Constructive, Colourful and Curative: The work of The Bradford Khaki

Handicrafts Club Tracey Williams

InJuly 1917 the Abram Peel Hospital, Leeds Road opened in Bradford to treat increasing numbers of returning soldiers suffering from neurasthenia (shell shock). This was one of only a few specialist hospitals in the country. Despite feeling pressed into service by Dr Hawkesworth the nerve specialist in charge of the Abram Peel, Louisa Pesel did not want to waste any of her vast knowledge and experiences of embroidery. She later wrote, ‘good embroidery is indeed a great craft suitable for men as well as women’ and ‘a little simple information might be of much help and value, be they sick or well.’ In November 1917 she and Mary Wade, a neighbour (living at Oak Bank) and associate of the Bradford Needlework Guild, proposed establishing a handicrafts club for the soldiers at a conference held at the Midland Hotel. The proposal which included the use of rooms leased from the Midland Railway Company near the Khaki Club in Forster Square, was accepted with both women elected as Secretaries.

Unlike the hospital, the Club was cheerful, light, and well ventilated. Benefitting from fresh air the soldiers were able to walk from the Abram Peel to the Club, spending an hour and a half there each morning or afternoon. The men worked at trestle tables on various crafts from netting and basketry to hand loom weaving (two handlooms were lent by Shipley Technical College) making useful articles such as lampshades, string bags, belts and ties. However, Louisa believed that it was canvas embroidery that helped the soldiers the most. She quotes one saying, ‘I like cross-stitch best, because if my work is right, why then it is as good as anyone else’s.’ Building on Louisa’s work at the Belgian Institute, the soldiers were allowed to sell the articles they made to the public (apart from the first one which they were allowed to keep), with the maker being paid the difference between the selling price and the cost of the materials. Such work was a lifeline for the soldiers who often had a long convalescence.

Dr Hawkesworth insisted on the importance of structure for the men (using both their hands and their brains) whilst Louisa felt that colour was important in helping with the healing process. Drawing upon her dye work at the Royal Hellenic School of Needlework and Lace, where she made ‘endless experiments in the blending of colour’, she found that soft colours had a curative effect whilst bold ones would often have a positive effect on mental wellbeing. She felt that this change in mental attitude ‘[was] often the first step towards complete recovery.’ Organised, keen and driven, Louisa had an ability to inspire others and get the best out of them. ‘Constant attention and self-discipline’ were important if mistakes were to be avoided. Teaching small groups of men simple easy stitches, working repetitive designs in a combination of colours produced wonderful results. She comments, ‘A simple thing carried out perfectly is better than some more ambitious attempt worked anyhow.’ Their careful and accurate work was both beautiful and useful: fine motor skills improved and their nerves were eased. This use of occupational therapy allowed them to ‘distract the mind from the body and all its ills and ailments. In this way the body is left to heal itself.’ Their sense of common purpose and enjoyment led them to aim high as once they had mastered the basics, they went on to develop their own colourful designs - another important factor in psychological healing. Leeds University Special Collections houses the only known example of work made by an individual attending the Bradford Khaki Club - that of a Private Ratford.

In a biography written after her death her sister Laura recalls that when a visiting Medical Board congratulated the head of the hospital he replied: ‘Go see what Miss Pesel is doing at the Handicrafts Club, a lot of the improvements are due to her.’ He also recalled that ‘A new patient came to us and after the first morning he wanted to hand back his work. I persuaded him to carry on, as I said I knew I could help him as we had helped other men …. In three months he was so far recovered that he returned to his own job, that of a Bank Manager.’ Unbeknown to the Club, the importance of their work stretched beyond Bradford. For example, a visit by two Scotsmen who wanted to introduce ‘occupational therapy’ to their own town and had been told by the War Office that they should visit the Handicrafts Club to see their excellent results. An exhibition of soldiers’ work was held in Edinburgh where the first three prizes went to soldiers from the Bradford Handicrafts Club. The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer 28 July 1919 also reported that a selection of the men’s work was shown at the New Ideals Conference in Cambridge demonstrating what could be achieved with the right sort of instruction. The BKHC Altar Cloth can still be seen today hanging inside Bradford Cathedral.

Despite its success, an appeal for donations to continue the work was made on 31 May 1918. Louisa believed that although the use of crafts was called ‘curative’, ‘remedial’, ‘therapeutic’ or ‘educational,’ its value remained the same and that ‘the soothing value of doing something with the hands might also be good for any men and women returned from the war, who are not necessarily disabled.’ Her contribution to what we now think of as occupational therapy deserves to be recognised and is something of which Bradford should be proud.

Stitching together with inspiration from Pesel

Stories from Pesel’s life in Bradford were shared with the Hive Chat and Craft group as they emerged. The geographic locations were familiar to many of the participants as were the textile techniques she employed in her work. Some of the group visited the University of Leeds Pesel archive which includes many samples of canvas work, made by Pesel and others. The group was encouraged to use the idea of a sampler worked on linen and include autobiographical details as part of the work.

The examples pictured here were made at the regular group meetings and at home. They include some direct references to Pesel’s designs and also to her life story - an iris is embroidered on one. They also offer personal stories, one about the participant’s life through reading and libraries, one an exploration of experiences of the mental health system, another sharing the experience of growing up in a military family. One participant writes, ‘I wanted to bring the whole work together by ‘blending’; using small wandering stitches to show that nothing exists in isolation.’ Another ‘… [my stitches] are ones made of soft wool, cotton and polyester. They were creative, gentle and calming and felt like a way to ‘speak’ in my time of mutism.’

Pesel’s work was seen by this group as a much-needed connection from the past and the ongoing importance of textile work for wellbeing. The need for groups like Hive’s Chat and Craft for continuing this legacy as a ‘source of pleasure, friendship and inspiration’ was also shared.

Acknowledgements Bibliography

Bradford Girls Grammar School, Jubilee Chronicle 1875 – 1925

Chevalier, Tracy. A Single Thread. Viking Press, 2019

Crawford, Elizabeth. The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: A Regional Survey. Routledge, 2006

Map based on Ordnance Survey

Yorkshire Sheet CCXVI.NE, Revised: 1905 to 1906, Published: 1909

Pesel, Laura, A Memory of the First President of the Embroiderers Guild, Louisa Frances Pesel, 1870-1947, by her sister, Laura Pesel: University of Leeds Special Collections ITC 2016.130

Pesel, Louisa and Denis, Emile (eds.)

Entente Recipes in English, French and Flemish. Percy Lund, Humphries & Co. Ltd, London and Bradford.

Pesel, Louisa, Handicrafts That Heal (unpublished manuscript), 1947: University of Leeds Special Collections ITC 2016.130

Post Office Bradford Directory 1887-8

Soldier’s Sampler: Bequest: Pesel, Louisa: Leeds University Special Collections ITC 2009.21

West Yorkshire Archive Service, Bradford Chapel Lane Unitarian Church, records 1719 -1967 44D88 www.ancestry.co.uk: Census Returns

1871,1881,1891,1901 & 1911 wiki.irises.org American Iris Society

Iris Encyclopaedia

Newspaper Sources

Bradford Daily Telegraph

Bradford Observer

Bradford Weekly Telegraph

Cambridge Independent Press De Stem uit België

Dundee Courier

Gentlewoman

Niews van de Groote Oorlog

Sheffield Daily Telegraph

Shipley Times and Express

Uttoxeter Advertiser and Ashbourne Times

Yorkshire Evening Post

Yorkshire Factory Times

Yorkshire Observer

Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer

Institutions

Algemeen Rijksarchief Brussel

Bradford Local Studies Library

The New York Public Library

Saltaire Archives

University of Leeds Special Collections

West Yorkshire Archives

WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK:

Bradford Metropolitan District Council Culture Commission for supporting this project.

Sharing Voices

Oasis Community Hub

Hive Chat and Craft Group

Bart De Nil

Bradford Community Broadcasting, Ben Mason, Dubrovnik Hotel

Researchers: Carolyn Knowland, Susan Oliver, Caroline Perry, Cath Webber, Tracey Williams.

Community artist: Claire Rookes

Project co-ordinator: Claire Wellesley-Smith

Book design: Phil Jackson

Back cover image: Caroline Perry