IT IS believed that Lady Julia Carew did embroidery for six or seven hours every day.

Celebrated as the “best embroideress in society” at the beginning of the 20th century, she is said to have declared that “Every bride should be able to cross stitch her own stair carpet”.

It is not known if she did cross stitch her own stair carpet but she was the epitome of an accomplished society lady and married Sir Robert Carew, of Castleboro House, County Wexford, Ireland.

She and her sister, Lady Jane Cory, trained at the Royal School of Needlework in London and were prolific in their production of exquisite wall hangings and other furnishings for their Irish and London homes. Magnificent examples of “Tree of Life” wall hangings made by the Anglo-Irish peeress can be seen at Girton College, Cambridge.

Another example of her work has been identified in Hartlebury Castle, near Kidderminster – the former residence of the bishops of Worcester, home to the Worcestershire County Museum and now owned by the Hartlebury Castle Preservation Trust.

A number of chairs at the castle were covered in material embroidered by Lady Julia, although how her work ended up at the Worcestershire manor house remains a mystery.

This material, used as loose covers for the chairs, is in an oriental style similar to a multi-coloured version of the willow pattern and it is not known whether they were made as seat covers or cut from a larger piece of fabric.

However, what became clear is that the covers – made at the end of the First World War by Lady Julia – were in a very bad condition and the castle preservation trust wanted to do something about it.

A group of heritage volunteers from the City of Worcester Decorative and Fine Arts Society (DFAS) have now started a project to recreate the embroidery on six chair covers originally produced by this queen of needlework skills.

Chair of the Worcester DFAS Susan Dolman said: “Our past chair of the society was a volunteer at Hartlebury Castle and when I took over from her she said ‘Do you think our heritage volunteers would do the chairs?’.

“We paid for an expert to come and assess what needed to be done. We needed to know if they could be repaired or if replication was better. The chair covers were beyond renovation.”

The society has undertaken a number of heritage preservation projects in its 27-year history including work on Worcester Cathedral vestments, conserving the pattern books at the Museum of Worcester Porcelain and collection purses for churches.

Susan continued: “There will be a group at the castle every Tuesday and Wednesday when the castle is open and it will probably take about two years to do it. Embroidery is a slow process.”

There are six volunteers taking part, bringing their skills and experience to this project, and the society is sponsoring one of the chairs itself while hoping other people or organisations will come forward to sponsor the others.

Susan added that the company which supplied the original wool for the embroidery – Appletons – still operates and they were able to match the colours to ensure the replicas are as close to the originals as possible.

The original covers are badly faded but the original vibrant colours can still be seen on the underside of the material.

“The chairs have boxed cushions. There are six pieces to each cushions and a couple of pieces to the back. It will be a long job but enjoyable. It is going to be good to see the end product because the colours are really vibrant,” said Susan.

Members of the public visiting the museum will be able to see the embroidery work progressing.

“We wanted to be able to do it in a public place partly to publicise what we do because people have no idea what goes on in the background.

“Heritage volunteers give of their time and expertise in the repair and preservation of antique fabrics, embroideries and tapestries, which would otherwise cost the owners or the nation a vast sum of money to restore.

“We are hoping one of the team will be able to make a small embroidery kit that will be sold in the shop and the funds will go to Hartlebury Castle.

“It is all part of the Hartlebury Castle re-inventing itself and we were anxious to take part and do whatever we could to assist them become a vibrant tourist attraction,” said Susan.

The existing chair covers, or some of them, will be carefully mounted and displayed at the castle for people to make comparisons with the replicas.

Susan said they hope the project at Hartlebury Castle will encourage more people to join the society and even become members of the heritage project volunteers group.

She said the heritage work is just one element of the society’s activities. It has a young arts section and is currently working with the Swan Theatre and offering a bursary to a young person in Worcestershire in the world of arts.

“We are also putting on a pottery class for young carers in the Museum of Royal Worcester Porcelain. We have paid for an artist to work with children at Acorns to create designs and we paid for the cards to be produced.

“Our church recorders also go into a church and record everything in there and they produce a book and make six copies which form part of an official record. We contribute to the heritage of the country,” said Susan.

Each year the society, which has 400 members, undertakes five or six visits to a varied array of destinations such as Greenwich Maritime Museum, the BBC Media Centre in Salford, Blaise Castle, Bowood House and the British Museum. For more information about the society visit http://www.cowdfas.org.uk

In addition, there are two cultural tours, usually one abroad and one within the UK, with destinations from Mexico to Glasgow, Berlin, Dublin and Sorrento.