materials sympathetically, using tools like a heat gun and even stitching through plastic we have varied the textures and created a multitude of colour.
Approximately 32,400 metres (20 miles) of thread have been used to create the textiles.
Textile artist:
Julie McCready
Community Creators:
Sue Rockett: Denise Rowlinson: Pat Lumb: Mel Oldershaw: Sue Goate: Karen Avery: Karen Jones: Samantha Savage: Bethany Dixon: Tess Cowells: Cath Shepherd: Sarah Shepherd: Margaret Prior: David Wilders: Jane Carter: Lucy Bellwood: Sophie Greatbatch: Julie Greatbatch: Emma Daniels: Samantha Brown: Denise Barden: Georgie Brown: Karen Marsh: Louise Loben: Claire Dolby: Karen Wilkinson: Jean Roden.
Castleford Free Library 1905-2005 (book)
Not many libraries have a history written about them but we at Castleford are passionate about ours. So much so, we wanted to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of its existence in book form.
The book Castleford Free Library 1905-2005 was commissioned by the Friends Of Castleford Library. It's members Margaret Lound and Pat Bentley wrote and researched the book.
This fascinating and well researched book tells the story of how the people of Castleford received their Free Public Library in 1905 and the subsequent expansion of the Town's library service in the next one hundred years.
This gem of a book has 178 pages of which 90 are of illustrations - many have not been seen before.
It is a must for local historians.
Some fascinating questions we hope you will enjoy finding out within the book are:
- What made the librarian request a gas ring for the library?
- Why were parts of the newspapers in the reading room deliberately blacked-out by the staff?
- Why did Miss Hill have a pair of Wellington boots ready in her office?
- What caused the Childrens' department to be bursting at the seams on Thursday evenings in the 1950s?
- Why are the Roman milestones not in Castleford?
Priced at £6.50 please add £1.50 for postage to mainland UK.
Please include your name and address
Make cheques payable to:-
Friends Of Castleford Library
Send to:
FAO Friends Of Castleford Library
Castleford Library
Carlton Street
WF10 1BB
Castleford Forum Film Archive Project
Preservation
In the Castleford library local studies collection, there languishes old cinema films that have been donated many years ago and have been for years gathering dust and decaying. Besides 16mm film there are various VHS video tapes.
These films are today very hard to display and difficult to show the public, which is what the donations were intended to do.
FOCAL and Castleford Library has identified that these film have historic value to the Town and feel they must be saved and brought back in to use. By up dating the format, our public can once again access them.
Aims
- The project wishes to convert the film into digital media so it can be accessed by disc or website.
- Show the restored film at events at the library.
- Encourage to local film enthusiasts to form a film club.
- Appeal to the general public for donations of events of Castleford on film to be deposited in the archive.
- Engage with local youths through schools or college to maybe produce a contemporary film made by the youth of Castleford to add to the collection.
- Raise funds to support the project through book sales, small grants and the community Fund.
- Provide correct storage for the film archive.
Outcome
- The project will contribute a permanent historical and contemporary film footage of Castleford to the local, regional and national archive.
- It will appeal to all ages.
- Provide visual documentation of Castleford life.
- Profile awareness adds participation of the archive.
- The project could be part of a qualification through schools/college.
- Arrange events/film shows for the general public.
- Create a visitor attraction for the Forum.
Funding such a project has to come from the group, With generous donations of second hand books from the general public, we have in 2014 held a number of book sales at the library and within the Old Market Hall and Carlton Lanes raising a sum of £600.
We identified four reels of film which we wished to digitise and become the catalyst for the start of the new project. We applied for funding £945 to the Neighbourhood Improvement Fund to carry out such work.The great news is we were successful and a big thanks to Wakefield Council (Communities) for supporting us.
To a fantastic audience in the library of over a 100 people, we launched the Castleford On Film Project on 24th and 25th April 2015.
Over the weekend the fantastic renovated films were shown.They ignited interest and many people who were on the films had a great time reminiscing. It also brought together folks who have since donated films which are now housed in the collection and are ready for you to watch on DVD.
If you would like to donate a copy of your film please contact the library local studies.
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