Last Day of Exhibition Today
There is just one day remaining to see our wedding dress exhibition, today Wednesday 8 September 1-5pm. Several thousand people have already been to view the seventy diverse dresses spanning several centuries and many cultures we have on display.
Top of the ‘billing’ is a dress worn by The Queen’s late aunt HRH The Princess Mary when she married in 1922, which has always been kept and displayed at Princess Mary’s home, Harewood House near Leeds. (You can read more about his special dress here.)
Also popular has been the wedding dress which was made up from Indian embroidery originally intended for a ball gown for the grandmother of Lady Chance around 1900. Lady Chance had the embroidery made into a dress for her 1950 wedding to Sir George Jeremy. Conservation work was done on the dress in 2009 by the Royal School of Needlework, to whom the dress was donated.
One dress that has stopped visitors in their track is the one displayed on top of a life size model horse! Bride Gabriella Parkes went to her wedding on horseback so wore satin jodphurs, hand-made boots, a stunning corset and a full length buttoned gown.
A dress loaned by Lincolnshire Museums is proving popular as well - a cream Indian muslin dress dating from c1940 which was worn in India by a British bride. Several other dresses from the same era have been showing visitors what a wedding in British wartime was like. Another dress also loaned by Lincolnshire Museums is a yellow silk dress dating from a 1945 wedding but was originally made between 1770 and 1780 – the bride adapted an older dress in order to get round wartime clothing rations!
Each dress has a story behind it, many from Lincolnshire. One dress was given to the bride by Keightley’s Department Store in Boston as she was a former member of staff. The 1940s wedding was held at Carrington Church and en route to the reception at the family home in Old Bolingbroke, the bride stopped to lay her wedding bouquet on her parents’ grave at Frithville Church. After the couple divorced in the early 1970s, the dress was never spoken about and was assumed to be lost. After the bride passed away it was found in a case and was subsequently worn by her granddaughter Nola Shaw on her wedding day.
Exhibition curator Fiona Baker admits to having a favourite dress. “My favourite is a stunning dress made by Edith de Lisle for a lady called Kiki Everard at her 1974 wedding. It is cream satin with long leg o’mutton sleeves and a very long train. We have displayed it in the Tiger Room with up-lighting so our visitors get the full impact of the design when they walk into the room.”
Whilst some of the dresses are displayed in the Hall’s various rooms many of the dresses are displayed in the Hall’s 96-ft Long Gallery, to great effect but the fascinating stories continue. Some of the dresses were worn by people currently connected to Doddington Hall through their work but one dress has older connections. A two- piece dress on display was worn by Emma Hall of Thorpe on the Hill at her marriage to Thomas Ford of Saxilby on 2 May 1871 at St Michaels’ Church, Thorpe on the Hill. Thomas was a groom at Doddington Hall for at least 14 years. They then became Landlord and Landlady of the Sun Inn, Saxilby in 1876.
“This Exhibition was over a year in the planning but has been worth all the effort just to see the delight on the faces of people who have loaned a treasured family dress and those who have come to enjoy the Exhibition,” concludes Fiona. “The positive feedback has been overwhelming!”
‘Old, New, Mostly Borrowed & One Blue’ is available at Doddington Hall & Gardens every Wednesday, Sunday & Bank Holiday Monday 1pm to 5pm until Wednesday 8 September. Exhibition included in admission.
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