Our August Open Day will be on Saturday 17th from 11am until 4pm.
The house and garden will be open to explore, plus a fun ‘rub-a-bug’ colouring activity trail in our garden which will be in full bloom. Find out about the herbs and plants that were used for cooking, medicine and more. The Weavers’ Workshop will have a crafty make-and-take activity featuring woven snails and bugs.
A snail made on weaving sticks by a young visitor
Refreshments will be available, and entry is free.
This is the last Open Day where you can see the loom, as this is not open during Heritage Open Days in September.
The first Weaver’s House Open Day this year saw the house spring to life on a sunny if slightly chilly April morning. Visitors were impressed and appreciative of the restoration project and the extra activities provided by our volunteers. There were tours and talks, special Easter themed cakes, a spinning demonstration and an exhibition of dyes and samples. Younger visitors enjoyed an Easter trail, crafts and colouring.
Our garden is well and truly coming to life now spring is here, and the heritage apple trees which we put in a few years ago are in blossom.
The Leathercoat Russet
With visitor comments on the knowledge, enthusiasm and welcoming approach of the volunteers, it was a shining start to the season!
In just a few weeks, the next Open Day will be part of the May Day weekend. Special guest reenactor group Coventry Militia will bring history to life on site, demonstrating arms and armour of the War of the Roses. There will also be some late medieval tabletop games to try, and as this was the period when the royal court was held in Coventry, visitors can find out about the importance of the city during this period.
This one-off event will be on Sunday 5 May, running from 11am until 4pm. You can also keep up with the latest from The Weaver’s House on Facebook and Twitter. Come and say hello!
2018 saw a bumper number of events at The Weaver’s House. Alongside our usual Open Days, there were not one, but two weekends open for Heritage Open Days plus exhibitions and special events. The year started in fine form with a sunny April Open Day and continued into May with a site-wide celebration of medieval crafts, with visitors able to experience traditional skills and talk to craftspeople about their process.
June brought a wealth of opportunities to see the house. Alongside the usual Open Day, the house opened for the annual Warwickshire Open Studios and Coventry Arts Trail with a display of The Weavers’ Workshop projects. Also part of Warwickshire Open Studios, the house hosted the War & Pieced Patchwork Exhibition, a collection of thought-provoking military and civilian patchwork quilts collected and restored by Jane and Peterson Cobbett. Visitors to the exhibition sat in the garden enjoying a gloriously sunny day, with little realisation that the beautiful weather was to signal the start of an unforgettably sunshine-filled summer.
The sun stayed through July’s day of Tudor-styled fun featuring games both familiar (such as quoits) and less recognisable (Nine Men’s Morris) and into August’s Family History Day. This themed day celebrated the lives of people who had lived in Black Swan Terrace, the group of cottages that The Weaver’s House is part of. We were delighted to welcome families of former residents of all five houses, and visitors were even able to research their own family history.
Photos of past residents of the terrace were on display
Guests Chris and Ella from Coventry Family History Society
September saw Spon Spun return with participation by The Weaver’s House on the Arts Trail. Plus two sets of Heritage Open Days, a first for the festival itself and a sure indication that interest in the past has a good future!
Another first was our special Halloween Open Day in the October half term. Volunteers transformed the house into a spooky and entertaining setting for a day of crafts, treats and storytelling. Despite it being a cold day, much fun was had and visitors were able to warm up with mulled apple juice, hot chocolate and Halloween themed tasty treats. The Belgrade’s panto dame, Nanny McWheeze, popped in to learn a little about spinning wheels and spindles, in the hope of protecting Princess Belle from the curse of the wicked Carabosse! The day finished with a special storytelling session in the house itself, with storyteller Pyn Stockman enchanting both children and adults with the tale of Vasilisa the Brave.
Woven poppies
Sgt. Edis
Reflecting on the past
Visitors examine the artefacts brought in by Brian
In November there was a special event to mark the 100th anniversary of the Armistice for which The Weaver’s House was awarded two There But Not There silhouettes funded by the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust. These silhouettes were in remembrance of former residents, the two O’Neil boys posted to France during WWI and who did not return. One of the volunteers, Clare, is a descendant of the O’ Neils, and she put together a special talk including the war story of the family, which was completely fully booked. Visitors helped to create a memory board and the house was decorated with woven poppies created by The Weavers’ Workshop. The volunteers were joined by Sergeant Phil Edis of Coventry R.E.M.E. (Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers) to represent the Armed Forces in our community today.
The finale of the year was another new venture for The Weaver’s House, as a venue for craft workshops. What a busy year!
If you would like to find out more about any of the events from the past year, have a browse through our blog. Open Days at The Weaver’s House will recommence in the springtime, and details are here.
The garden at The Weaver’s House had certainly burst into life and was looking stunning. What a difference a few weeks made, with the early May Open Day showing patches of green and tentative buds, fully blossoming into life for June. Visitors joined us from Coventry, Sheffield, Taunton, Rugby, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Northampton, Warwick, Kenilworth and Birmingham.
Moving further into the month, The Weavers’ Workshop took part in Warwickshire Open Studios – Coventry Arts Trail across two weeks in June with open sessions from 10am – 12pm on the Mondays and Thursdays. Visitors were able to take part in make and take activities and weaving and admire a display of projects.
This year’s public weave is underway with a warp which has been woad-dyed in the Japanese Ikat style. This means there will be variations in colour along the warp using resist dyeing methods, which should give some kind of geometric pattern in the weave. It’s all very experimental so it’s been a steep learning curve and the result is likely to be random variations in colour akin, perhaps, to a river flowing. It will be a piece very different to our public weaving last year. The weaving has been part of theCoventry Arts Trail offer, giving visitors the chance to have a go at loom weaving and as last year, is proving very popular.
Also part of Warwickshire Open Studios, was Jane Cobbett’s special patchwork exhibition War & Pieced. An array of beautiful and intriguing pieces was on display throughout the house and garden. There was also a display of projects inspired by the theme, with the opportunity for visitors to vote for their favourite. Lots and lots of visitors stopped by despite (or because?) of clashing with the World Cup including an England game!
There will be another chance to see some of the quilts at The Textile History Group’s Celebration of Crafts on Saturday 10 November, 10.30am to 3.30pm. Taking place at St Barbara’s Church in Earlsdon, there will be crafts for sale and a pop-up tea shop – sounds perfect! More details are here.
Out next Open Day is on Sunday 22 July and sees the return of the very popular Tudor Games Day.
It’s looking very busy here at The Weaver’s House this June! It all starts this Saturday, 16 June, with a free Open Day starting at 11am. Pop in and discover our story which began in medieval times. Enjoy tea and cake in our garden, find out about the history of weaving and talk to our knowledgeable guides. We’re open until 4, but we recommend arriving by 3.30pm at the latest for a look round. This Saturday is also a chance to enjoy some other events that are practically on our doorstep, so make a day of it and enjoy some different aspects of Coventry’s history. This year’s Civic Day celebrates post-war architecture (taking place at the Priory Visitor Centre) it’s Open Day at Charterhouse, start of Positive Images and the absolutely last chance to see the CET Building in use as a pop-up exhibition space. Yes, that’s all this Saturday!
Further into June, we are delighted to be taking part in the annual Warwickshire Open Studios. Our regular resident crafters The Weavers’ Workshop will be offering drop in sessions as part of the Coventry Arts Trail on Monday 18, Thursday 21, Monday 25 and Thursday 28 June from 10am until midday. Try a simple make and take activity, see the members current weaving projects and have a look around the house and garden.
Pendant by Debbie
Also part of Warwickshire Open Studios, the War & Pieced Patchwork Exhibition takes place on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 June 2018 from 11am until 4pm at The Weaver’s House. This is an exhibition of thought-provoking military and civilian patchwork quilts and their social history, from the Mid Victorian period to the 1980s, collected and restored by Jane and Peterson Cobbett.
Jane Cobbett at our Heritage Crafts Day
So, a busy month here, and by the time those events are done it will have also been midsummer and half way through the year! There’s still plenty more to come with our next Open Day celebrating the fun of Tudor Games and our August Open Day exploring the family history of the house and terrace.
Our third Heritage Crafts Day was the warmest and sunniest yet, with visitors taking particular time to enjoy the garden. The tours in the house offered a welcome coolness, and of course our tearoom volunteers were on hand to offer refreshments! This time we were joined by The Heritage Bakehouse in the tearoom providing an array of tasty cakes including this lovely chocolate and banana loaf and of course, their famous Coventry Godcake. The Heritage Bakehouse have made over 25k Godcakes… not all for our Open Day, but in the last five or so years!
Coventry Woodcarvers Association joined us once again to showcase some of their amazing creations including an on site demonstration of carving. Spot the Coventry connection!
We were also delighted that Coventry brewers Byatt’s returned to talk about brewing methods and invite visitors to sample this year’s special Motofest Multigrade. Just released, and only available until Motofest, we were among the very first to sample it (and it was delicious). As one of the cottages in the terrace was once used as a workshop to make cars, it also seemed very fitting to have it on site!
Jane Cobbett brought beautiful textiles including quilting to display, and we are excited that we will be hosting a special exhibition of work by Jane’s textile group in June. The War & Pieced Patchwork Exhibition takes place on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 June 2018 from 11am until 4pm at The Weaver’s House. It’s part of Warwickshire Open Studios and is free to visit… and there will be cake! Find out more here.
So that was May then, a very busy day, for volunteers, guests and visitors, who made full use of one of the first hot days of the year! Roll on June, when our next Open Day is on Saturday 16, for tours and talks, tea and cake, heritage and history!
We’re still reeling (or spinning) from the fact that the sun actually came out on Saturday after what’s been a dismal few weeks, weather-wise. We had lots of visitors, for this, our first Open Day of 2018.
We were able to get outside for displays of spinning and weaving.
Signs of life in the garden!
Lots of naturally dyed textiles on show including last year’s big project, Coventry Blue.
We had visitors of all ages, we were pleased to welcome both first-timers and familiar faces – thank you all for coming!
Thank you to everyone who visited us, we appreciate your lovely comments and are so pleased to hear you had a good time!
As we can’t get enough of weaving, afterwards we headed to the CET Pop Up to see Permutations by Theo Wright. It’s on until April 21, so still time to catch it along with much more.
Our next Open Day is our Heritage Crafts Day on Sunday 6 May.
Hard to believe it’s nearly the end of March especially with the flurry of wintry weather that we’ve seen throughout this month. The Weaver’s House looks stunning in the snow, here are some atmospheric shots taken by one of the residents from the snow at the start of March 2018:
We were a bit concerned looking at the forecasts that our house tidy-up and gardening day might be thwarted by weather, but in the end it was a fairly clear if cold day, and we even had a visit from Keith from BBC Coventry & Warwickshire mid-clean!
Once the garden was sorted we headed into the city centre to enjoy some of the fantastic Shop Front Festival, where we pretended to be Pac-Man, got chased by sentient traffic cones and admired an exhibition of vintage photos of Coventry. On the way we stopped to have a look at the Spon End Subway Consultation, see if you can spot our contributions of where we had been and were headed!
As we head in to April we are really looking forward to the first Open Day of the year – it seems like a long time since our last public Open Days in September. We’ll be open at 11am on Saturday 14 April, until 4pm. We recommend arriving by 3.30pm at the latest, although we can’t guarantee there will be any cake left by then!
2017 was a massively successful and memorable year at The Weaver’s House, so without ado, here’s a whistle-stop tour of the highlights. From a sunny start in April with a day of fun and Tudor Games we enjoyed consistently good visitor numbers and fantastic feedback. The ‘Old May Day and Crafts’ Open Day featured guest stalls throughout the house and garden, welcoming craftspeople from Warwickshire Craft Circle, Quite Contrary Baskets and Byatt’s Brewery. The June Open Day coincided with World Wide Knit in Public Day, so knitters convened in the garden for sociable crafting.
Heritage Open Days in September is always a big weekend for us and on the Sunday we had the finale of our tenth anniversary weaving project Coventry Blue. Throughout this year, visitors to The Weaver’s House contributed to this hands-on project, run by the Weavers’ Workshop and on the Sunday it was finally finished. Coventry Blue then took second prize on the Spon Spun Art Trail, even though it wasn’t on the official voting list!
Coventry Blue
Godiva Festival
Volunteers’ Celebration
What a fantastic year! Last night we convened on a misty and mysterious looking evening to discuss plans for the upcoming year… there are a few plans in the works that we will be revealing soon!
The Weaver’s House
The ruined chapel a few minutes walk away
This year sees us offering some Sunday dates in response to demand from people who would like to visit but work or have other commitments on a Saturday. We do hope that if this is you, you will be able to join us this year, whether it’s for a tour or tea and cake!
Dates for the 2018 Open Days are: Saturday 14 April, Sunday 6 May Heritage Crafts Day, Saturday 16 June, Sunday 22 July Tudor Games Day, Saturday 18 August (all 11am – 4pm) and Heritage Open Days, provisionally scheduled for Saturday 15 September and Sunday 16 September.
In July 2017 we celebrated the tenth anniversary of the restoration and opening to the public of The Weaver’s House and its garden. We had a fantastic Open Day with lots of happy visitors, many of whom spent several hours exploring the site. When you consider that we have no rolling acres of land and the house itself has basically three rooms – this just goes to show that there is still much to discover and enjoy!
Whether it was trying out our Tudor games…or just enjoying the garden…We had a steady stream of visitors all day.
The weaving project, which has run throughout our Open Days and pop-up events this year, was an Open Day feature and it is nearly finished. We’re wondering if the upcoming Open Day on 12 August will see it completed?
A nearly-finished piece of Coventry Blue!
As it was our tenth anniversary, we were pleased to see some visitors drop by who had been involved in the project over the years. One of these was David Gaut, who worked on the restoration of the house. Here he is standing on the path that he built on the day before the house had its very first Open Day!
David Gaut revisits the house after ten years. He approved!
One of our special events for the anniversary was a walking tour exploring the medieval architecture of Spon Street, led by our trustee Dr Nat Alcock.
There was much to learn about these medieval buildings. Visitors commented that they discovered things that they had never known despite a lifetime living in Coventry. “I thoroughly enjoyed that tour through medieval Spon Street. Amazing facts I never knew and I’m a #Coventry girl.”
One of the buildings that was moved from its original locationMost of the courts (developments behind existing houses) were pulled downIt might not look it, but there’s a medieval building here! And the Watch Museum too.
We hope to rerun these walking tours as they were extremely popular and booked up very quickly. In the meantime why not try one of the Priory Visitor Centre tours?
We received lots of lovely comments, not only in our visitors book but also online:
“I love this little house with its gardens, a great place to visit with lovely volunteers and yummy cakes ⭐️”
“Fantastic visit. Thoroughly enjoyed and thanks to all the volunteers who make this house so welcoming. The cakes were lovely as well. ?”
“Had a lovely time at the Weaver’s House, and also a lovely chat with a new friend :)The place is definitely worth a visit!”
“Fantastic local historical site. My children who are 4 and 6 loved it. Lots of activities to do. Tea and refreshments available. Happily spent hours there.”
“We ate cake, wove a snake, played quoits & had a go at weaving! A good afternoon.”
After we said goodbye to our visitors, we closed our little wooden door, downed tools and then downed a refreshing drink. Our volunteers work really hard maintaining the house and garden, giving tours and weaving demonstrations and ensuring that the tea and cakes are flowing! It was time to relax with suitably medieval drink in the form of ale from Byatt’s Brewery and tasty offerings freshly cooked by The Seventy-Five Company, and we even had a visit from Lady Godiva and Lord Leofric!
And of course, there was cake!
Thank you to all our volunteers! We couldn’t do it without you – Happy Anniversary!
