About

My name is Jackie H Morris, I am a student researcher at Manchester Metropolitan University. This year long project is part of my PhD research investigating our relationship with rural place by working with its community using a participatory textile method.  The Stitched Atlas project is organised by myself with support from my supervisory team at the university and is self-funded. The themes of this project are folklore in rural places, intangible heritage, retelling stories, reperforming songs and dance, stitching by both hand and by the walking body.

This community project investigates the places where Ella Mary Leather gathered folklore and songs, recorded in her book ‘The Folklore of Herefordshire ’ published in 1912. There are some 105 villages or towns associated with 220 folklore records, as well as forty-one songs gathered in specifically named places.

My aims of this project are to answer the question ‘What is embodied (captured in person) when retelling stories or reperforming songs/dances in places where that folklore was originally gathered, for example what experiences are had, what thoughts, feelings, emotions, or ideas are elicited or formed through the walking and/or stitching practice, and how are they expressed in documentation and/or stitching. As folklore is a medium of ordinary people, it feels approriate to investigate its resonances today with its contemporary community in their dwelling places.

The community group will use their research findings/stitchings to create an actual Stitched Atlas at the end of the year’s research. We will exhibit progress work from March 2024.

My project has inspired Leominster’s 150th year anniversary celebrations of Ella Mary Leather’s birth and many community events and creative responses are now being planned by local organisations for 2024. The final creation of The Stitched Atlas will also be exhibited from January 2025.

My email: jacqueline.morris@stu.mmu.ac.uk