BBC - A History of the World - Object : A Strippy Quilt made by Hannah Peart

Hannah Peart's hand sewn quilt (c. 1850) is the earliest known strippy quilt from Northern England ©Friends of Killhope

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Hannah sailed to America in 1854 with this quilt. It was brought back home by her descendants about twenty years agoThis is the oldest surviving North Country example of a traditional strippy quilt. It was made in Allendale in the North Pennines but spent most of its life in New York State. Its maker, Hannah Peart, took it with her when she emigrated in 1854 to join her sweetheart, Joseph Graham, from Weardale. They married, settled into a farming life in upstate New York, raised a family and never returned to the dales. But the quilt did return, brought back by Joseph and Hannah's great-grand daughter, who presented it to Killhope, the North of England Lead Mining Museum. The museum is less than a mile from where Joseph Graham was born. With the quilt was a bundle of letters written by Joseph to his relatives at Killhope. The quilt and letters bring us very close to the hard life of Pennine lead mining families.

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