Denman throwback
We were supposed to be at denman in February and one in April.
I am reminiscing today. This piece below is a peacock which was started in a class with Hazel Everett and finished in one of my Denman classes. It was completed by a student Sue Constable.
There was a wonderful lady called Hazel Everett a fellow goldworker and she used to teach at Denman. This piece was started with her. Sadly she was taken away from us far too young, and passed away in her early 50s. She was such a talented embroiderer and has written books as well as teaching Goldwork.
We were contacted by Denman after Hazel’s passing and were asked if we could take over some of the classes and it was our privilege to do so and we have met some wonderful and talented individuals in the process.
We always set a specific design for a class to inspire people and those who may not be comfortable with doing their own design or maybe complete beginners. We did however find that some of the ladies wanted to do their own designs and we were more than happy to accommodate, as we do this with our regular classes anyway, no one does the same thing.
Unfortunately due to the pandemic Denman has made the decision to close, as due to lack of funds it was just no longer viable. It is so sad as it was always a busy place with so many friendly faces and wonderful food.
We love doing courses and we needed to think quickly how to fill the void. We had started to set up our own retreats (which had also been massively hit by the pandemic) and we knew this would enable us to offer more options going forward. We wanted to offer courses in the North West of England and have found a base in the beautiful Cheshire countryside. Due to the worldwide pandemic we did need to put all our retreats on hold but we are delighted that we will be able to start running them from May this year. We have 3 retreats in 2021 and a further 3 in 2022 which are available to book in our shop on the website. We also run some beginners classes and Goldwork 1 day workshops throughout the year. Why not join us by booking using the link below
Retreats and courses can be found here: https://golden-hinde.co.uk/product-category/courses/
We have availability on our Flames and crosses retreat in September, with a choice of designs similar to this one of flames on the right. We also have limited availability on out Illuminated letters retreats in May and July 2021 why not join us and book your place now.
Below is the announcement from the WI website in regards to the closure of Denman
On behalf of the NFWI Board of Trustees, it is with great sadness that we announce that Denman College will be closing permanently.
For a number of years, Denman has been operating without unrestricted reserves and operating a cash-flow model reliant on future bookings. This has always made Denman vulnerable to any economic changes and particularly so during this period of complete lockdown.
This has been an extremely difficult decision and has not been taken lightly. Significant work has been undertaken over the last 18 months to address Denman’s financial challenges and rebuild its reserves position, including the introduction of a new business plan in June 2019 which opened up the opportunity to develop non-educational activities on-site as a way of increasing income. This was incredibly positive and we saw a significant reduction in deficit in the last financial year. Denman was also been helped enormously by the money received from the Saving Denman Appeal and Love Denman, as well as other donations and legacies that we have received over the years. However, Denman’s lack of unrestricted reserves and the cash-flow position meant that the College was left in an incredibly vulnerable position when faced with a minimum 3-month closure during the lockdown period.