Visiting Hereford Mayor's Parlour

I have previously visited the Mayors Parlour in Hereford on an open day, where I learnt that the mayor had 4 different gowns that were in use. I was therefore very interested in seeing these when I started this project. I wrote to the mayor's secretary requesting their help and Roger Stoakes, the mayors ...., was kind enough to show me the gowns.

The Mayor's Parlour is housed in the Town Hall which was opened in 1904 after the Tudor Town Hall was demolished in 1862. The building is a very ornate example of late Victorian architecture designed by H.A. Cheers of Twickenham.

'The City of Hereford has one of the oldest Mayoralties in the country, with an unbroken line of Mayors stretching back to 1382 - more than 625 years. A list of Mayors and Bailiffs since 1382 can be viewed on the landing outside the Mayor's Parlour.
Hereford does not have a Lord Mayor but a 'Right Worshipful Mayor'. This title has its origins in the term a 'worthy', implying honour and dignity to the holder of an office. The title is quite rare, and the 'Right Worthship' has evolved into 'Right Worshipful', which is a great honour for the City. Most Mayors are only styled 'The  Worshipful the Mayor' (REFERENCE)

Mayor of Hereford Robe

Back view of robe

The main robe that is used by the Mayor of Hereford is the above example. It was made by Ede & Ravenscroft and is about 40 years old. It is interesting to see how the styles of the earlier robes that are stored in the museum has evolved into this example. The trimming is Murray velvet which runs over the shoulders and down the centre, around the hem and the sleeves. The velvet down the front is attached like a collar, only secured across the hem. The sleeves are the same as the 3rd example from the museum collection but with a thinner trim, similar to the Bournemouth example but without the hanging sleeves.

630th The Right Worshipful the Mayor of Hereford, Councillor Mrs Julie Woodward (2011-2012)
Mayor wearing the above robe. 

Roger explained that the red tape on the shoulders, which is used to hold the chains in place, shows that this is a robe for a Mayor that is currently in office or has been previously. When people say 'going through the chair' that means councillors that have been through office, so are either current Mayors or ex-Mayors. If a gown has black tape on the shoulders then that means they are a deputy.

This is a second robe, which is very similar though has a wider shaped collar of velvet on the back. The pleats are wider but gathered more closely to make quite a nice shape.

Junior Mayor's Robe 

In Hereford a Junior Mayor is chosen from a local school to be in office for a year. They are usually about 11 years old and so, as you can see, the gown has been shortened on the hem and the hanging sleeves that are similar to the robes from 1835 and 1850. The lace sleeves that are worn under the robe with white gloves have to be sewn in place for the Junior Mayors but otherwise the robes are the same.

Rebecca Johns, 5th Junior Mayor of Hereford being installed in the Council Chambers. 

I explained that I will be making a lightweight robe for the Mayor of Bournemouth and asked if they had made this robe lighter or if they had anything like this and Roger explained that the robes are worn so infrequently that this is not really necessary for Hereford. In Hereford the Mayor will only wear their full dress about 10 times a year on ceremonial occasions whereas other cities may wear theirs much more and therefore this would be necessary.

Detail of the cartridge pleats on the Junior Mayor's Robe. 

This gown  was constructed in a very similar way to the 2nd example from the museum. It had a number of cartridge pleats under the arms and the pleats on the back were padded out with canvas. 

With the gown a Mayor wears a jabot, the chains, gloves and a tricorne or bicorne hat. Women wear tricorne, Men wear bicornes. On the hats there is a gold flash that on the tricorne is worn to the right. This shows that they have 'gone through the chair' Other councillors wear black flash. The above hats were made by Ede and Ravenscroft. 

*One thing that Roger said about the robes from the Museum collection was that the maroon and navy robe wouldn't be a Mayors but a Councillors robe or possibly Aldermanic but they do not do Aldermen anymore. This is something I would like to look into further as I am not particularly clear to what an Alderman is in comparison to a Mayor. 

Town Clerk's Robe

This robe is for a Town Clerk and can be seen being worn in the photo of the Junior Mayor above. The long sleeves of this gown are similar to the Junior Mayor's robes with the T-shaped opening but are covered in tassles, which are also on the back hem. 

A Liveryman Jacket 

This is a Liveryman Jacket. The job of a liveryman is to escort the Mayor in special occasions and act as a 'symbolic bodyguard'. They bear swords or maces when escorting. Hereford has 8 Liverymen, which is quite a lot.

Sword and Maces on display in the Mayors Parlour.

In the Mayors Parlour there was a shelf of photo albums and Roger showed me this picture of Councillor Beaumont who was Mayor in 1965 - 1966. He remarked that this gown should never have been bought at the time and has not been able to be used since.

The fur on this gown is miniver fur with ermine spots which is the fur used for gowns of Peers of the Realm and therefore not appropriate for a Mayors Robe. 

The last garment that I saw was the cloak for the Town Crier. In Hereford the town crier is ceremonial whereas in some other cities they hire commercial town criers. This cloak is worn over top of the liveryman jacket with the top hat. The cloth was made by Brook Taverner and the cloak constructed in a firm in Much Wenlock which makes clerical costume. 

This visit has been really beneficial to me. It was great to see more styles of Mayoral gowns and the ways they were constructed. I also learnt quite a lot about the ceremony involved when being a mayor and the other roles that are involved. 

Hereford Resource and Learning Centre - Cartridge Pleating

Before I had realised that the museum had a collection of robes I had arranged with Althea to look at cartridge pleating in detail on historic garments. The examples of cartridge pleats I had seen before have often been made with thicker, heavier fabrics and I have been interested in how the thinner fabric we will be using for our gown will effect the look of the cartridge pleats. I am also interested to see how in history they have sewn the pleats to the body of the garment when the fabric is thinner so that it is hard-wearing and strong.

Printed velvet dress circa 1835

Detail of pleats of 1835 dress

1860 dress (photo of inside detailing at top of page) 

Petticoat with box pleats at the front and cartridge pleats on the back waistline.

From looking at these dresses I learnt that cartridge pleating seems to be most common on dresses from about 1830s-90s. Also I was surprised to see that the cartridge pleats were sometimes hidden in quite indiscreet areas of the dress, such as the petticoat above where the pleats would be hidden at the back. 

To finish this post I thought I would put some photos of my favourite parts of the collection as they are so beautiful! 

Hereford Resource and Learning Centre - Gowns

On Thursday I arranged a visit to Hereford Museum and Resource Centre to look at garments with cartridge pleating so that I could look in detail at how they sewed the pleats and attached them together. I have worked at the centre before and know the costume collection reasonably well but had never seen any civic or clerical gowns so I was delighted to learn on arrival that they have 3 in the collection.

Mayor George Bonner 1834-1836

Robe of George Bonner 1834-1836

 This is a gown for Mayor George Bonner, who was unusually in office for 2 years from 1834-1836. His initials are embroidered into the facing on the back. The robe is very different to the Bournemouth one, not only in style as different regions have different decorations but also in the way it is made and the type of sleeves.

On the back the yoke is very small and there are short cartridge pleats (approximately 1.5cm) that run across the back leaving a section unpleated by the arm. Then the sleeve is gathered along the back and over the shoulder . I thought this was quite unusual for a tailored garment as normally you would strive to have the sleeve fit neatly into the sleeve-head without any gathering. 

Having said this in the 1820s and 1830s it was very fashionable for women to have gigot or leg of mutton sleeves and in some respects this translated into male fashion with gathering on the top of the shoulder. I wonder if this is the reason for this gathering, so as to add a bit of volume to the shoulder, mirroring the fashionable shape. 

 This portrait of Henry Stebbing circa 1830-35 shows him wearing a clerical gown. You can see that the sleeves are gathered in a very similar and it may well be that this was just how robes were made in the early part of the 18th century. 

Cartridge pleating inside George Bonner's robe.

Underneath the facing with the embroidered initials you could see the cartridge pleats. In this example they have folded over the seam allowance and used that in the pleats, possibly to make the pleats thicker. There is also a line of stitching along the bottom which are not on our samples and I would like to look into what these are as maybe it would secure the pleats better.

The sleeves on this robe were long rectangular tubes with this t shape slit that the arm comes through. The edges are bound in black velvet and all the sleeve is lined with red silk. When hanging the sleeve creates a similar shape to the sleeve on the gown we're making only without the wing. I would find it interesting to learn how these different sleeves have evolved from their medieval origins. 

Alderman William Boycott 1850-1860

Alderman William Boycott was in office for 10 years from 1850-1860 and his robe has quite a few differences to George Bonner's as well as the style we are making. This robe has a label which I think reads 'W. ..... CHARD. Tailor and Outfitter. High Town. Hereford.'

On the front the gown is cut in much the same way as the previous example. It has a thick black velvet collar  with a thick black cord sewn around the edge which has now come loose. When you turn it to the back however you can see that the black collar widens to about 40cm deep. There is a button in the middle to hold the collar down to the yoke and underneath are the cartridge pleats. 

Cartridge pleats underneath the collar. 

These cartridge pleats are about 20cm long and about 1cm to 1.5cm thick. On this example the yoke is quite small and the sleeve is set into an almost right angled opening. On the reverse, the pleats are gathered with some canvas to add fullness I think and again it has rows of stitching along, to possibly hold them in place.

Wrong side of cartridge pleats. 

Sleeves

Inside of sleeve

The sleeves are similar to before, with a T shape opening, it is interesting to see the inside of the sleeve head on this garment. They have covered most of the seams with the red silk lining and then bound the lower seams. The longer section on the right of this picture is covering the cartridge pleats that are underneath the arm.

2cm long cartridge pleats under the arm.

Neither I, or Althea, the curator, knew what these cartridge pleats were for. Maybe they are there to add more fullness to the side of the garment?

George Powell 1960-1961

This robe is my favourite of the collection, it was for George Powell who was in office from 1960-61. It is made of maroon wool with a navy blue velvet trimming around the collar and the sleeves. Of the three gowns this is the most similar to the gown in Bournemouth because it has winged sleeves with a velvet trim. The label says 'EDE SON & RAVENSCROFT' which is what Ede and Ravenscroft were called from 1902-1921 before the wife of Rosa Ede changed it 31 years after her husbands death. 

The back of this gown is quite narrow with the curve of the armhole coming in quite far. The yoke is curved and the velvet trim meets at a point on the CB. The pleats are very neat examples and are about 5cm deep, on the reverse they are covered by a lining but underneath that you can see that it is made thicker with another red wool and that possibly the yoke has canvas in it.

Inside of robe showing cartridge pleating detail.

The wings on this gown, which are lined in black silk, are very similar to our gown apart from being set further into the back of the gown. They also do not have the hanging sleeve that ours has.

Academic Gowns


I also looked at a few academic gowns that were in the collection as they were good examples of pleating on gowns and it was interesting to see how different kinds of gowns differed.

Academic gown by Ede and Ravenscroft