Aileen Little visits a Fife museum whose curator is to be made an MBE

by the Queen for long years of dedication to the craft of needlework

NEXT week the Queen makes Mrs Mary Birrell a Member of the British

Empire. The Holyrood investiture will be Birrell's first brush with

royalty. But for 20 years, her voluntary service has steeped her in

textiles with regal connections. She is curator/manager of the

extraordinary Wemyss School of Needlework -- a little museum which

remains open largely due to Mrs Birrell's dedication. Her award is for

services to needlework.

The school sounds prestigious, and in its 19th century heyday,

prestigious it certainly was. Built on Wemyss Castle Estate and paid for

by Miss Dorothy Wemyss, it opened in 1880. The school's raison d'etre

was to teach needlework to the daughters of miners in Coaltown of

Wemyss.

Following a six-month apprenticeship, girls could either stay on for

wages or seek a post as a lady's maid. Some stayed for 12 years. An

unpretentious brick building with three rooms, the school is still under

the ownership of Wemyss Castle. It stands on the main road near the

entrance to the castle drive, looking more like a derelict hall than a

treasure trove described by an American journalist in 1899 as producing

''exquisite specimens of art needlework''.

Such was the standard of work turned out by the pupils (aged 14

upwards, and around 30 at a time) under the tutelage of Mrs Birrell's

great grandmother Mrs Jean Webster, that commissions flooded in from the

highest in the land.

The Princess of Wales ordered two sets of crewel-work curtains; a

similar pair was worked for Princess Louise for use on her yacht; Queen

Victoria bought children's dresses for the young Battenburgs; and the

present Queen Mother had a rug made with a centrepiece ''ER''. Up to the

Second World War the school continued to supply aristocrats and locals

alike, with restoration of antique needlework a well-known speciality.

Now reduced to worn floors and bare brick, the school stores hundreds

of samplers (some dating back to Jacobean times), tissue tracings, class

registers, order books and price lists: ladies' nightdresses cost from

eight old pennies; children's drawers ranged from four old pennies to

one shilling and ladies' striped petticoats started at nine old pennies.

Every weekday afternoon for 20 years, Mrs Birrell has come in to care

for the collection. She spent the first 12 years in the school office

(''it became very cold -- there was no heating'') until Lady Victoria

Wemyss, who died last year, aged 104, installed central heating and

moved her into the showroom next door. Sadly, the glass cases had

succumbed to woodworm.

Mrs Birrell shifts the textiles around to safeguard against damage

from damp.

Despite rather spartan conditions, she feels at home in the school,

immersed in her heritage and surrounded by friendly ghosts. Not only was

her great grandmother the first mistress (formerly employed as a plain

needlewoman at the castle where the fledgling school first opened as a

charity in 1877), her grandmother and mother were pupils too. Mrs

Birrell herself did not attend ''but I learned needlework at my mother's

knee''.

Her grandfather designed the village, and her father renovated the

rows of miners' cottages.

The collection includes artefacts which bring alive remembrance of

things past -- such as a white-scalloped apron and arm protectors like

those worn by Mrs Mary Birrell's distinguished ancestor at her high

desk. ''And here is the christening robe she made for her first

grandchild -- my mother. Unfortunately, my own children and

grandchildren were all too big for it.'' Draped in a corner, among other

beautiful coverlets, is a bedspread (red crewel work in a Jacobean

design) identical to one made by Mrs Webster for her own box bed.

But Mrs Birrell has little time for reflection. Most afternoons she is

booked up with visits from parties appreciative of this unique time

capsule -- Perth Decorative and Fine Arts Society, The Montrose branch

of the Embroiderers Guild, The Costume Society of Edinburgh . . . and so

on.

When not showing people round, the curator is preparing tapestries

based on the old designs, for clients all over the world. ''People

choose a design -- it could be Florentine, cross-stitch or tent-stitch

-- all mostly collected by Lady Victoria. Then they choose their wools.

I cut out and bind all the canvases and my husband does the tracing.''

For 10-hours' work, Mrs Birrell charges under #30 -- proceeds which

are ploughed back into the purchase of materials. She sends out the

tapestry kits with one sequence perfectly stitched -- she gains no money

personally from her efforts.

The clientele is large and varied. Sir David Erskine, for example, is

a regular -- Mrs Birrell recently sewed a waistcoat for his wife. Baron

Bonde from Colinsburgh loves dragon designs and turns them into wall

hangings.

Church women flock to choose patterns for kneelers. One popular choice

incorporates the French, English and Scottish emblems. ''It derives from

a canvas panel done by Mary Queen of Scots at Fotheringay. Did you know

she met Lord Darnley at Wemyss Castle?''

From intricate beadwork to carters' smocks (the school had made 2500

by the end of the nineteenth century), from baby layettes to lovely

quilts, the antique textiles inside Fife's best-kept secret (the

insignificant sign must ensure no-one but those in the know drops by),

the historic Wemyss collection is wearing well under Mrs Birrell's

stewardship.

The building, however, is not so lucky. It is crumbling before her

eyes. And, at 67, Mrs Birrell can see the day when she herself may no

longer be in good shape. ''Who's going to carry on when I'm no longer

here? I can't go on forever.'' The Herald contacted Michael Wemyss,

grandson of Lady Victoria, at the castle, and learned that following

''considerable thought'' as to the best course of action, a rescue plan

is at last to be put into operation.

Mrs Birrell was informed by a relative of the family the same morning.

She and the collection are to be moved temporarily to premises in West

Wemyss, presumably while restoration is carried out. The news is

welcomed by historical experts.

Mrs Webster once said: ''I like to see a piece of work finished as

neatly on the wrong side as the right,'' a comment which speaks volumes

about her philosophy. It's fitting that she and those like Mrs Birrell

who followed on to stitch their place in history, are to be accorded a

museum worthy of immaculate craftsmanship.

* Wemyss School of Needlework Museum is open Monday to Friday, 2-5pm,

telephone 01592 651346.