About
The Quaker Tapestry Exhibition Centre in Kendal, Cumbria, is home to one of the most extraordinary community art works of the twentieth century: 77 large embroidered panels, created collaboratively by more than 4,000 people from 15 countries over 13 years between 1981 and 1994, documenting 300 years of Quaker history, values, and social witness.
The Tapestry was inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry and uses a specially developed style of crewelwork embroidery — thick wool thread on linen — to create panels of remarkable visual richness and density. Each panel measures approximately 25 by 21 inches and tells a specific story from Quaker history through image, symbol, and text. The result, displayed in sequence, creates a panoramic narrative of the Religious Society of Friends from its founding in 1650s England to its worldwide expression in the late twentieth century.
Kendal was the natural home for this project. The area around Westmorland is the heartland of early Quakerism: it was at Firbank Fell, just a few miles from Kendal, that George Fox preached to a gathering of perhaps 1,000 people in 1652 in one of the pivotal moments in the founding of the Religious Society of Friends. The nearby village of Brigflatts houses one of the oldest surviving Friends Meeting Houses in England, and the landscape of the Lake District fells carries deep associations with the early Quaker movement.
The panels address the full breadth of Quaker witness across three centuries: the abolition of slavery (Quakers were among the earliest organised opponents of the slave trade); prison reform (Elizabeth Fry's pioneering work at Newgate); education (the Quaker schools that shaped generations of English public life); science (an extraordinary number of pioneering scientists — John Dalton, Michael Faraday, Arthur Eddington — came from Quaker backgrounds); peace testimony (the conscientious objection tradition and the Friends Ambulance Unit); and the worldwide spread of the movement from its north of England origins to communities on every continent.
The Exhibition Centre is housed within the Friends Meeting House in Kendal — itself a building of historic significance — and provides a programme of guided tours, craft demonstrations, and educational sessions alongside the permanent display. The Meeting House continues as a place of worship, giving the Tapestry its natural context as a living celebration of a living tradition.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
📅 Best Times to Visit
Quietest: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
Busiest: Saturday
💡 Mid-morning on a weekday for a relaxed guided tour with plenty of time to study the panels
💡 Visitor Tips
- Take the guided tour — it transforms the experience from looking at embroidery into understanding a richly interconnected history; most visitors say the tour is the best part of the visit.
- Allow more time than you think you need — the panels reward slow, close examination, and visitors who rush round in under an hour consistently say they wished they had taken longer.
- Non-religious visitors should not be put off by the Quaker context — the panels cover scientific achievement, social reform, and community history that has broad appeal well beyond the Society of Friends.
- The shop is excellent and stocks publications and embroidery kits not available elsewhere — allow time to browse before leaving.
- Try the embroidery demonstration if one is running during your visit — it gives a tangible sense of the skill and effort that went into creating the panels.
- Combine with the Museum of Lakeland Life (5 minutes' walk) for a full day of Kendal heritage, or with a drive to Brigflatts Meeting House to see the original Quaker landscape that Fox preached in.
- Kendal is junction 36 of the M6 — very accessible by car, and served by trains on the West Coast Main Line via Oxenholme.
- The café in the Meeting House is a lovely spot for a quiet cup of tea — in keeping with Quaker simplicity, the atmosphere is calm and unhurried.
Highlights
The 77 Panels — A Community Achievement
The Quaker Tapestry itself — 77 large embroidered panels displayed in sequence around the gallery walls — is a community art work of extraordinary ambition and quality. Created between 1981 and 1994 by over 4,000 contributors from 15 countries, the panels use a specially developed style of crewelwork embroidery to tell 300 years of Quaker history through image, symbol, and text.
The combined visual effect — seen from a distance — is of a richly coloured, densely populated narrative that rewards both overview and close examination.
No single panel tells the whole story; the meaning accumulates panel by panel, image by image, into a remarkably comprehensive portrait of a tradition.
George Fox and 1652 — The Founding Story
The founding narrative of Quakerism — centred on George Fox's ministry in the north of England in the early 1650s — receives detailed treatment in the Tapestry. Fox's preaching at Firbank Fell in Westmorland in 1652, just miles from Kendal, to a gathering of perhaps 1,000 people is presented as a pivotal moment in the movement's founding: the first Quaker 'mass meeting'.
The panel depicting this event is among the most dramatic in the collection, capturing the scale of Fox's open-air ministry and the landscape of the fells that forms its backdrop.
The connection between the Tapestry's location in Kendal and this founding moment gives the display particular resonance.
Abolition of Slavery — Quaker Social Witness
Quakers were among the earliest and most consistent opponents of the Atlantic slave trade and chattel slavery, and the Tapestry devotes significant space to this aspect of their social witness. The panel depicting the abolitionist movement — including the roles of Anthony Benezet, John Woolman, and the wider Society of Friends in the American and British anti-slavery campaigns — is among the most historically significant in the collection.
The display connects Quaker theology (the belief in that of God in every person) to its practical social consequences, providing a compelling example of how religious conviction drove social reform.
Elizabeth Fry — Prison Reform
The panel devoted to Elizabeth Fry (1780–1845), the Quaker prison reformer who pioneered humane conditions for women prisoners at Newgate and inspired penal reform across Europe, is one of the most detailed and emotionally resonant in the Tapestry. Fry's work — combining practical intervention with advocacy for systemic reform — exemplifies the Quaker tradition of social action grounded in direct personal engagement.
The panel presents her work at Newgate and its ripple effects across the British prison system, connecting her individual witness to the broader Quaker commitment to human dignity.
Collections
The Quaker Tapestry consists of 77 large embroidered panels — the primary collection — supplemented by an archive of the project's creation including design drawings, correspondence, sample stitching, and documentation of the 4,000+ contributors from 15 countries who participated between 1981 and 1994.
The panels cover 300 years of Quaker history from the founding ministry of George Fox in the 1650s to the worldwide Quaker community of the late twentieth century, addressing themes including the founding of the movement, abolitionism, prison reform, education, science, peace testimony, and global mission.
High-quality facsimile panels and reproduction prints from the collection are available in the museum shop.
The embroidery archive and project documentation are held by the Quaker Tapestry Scheme Charitable Trust.
The Quaker Tapestry — 77 Panels, 300 Years
The full display of all 77 embroidered panels, presented in narrative sequence with detailed interpretation of each panel's themes, stories, and embroidery techniques.
📍 Main Gallery
Making the Tapestry — Community, Craft, and Commitment
Exhibition on the creation of the Tapestry between 1981 and 1994, including the embroidery technique, the international network of contributors, and the project's conception and execution.
📍 Education Area
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.