Altar Frontals

		Photographs of the Altar Frontals taken by Alan Iliffe 2008

Cynthia has invited me here to tell you how the restoration of the church altar frontals came about, so this is how it was.

I was at a Communion service one Wednesday morning and someone mentioned the church kneelers and how many my mum had made. This memory always brought a lump to my throat because in the last years of her life, as her eyesight was fading, my mother could only see to sew church kneelers as the stitches were so nice and large. Of course being my mum, she made quite a few. Anyway I was horribly embarrassed to find myself in tears, and admitted just how tender this memory was to me. Rowena had a good idea and said that if I made a kneeler myself, then perhaps it would take off the intensity of the memory and maybe I could think about church kneelers without crying. Daft I know, but I took this idea home to Alan and he agreed that we should donate a pair of kneelers. We sent for the catalogue and found a pattern we really liked.

Then another Wednesday morning after communion we were talking again and Quentin mentioned that he would love to have a blue altar frontal to compliment the blue fabric in the chairs and one or two of us remembered that there used to be altar frontals, a long, long time ago.

Upon examination of the altar, we found the little holes where the hooks to support the frontals had been and then began to wonder where the poles could be.

Shortly after this I went into my favourite fabric shop and saw some blue velvet on offer, so the next Wednesday I measured up the altar and worked out how much it would cost to make a frontal. The church kneeler catalogue had some lovely patterns in and I copied a cross onto squared paper and took the design to Quentin's house. We then discovered that there was no way to hang the frontal, if one was made, so we began to think about this.

About that time Margaret had said how sad it made her to see the Lady Chapel left as a store, so Linda and I asked Quentin if we could clear out the rubbish. So one morning Linda, Rowena and I had a clear out and loads of rubbish went to the tip, the old worn blue kneelers were moved into the choir vestry, which was also a bit of a messy store, and Linda and I started meeting to scrub and polish the chapel, and continue our search for the poles.

During this time of tidying up I went to put away some altar linen and discovered the four altar frontals and super frontals in the chest of drawers at the back of church and being a nosey person by nature, laid them out on the floor. They had been very beautiful and but were very shabby and smelt disgusting.

It was decided that I could take them home and wash them, and if they survived that, maybe have a go at mending one, if not, nothing was lost, because they could not stay where they were.

I wasn't working at the time, so the green frontal came home, was washed and it survived!! It looked much better and after a steam iron seemed in reasonable shape. I now know that the fabric must have been extremely expensive; that's why it survived so long. So I began trailing round the shops looking for fabric the right colour match the fringing. I unpicked the cross and began to realise with growing dread that this was an enormous task. But, I wasn't working, so all my spare time was spent unpicking, resewing and botching this old piece of cloth.

As it happened a good friend of mine is married to a chap who is a server at a very high church. I mentioned to them that we were looking for poles to support the frontals, but that I didn't know how big they would be, so he volunteered to come and help. We searched everywhere, and then he noticed the bell-tower door and asked what was kept in there. Have a look, I told him and the light was switched on and to our surprise - there they were. All four of them; they had been standing in that tower all the time and no-one had realised what they were. So we had our means of supporting the frontal, without any trouble at all.

Then Quentin, in his charming vicarly way, happened to say that he would love to have the white frontal ready for Christmas. OK I said, I'd have a go, but little did I know what lay ahead. The white frontal was very ornate, and on unravelling it I decided I needed help. I asked one or two people and then decided that it smelt so badly that I would hang it outside on my washing line to air. I stretched it up and rrrrrrr..iiiiiii..pppppp.., oh no, I couldn't believe it, the fabric was so delicate that it had shredded. It couldn't possibly be saved. But the panels and the cross could, so I decided that's what I should do. Once again the unpicking began, and the search for fabric and gold tape, and I found Jill’s shop at Knuston, where you can spend hours mooching around. With Jill’s help we found the fabric and the new frontal was put together. The cross had to be meticulously unpicked and reconstructed bit by bit (how I wished my big sister was here).

Then Quentin mentioned he would like a veil and burse to match. Well there was enough fabric there and I had a look at some old ones and copied the basic pattern. My only trouble was that I couldn't make crosses very well. I'm OK at mending, but making was a bit out of my league.

So, at last, after the super frontal was dry-cleaned and a few threads secured, we had a viewing at church to see how the cream frontal looked. Quentin said it would be used for weddings as well as Christmas and Easter and he would like two kneelers to go with it. During the clean up with Linda we had found the two old white kneelers that someone had made years ago, so I took them home and after re-padding them with plenty of wadding recovered them in the same cream fabric. Quentin said that it would be lovely to have a stole to match, so while he was away I made a pattern from one of his other stoles, and now we have a matching set.

The red frontal soon followed, but this time only the cross disintegrated -I still have the old one and don't quite know when it will be repaired, but another one was made and added to some new red silk. I have a part made red silk veil and burse - but I can't do crosses, so am hoping to order some ready-made ones when I am rich and famous!! The red frontal is used for Pentecost.

The dark blue frontal, also very smelly was duly washed, and shrunk a bit and the fringing fell to bits, but nothing more serious happened to it so we decided not to replace the bottom fringing.

And now all these lovely things are in use.

At Christmas time the original bit of blue velvet was used as the back of the crib area under the front altar as our old crib had been eaten away by woodworm.

The clearing and cleaning of the Lady Chapel continued bit by bit, and the choir vestry was cleared of all the old smelly kneelers and odds and ends and it was then that we discovered the Lady Chapel frontal.................. can it be repaired asked Quentin?

It was badly ripped and the only way I could do anything with it was to iron on Vileen, and Copydex the rest, covering up the bits of white showing through with felt tip pen!!!

We decided that if we left the Lady Chapel empty it would gradually get odds and ends stored in it again, so Quentin asked if I could make a dorsal curtain. I knew I couldn't, but botched up the bit of blue velvet and it now hangs behind the altar and as you all know, we use the Lady Chapel every week.

As we sit here the finishing touches are being made to the new drapes for the Lady Chapel and some donations have been made to make this possible. If there were more donations the curtains and pelmets to the last two doors just outside the chapel could be bought in the same material and it would all match, but maybe that is for another day.

Note: Vileen is an iron-on glued web for fixing instead of sewing. Copydex is a brand of latex based glue.

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