Gallery Oldham is a unique and bold new landmark building that opened in February 2002. The £9m gallery forms the first phase of a new Cultural Quarter for Oldham. It was designed by architects Pringle Richards Sharratt and has received an award from the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Follow the Banner at Gallery Oldham

Following the Banner is a new exhibition featuring historic banners of national importance from Gallery Oldham’s Social History Collection. The exhibition is on show from 21 April – 21 July 2007 and gives an insight into the pride of late 19th and early 20th Century Oldhamers in their work, religious faith or political belief.

Eleven of the banners on show have just been restored with a grant of £140,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

A total of 21 banners are on show in the exhibition. Four magnificent trade union banners illustrate the many specialist trades within Oldham’s cotton mills. A selection of religious banners shows Oldham’s strong tradition of church processions and walks, such as the annual Whit Walk.

There are banners that were carried by several campaigning groups including the Temperance Society and the Anti-Apartheid Movement and there’s a rare example of a women’s suffrage banner.

Also on show are two military colours of the 31st Lancashire Rifle Volunteers, dating from 1861. These are on loan to Gallery Oldham for this exhibition, and have recently been conserved with funding raised by the 10th Battalion Manchester Regiment/ 40th/41st Royal Tank Regiment Trust.

Work on all the recently conserved banners in the exhibition was carried out by the Textile Conservation Studio at the People’s History Museum in Manchester and the Textile Conservation Centre at Winchester School of Art (part of the University of Southampton). Each banner took between 200 and 660 hours to conserve.

The Heritage Lottery Fund grant has also funded a new banner for Oldham, made by local people working with artist Lynn Setterington.

A colour film in the exhibition shows a Whit Walk procession from the Parish Church of Emmanuel and St George, Chadderton on 13 May 1951. This film was recently donated to Gallery Oldham and has been conserved by the North West Film Archive.

An exhibition launch event takes place on Saturday 21 April. At 2pm Vivian Lochhead, Senior Conservator at the People’s History Museum, gives a free talk about her work conserving some of the banners on show. During the afternoon families can make their own miniature banners at a free drop-in craft session.

Visitors can also find out more at a free lunchtime talk on Wednesday 9 May at 1pm.

Images of the banners in Gallery Oldham’s collection are available to view on the Gallery’s new online collections database. This can be accessed via the Collections pages at www.galleryoldham.org.uk

Following the Banner is on show at Gallery Oldham 21 April – 21 July 2007. Gallery Oldham is situated in the Cultural Quarter, Greaves Street, Oldham, OL1 1AL. The Gallery is open Monday – Saturday 10am – 5pm and admission is free. For further details call 0161 770 4653 or visit www.galleryoldham.org.uk

ENDS

For further information and images contact Catherine Bradley on 0161 770 4741 catherine.bradley@oldham.gov.uk or Helen Russell on 0161 770 4743 helen.russell@oldham.gov.uk