A day out at Attingham Park

Way back in spring 2020, one of the last things I attended before the world closed down was a costume event at Wrexham Museum organised by Professor Deborah Wynne. When I looked back at the photographs I took that day - lots of people, unmasked, gathered tightly around a mannequin, it sometimes seemed impossible to imagine that such an event could ever occur again.

But yesterday it did, again organised by Deborah. This time we were at Attingham Park, a National Trust property in Shropshire and formerly home to the Berwick family. Assistant curator Holly Kirby gave a fascinating talk on some of the items in the property's costume collection, specifically those relating to Teresa, the 8th Lady Berwick. She and other members of staff had very kindly brought out several pieces for us to see at close quarters. This was no minor undertaking, as the stores are right at the top of the building and the Steward's Room, where the talk was held, is in the basement!

Attingham Park - it's a long way from top to bottom!

As ever, I took lots of photographs. I have whittled them down to just a few.

The second-oldest piece we looked at was this 1880s dress which belonged to Constanza Hulton, Teresa's mother. The fabric is woven in an unusual pattern of black and grey stripes in varying widths, and it is trimmed at the neck, sleeves, shoulders and hem with folded ribbon.

The dress in its storage box

The striped fabric and folded trim

Lace frill on the bodice

This dress dates from around 1905 and belonged to Gioconda, Teresa's older sister.

Gioconda's dress

Close-up of the bodice

Next (chronologically) comes the first item which belonged to Teresa herself. It is a circa 1913 embroidered velvet evening coat, with collar and cuffs of rabbit fur, and was given to her by Lady Vincent, a family friend.

I wouldn't say no to a present like this

The embroidery and beading round the hem

In 1919 Teresa married Thomas, the 8th Lord Berwick, and moved to Attingham. The next item we looked at was her robe for the coronation of King George VI in 1937.

Portrait by William Reid, 1937 (apologies for the reflections)

Although this looks like a velvet robe worn over an elaborate dress, the reality was slightly different. The front of the dress is indeed covered in exquisite metal thread embroidery, which includes elements of the Berwick coat of arms. But the rest of the dress is very plain, with short sleeves of net, and the velvet and ermine robe is attached to it by press studs and hooks and eyes. There is also a matching drawstring bag - we debated whether this originally contained something to snack on during the long coronation ceremony!

The robe, and the bag by the right sleeve

The embroidered panel sewn onto the rest of the dress, and the press stud fastenings

Embroidery detail

The name of the embroiderer at the hem, hidden by the robe

The coronet which was worn with the robes was so tiny as to be almost comical. Holly turned it over so that we could see how it was held in place - by two long prongs which acted like hatpins. It looked rather uncomfortable; I'm not surprised that in the portrait above Lady Berwick chose to have it on the table beside her rather than on her head.

Tiny headwear

Big pins

The final dress we looked at was the oldest one of all, older than Attingham Park itself. Lord and Lady Berwick were clearly fond of fancy dress, and this 1760 sack-back dress was worn by Lady Berwick for a party in the 1920s. Unusually for a dress of that period, much of the metal embroidery hasn't turned black with tarnish, and it was possible to imagine how it would have glittered when it was new.

The sack-back dress

The stomacher is not original

Showing the back pleats and the shiny metal threads

Close-up of the robings

More metal thread embroidery

As well as the costumes, we were also able to look at a recently discovered collection of fashion sketches made by Teresa when she was in her teens. My photographs of these didn't come out well, but you can read about them and see some examples here.

After the talk I had a stroll round the house, upstairs and downstairs, and the surrounding parkland.

The Drawing Room

Portrait of Lady Berwick in her Fortuny coat by Sir Gerald Kelly, 1923

The servants' hall

The rear of the house is rather different from the front

The deer park

It was great to be back at something costume-related, and I had a wonderful day. Thanks to Deborah and Holly for organising it.