Emporium exhibition at Barton on Humber

Diana Hand, "Emporium" Wall hangings - Dye on wool

This week I went to visit a gallery in Barton-on-Humber. This is a very old town (pre-Domesday Book), on the south bank of the river Humber. In the 18th and 19th centuries it was an important manufacturing centre of traditional industries. These included boat building, cycle manufacture, engineering, chemicals and malting. (http://www.bartoncivicsociety.co.uk/)

The ropemaking industry that supplied ropes for the merchant and naval shipping for 200 years, including WW2, closed in 1990s, and all that now remains is the long, long shed where they used to process the hemp and manila to make all kinds of rope. This brick building is now the splendid Ropewalk contemporary art complex (www.the-ropewalk.co.uk). They are showing some of my textile pieces in the shop/gallery (see above).

When I made these pieces I was thinking of the past and its traces in the present. "Emporion" is the Greek for "traveller". The Emporium in Ancient Rome was the landing place and market for merchandise transported up the river Tiber from Ostia, the main port for Rome. The area gradually became part of a system of quays and warehouses extending for a kilometre along the river. Now only fragments and traces remain. I did not know about the maritime history of Barton, but it is also a place that has seen great changes and shifts in its relationship with the river Humber and the port of Kingston-upon-Hull.


It is now a quiet town, its medieval streets deserted during the mid-week afternoon I was there. On the return journey to Scotland I stopped at York for an hour and the contrast was so marked. York, also a medieval city, but with a completely different history and situation, is larger and now very prosperous. The streets are lined with boutiques and gourmet restaurants, and the Minster towers over all.


And... lest we forget
War memorial at Kingston-upon-Hull