Object of the Week- 19/4/2013

Object of the week is back! 

This week it’s an embroidered  table runner produced by Grace Jeffree in 1936. The table runner illustrates events at a peace camp which was held in the village of Middle Wallop, Nether Wallop, Hampshire. Peace camps were organised by university students during the summer vacations between 1935 and 1939. These  laid the foundation for post-World War II peace camps and rallies. The table runner shows Philip S. Bagwell preaching (mostly to pigs that had been turned out of their field and returned one by one with a clank as they pushed open the field gate!). Teddy Jeffree is shown preaching from a makeshift pulpit while Grace Jeffree prepares and preaches at an alfresco meal. Leslie Lawley and Joan Bagwell talk to the troops, when most of the locals turned out to watch the arrival of seven hundred soldiers at the railway station in Middle Wallop. Ben Osborn is shown mending a bike, while Gwen Bagwell is preparing sandwiches. The ‘campers’ travelled from village to village looking for places to express their views.  However they were not always welcome. On one occasion, the local Church of England priest, said in disgust that he would not have supported them if he had known they held such extreme views! But they did  create a network for the peace movement, involving many local people in the quest for non-violent responses to conflict.