A beautiful piece of community writing, written by Macclesfield residents to celebrate everything they love about the town, has been unveiled in the library.

The huge silk banner has been created using words written as part of a project at this year’s Barnaby Festival, when residents were asked to write a ‘Love Letter to Macc’.

Hundreds of people took part in the event, and now the entries have been brought together in one piece of artwork, printed by Bollington silk printer and Barnaby sponsor RA Smart. Jacqui Wood, artistic director of Arc, which organised the original art project, said: “Over the years Barnaby has done so much to inspire those who live in Macclesfield so it seemed right to design an event for the Festival which invited residents to share how they feel about the town.

“The response was amazing – more than 300 people visited the dome over the first Festival weekend, to tell us stories of love, heartbreak, secrets, special places, how they first arrived or how they feel about somewhere that’s always been home to them. Powerful, poignant stuff written with so much affection.”

Participants were able to add their words via a ‘writing dome’ set up in Sparrow Park during the festival, or via an online blog.

Children from Rainow Primary School wrote and illustrated nearly 100 letters, and people on the Brewing Culture tours wrote theirs on beer mats.

Ben Balaam, James Costello and William Bainbridge (all 15) at 'A Love Letter to Macc'

Jacqui said: “It was a big task, to take as many of the elements of the letters and bring them together in one piece – but I’m delighted with the result.”

The grand love letter was unveiled at the library on Jordangate by Mayor of Macclesfield Coun Alift Harewood-Jones, who spoke passionately of how she felt connected to the words and the silk of the poetry.

She said: “This is for us all, for the town. They are our words – and we should look after this, it is part of our heritage.”

The silk Love Letter can now be seen in the entrance to the Library but will also feature at this month’s Treacle Market on Sunday, October 30, when Arc’s dome will be up once more outside St Michael’s church. Inside will be some of the original letters, photos from the event and the communal love letter.

For more information visit the project blog lovelettertomacc.wordpress.com