An avid silk scene collector is trying to bring the town’s history back to life.
Gillian Burke, 59, from Macclesfield has released a new book, ‘Macclesfield Silk Pictures’, focusing on scenes of the town’s landmarks and events.
A travel writer by trade, the grandmother’s interest in silk dates back more than 20 years when she attended an antiques auction.
The former Macclesfield High School pupil says it was then that she fell back in love with the art.
She said: “My reconnection with my Macclesfield roots began when I attended an antique auction in Penzance, one New Year’s Day.
“Clearly I was the only person in the crowded auction room to recognise the jewel colours and woven images of Gawsworth Rectory and the Unitarian Chapel.”
Inspired to look deeper, Gillian returned to her home town and visited Paradise Mill, on Park Lane, which dates back to the 1860s.
With her interest well and truly piqued, she was surprised to find very little written about the topic, so decided to do it herself.
Grandmother-of-four Gillian said: “I visited the Silk Museum and Paradise Mill back in summer 2015 and was fascinated by the guided tour.
“I bought all the information about Macc silk pictures - which was not much - and realised that I knew far more about them than anything currently published. I started to write it down for my own benefit and after two years the book was born.”
Each chapter centres on a different woven or printed scene, with the oldest dating back to 1851.
A number of the scenes in the book originate from Brocklehurst Whiston Amalgamated (BWA), which closed in 1992.
Gillian says it was then that the town’s heritage began to fade away.
She added: “Macclesfield’s silk industry pretty much died with the closure of BWA in 1992. The generation of past workers are also passing away and there is little written record of the personal stories told now by their children as hearsay and memories. I want to reawaken an appreciation for the uniqueness of Macclesfield silk history and the collectible BWA woven silk pictures series.
“I am driven by the fear that so much will be lost as generations move on and those with firsthand knowledge of the silk industry pass away. This book just tickles the surface of those fascinating stories.”
