Sarah explains how she and her sister Susan first became acquainted with Liberty’s and received their first commission from Mr Weiner.


Sarah Campbell interviewed by Niamh Dillon, Design Lives, British Library, catalogue reference C1842/004. © British Library Board and Sarah Campbell.

With thanks to The Textile Society for funding this oral history interview.

Image credit: Collier Campbell, Design for Liberty scarf, 1975 © Sarah Campbell.

Transcript:

Interviewer: Sarah, tell me again about the first meeting that you had with Mr Weiner? 

Sarah: There's two things about Mr Weiner: the first meeting, thinking about the time he bought the painting, but of course I had met him beforehand because of the relationship with Liberty, which was with Liberty of London Prints. This was the wholesale company whose headquarters were down at Merton Abbey. The one reason why Susan went to them in the first place was that they were very local to Balham, it was only down the road as opposed to going to Manchester, where the traditional manufacturers were, which she did, with her portfolio and got very short shrift. They weren't interested in her designs or her work or her, so she got a bit downhearted and then realised that Liberty was down the road, so she went there. It was a practical matter!  She met Mr Weiner, and he was the producer of fabric. And Mr Weiner had come over in the war, or just after the war, he was a refugee from Europe. He became the producer, which is the person in charge of producing the cloth, getting it printed, getting the ranges done, putting them together, not the designer. When Susan started with Liberty in the early 60s, I was a schoolgirl, so I got involved because Susan was busy with her children, and her marriage, and her household, and her work.  So, she asked me. She famously said you can draw, so I did. And it's true that I could draw, but I didn't think much about that. So, the relationship with Liberty, as with all customers, all the way through Susan's and my working life, the primary relationship was with Susan and the customers. And I was very much at home working at the table or doing whatever I was doing. When she started with Liberty, we were doing scarves mainly, and we did a lot of scarves. So, a lot of the paintings that you see here in the archive are of scarves and scarf panels and quarters and eighths and all that sort of thing. And we moved on to doing more dress fabrics. I haven't answered your question about Mr Weiner. But during that period, I would sometimes go down to the print works. It was a wonderful place. Merton Abbey was a really lovely place. It was an old established print works and William Morris had had his print works there. It was on the River Wandle, and so of course they washed out into the river Wandle.  My memory of it, which probably isn't really what it was like, was several old wooden buildings. And in one of them was the printworks and the print tables, and they'd used to hang the printed scarves up in the ceiling like wonderful, wonderful flags to dry. I just loved it. I loved that fabric up there. I think at the beginning it was Mr Weiner who Susan saw first, when she first went there, she showed him her portfolio. And he bought 6 designs, which was unheard of. And he said to her as she left - this is the story - you could draw you, so can come back.  He loved proper drawing. And I suppose that really is the key to Liberty. They loved drawing. They loved beautiful colours. They loved things to be as beautiful as possible, and they took the greatest care. And I don't think there was any, ever, any question about, 'did you take too much trouble? Have you spent too long on a thing', because they wanted it to be the best.

Sarah on receiving her first commission from Mr Weiner

Originally written and recorded as 'Barrett's Privateers' by Stan Rogers

With permission from Fogarty's Cove Records (http://stanrogers.net/)

Performed live and adapted by British Library Writer-in-Residence Rob Sherman and Nick Henderson (http://twitter.com/NickJHenderson) at the British Library, 8th December 2015 

“In the mid-nineteenth century, arguably the brief 'Golden Age' of vernacular organology aboard British ships, Arkwright's Privateers was one of the most popular 'chanteys', or accompanied work-songs, amongst the general maritime population. Though it did encroach upon naval vessels, it was amongst merchant crews and private ventures that it displayed the greatest tenacity; these vessels were often crewed by Midlands men, whose bravery and Romantic fate this song handles. It is also a prime example of the esteem in which sailors from the county of Derbyshire were held, an almost-mythopoeic pedestal from which they have never descended, not even in the present day.

The tune was likely sung on deck to the simple beat of a drum, most often as a 'hand-over-hand chantey', used in the task of setting the jib and other repetitive hauling tasks. The key evidence of this designation is the call-and-response component of each verse's first line, followed by a repeated refrain which keeps a tight rhythm, allowing for methodic application to the task at hand.

Despite its regional appeal, and its reliance on knowledge of mid-English folklore regarding the 'Derbyshire Sailors' and their adventures, versions of it have been recorded by folklorists up and down both littorals of the Atlantic, even as far south as the Antilles.”

Dr. Mark Tollas, from his introduction to 'Hilo, Boys, Hilo: A New History Of The English Ululation'

Learn more about Rob's British Library residency, 'On My Wife's Back' at http://onmywifesback.tumblr.com/ 

Arkwright's Privateers

Where are the current trends in radio and online audio leading? What might radio sound (and look) like on its 2022 centenary? Some leading figures of UK radio come together for a discussion on radio today and tomorrow: Ruth Barnes chairs a panel featuring Matt Deegan (Folder Media/Next Radio conference), Helen Boaden (Director of BBC Radio), Femi Adeyemi (NTS Radio) and journalist/broadcaster Miranda Sawyer. Produced by Rosina Sound & Allanah Chance for the British Library, 16 September 2016.

The Future of Radio

The Copeland-Long restoration of the earliest known recording of computer music, recorded at Alan Turing's Computing Machine Laboratory in Manchester in 1951. Read Copeland and Long's fascinating blog account of the all-night programming session which led to its creation, and Turing's reaction on hearing it the following morning:  http://blogs.bl.uk/sound-and-vision/2016/09/restoring-the-first-recording-of-computer-music.html

First known recording of computer music, 1951

A short stereo excerpt of a longer 8 channel work. This is a sonic investigation into community and gentrification in the London neighbourhood of Walworth. It has traditionally been a working-class neighbourhood with more recent residents coming from all over the world. The area has been subject to several contentious ‘regeneration’ schemes that have already caused the loss of 1100 socially rented homes of the Heygate Estate.

Elephant Endangered Stereo 1

Cataloging

One of the last Black Country chainmakers, Lucy Woodall, sings the worksong ‘Chainmaker lad is a masher’ and talks about singing. 

Recorded by Roy Palmer in Old Hill, Dudley, West Midlands, England. There was much iron and coal production in this area of England since the 1600s and chainmaking, centered around towns south of Dudley, was a flourishing business, now defunct. Songs like these are documents of our history and heritage. 

The full-length recording from the Traditional music in England collection is on British Library sounds: 
http://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Traditional-music-in-England/025M-C1023X0040XX-0100V0#

Chainmaker lad is a masher

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Sarah on receiving her first commission from Mr Weiner

The British Library

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