Leeks, Whistles, and True Raven Black

Yesterday we had a trip to Leek in the on again, off again sun.  We popped in to the Foxlowe first.  There was a ceramics exhibition on upstairs.  Sylvia Glover has her beautiful bowls, including her stacks of tiny bowls, in the exhibition.

Then we went down Stockwell Street to look in the Nicholson Institute, which I have never got round to looking at before.  It is, indeed, a rum do.  There is a very fleamsy collection of odds and ends:  some Wardle textiles, a stuffed wallaby, some vaudeville posters; and a Whistler.  I read the label about 10 times before I believed that there was an actual real-life Whistler on the wall in this fleamsy selection of bizarre and overlooked.  But there it was.  If you don't believe me, go and have a look.  Here is the Tourist Information map:

A Map

By the way, there were some old maps in the Nicholson Museum as well, and some old documents like a Jacobite letter and the confession of the last man hanged, in 1741, I think.  There was also a replica of a dress made in True Raven Black Dyed fabric, a speciality of the Leek dyeworks.

You will also be pleased to know that Leek Oatcakes appears to have been bought by a sympathetic buyer, and looks like it is operating in a traditional manner.  I couldn't verify this as it was afternoon, and the shop was closed, as it should be, in the traditional manner.  So that's good news.