Conisbrough Guild Member Makes Rug at 77

May 1950

South Yorkshire Times May 13, 1950

Conisbrough Guild Member Makes Rug at 77

When the Mayoress of Doncaster, Mrs. P. Judd, was to have been presented with a lampshade from the oldest member of Conisbrough i Women’s Co-operative Guild last Thursday, it was found that the oldest member, Mrs. Emma Hirst, was visiting a friend in hospital.

The presentation was made by the second oldest member, Mrs. A. Harrop, Park Road, Conisbrough,  who is 70. The occasion was the opening of an exhibition of arts and crafts at the Co-operative Hall. Doncaster, to which several Guild ‘branches had contributed.

Mrs. Hirst, who is 77, lives at 10. Chapel Walk, Conisbrough, with her two daughters, Miss F. Hirst and Mrs. E. West, she is one of the workers in the Conisbrough branch of about 20 strong. Displayed at the exhibition were some examples of the Guild’s work done over the past year.

Mrs. Hirst herself (she went to the exhibition later in the evening) had a rug on exhibition. Mrs. Hirst has been making rugs for several years, after attending evening institute classes in handcraft, Her daughter also makes rugs, but the main difference between the work of Mrs. Hirst and her daughter is that Mrs. Hirst does not use a frame over which the rugs are most often stretched.

” Out of nothing,” is how the varied creations of Mrs. Hirst are described. Old stockings, bits of wool, discarded dresses and cardigans, cotton materials, almost any textiles have gone into the sackcloth foundations for the rugs.

If the materials are haphazardly assorted, it must not be thought that the, finished article is the same. for whether- the rugs are in a ” crazy pattern, or are symmetrically planned, they all show the care and detail put into their making. And if the colours used are opposed, the completed rugs are remarkably well matched.