Fabric of Resistance- Project details

The Material Culture under Penalty project, generously funded by the British Academy, aims to analyse a hidden aspect of early modern Catholic material culture in- the vestments used by Catholics in secret to practise their faith during the period when conformity to the Church of England was legally enforced and the practice of Catholicism illegal (c.1530-1829). These vestments are often known and cherished as individual survivals. This project aims to bring together such survivals from across the United Kingdom so we can develop a better understanding of their histories, reflect on their different materials, designs and styles and gain insight into their different contexts.

We have worked with users, custodians and academics to develop an active network of people interested in exploring the importance and changing meanings of these vestments as embodying memory and faith and sustaining, forgetting or reviving suppressed religious practice.

The website is an online exhibition bringing together various types of English Catholic textiles made during the time of persecution, including re-used medieval textiles, vestments made specifically for concealment and examples used on the Continent by English exiles.

People-

Lead researcher: Dr Mary Brooks, Department of Archaeology, Durham University. Profile: https://www.dur.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/?id=10574

Mary M Brooks PhD MA DMS DipTexCons FIIC FSA ACR Mary trained as a textile conservator at the Textile Conservation Centre and the Abegg Stiftung, Switzerland and subsequently worked at the De Young Museum, San Francisco and York Castle Museum. She became Head of Studies and Research at the Textile Conservation Centre and now directs the MA International Cultural Heritage Management at Durham University. Her research interests include seventeenth-century embroideries, the use of X-radiography for the greater understanding of textiles and dress, ecclesiastical textiles and vestments and regenerated protein fibres.

Claire Marsland, MA, PhD candidate, Curator at Ushaw Historic House, Chapels and Gardens, Durham Profile: https://www.dur.ac.uk/research/directory/staff/?mode=staff&id=13213