Wayward Women

Yesterday we went to the Greater Manchester Police Station Museum On Newton Street, Manchester.

GMP museum link

The reason for our visit was to see the solo exhibition of textile artist Jo Lloyd, who I had the pleasure of sitting next to a couple of years ago on a workshop at Gawthorpe Hall, led by Ruth Singer.

Jo’s exhibition “Wayward Women” is a study of women offenders held at the Manchester prison during Victorian times and is displayed in one of the cells.

The cell is a perfect setting for the exhibition.  How Jo has interpreted the subject into stitch is amazing.  I wouldn’t have liked to have been part of the Victorian working class, it was a very hard life indeed.

A huge congratulations to Jo on her achievement.  She should be very proud of herself.  I’m so glad we went to see it.

Here’s a bit of trivia before I go.  

Did you know that the toilet flush system in the cells was kept on the outside, with the toilet bowl itself inside.  It was so that the prisoners couldn’t use the chain to either harm themselves or the prison officers.  

Also there could be as many as 12 offenders in one cell at any given time.

I’ll leave that one to your imagination.

Sorry to have lowered the tone somewhat Jo with the toilet talk, but over at Annie’s Friday Smile blog we do like to stretch the imagination a bit.

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