The Esh Embroidery
Esh stole and maniple panels, 1330–50 Burse, 1400s with later alterations
Current location: Ushaw College
The Stole and Maniple panels - In the 1920s, Ushaw was given a large collection of Medieval embroidery from Canon Harris of Esh Laude Roman Catholic Church. Situated a mile from Ushaw College, Esh Hall was the seat of Catholic Smythe family who gave the land which the College was built on in 1808. The Smythes maintained a private Catholic chapel in Esh Hall from the 1650s and inside the Hall were a number of Priest-holes in which to conceal incriminating Catholic liturgical artefacts.
Esh Hall was dismantled in the 1850s and in one of the hiding spaces a collection of medieval embroidery was found. After the textiles were given to Ushaw College, the oldest fragments were re-worked into a stole and maniple by the convent workshop of the Poor Clares of Darlington.
The embroidery of the stole and maniple depict various male and female saints.
The Burse - Embroidered in gold and silver thread and coloured silks upon a ground of diapered gold. The fragment is thought to have formed part of a Jesse Tree. It represents the standing figure of King David, crowned and playing upon a harp; above his head is a silver scroll with an inscription now illegible. Around him is a vine stem with leaves and fruit. The burse was altered by the Poor Clares of Darlington in the 1930s but a record in the Ushaw Magazine for 1922 (p.122) describes how the burse appeared prior to the re-working; 'There is a red satin border with the sacred monogram ''I.H.S," the date 1658, and the name "Agnes Meynell" in silver thread. The back of the burse is of plain green satin.' As the embroidery dates to the 1400s it is highly likely that the name "Agnes Meynell" refers to the person who cut the original fabric down to make the burse. The Meynells were a prominent Catholic family in the north; however, it has not yet been possible to find information on Agnes.
Image - the maniples: copyright of The Treasures of Ushaw College: Durham's Hidden Gem (Scala: 2015)
Image - the burse: photography by Ian Leslie
Artefact Information: copyright The Trustees of Ushaw College
Further reading: 'A rare fourteenth-century survival' by Frances Pritchard, in The Treasures of Ushaw College: Durham's Hidden Gem (Scala: 2015)