One of the many events planned for the 2013 Cookham Festival is an exhibition of Textiles and Crafts and an appeal is going out to the local community to search their homes for historical keepsakes and treasures to lend for display during the Festival.
In 1828 James Burrows a leather merchant from Southwark came to live in Cookham and started a boot and shoe industry in the village. Lace-making also took place in the village for agents in Buckinghamshire, and pottery was manufactured at Odney.
The Festival would like to hear from members of the local community who have any
examples of the locally made Odney pottery; lace making pillows and bobbins; cobblers lasts and leather goods; rural apparel of the type worn on the farms in the area; and corn craft; as well as any photographs of these artefacts who would be prepared to loan them to the Festival for the exhibition.
Dr Oliver Douglas Assistant Curator of the Museum of English Rural Life says The ideal of course is to find artefacts directly related to Cookham and its various trades.
There must be longstanding Cookham residents who hold artefacts of relevance who would be pleased and proud to share them with the wider community this is a model I have seen work well elsewhere.
The 2013 Cookham Festival runs from 8th 19th May. The programme of events and Festival news will be posted on the website
www.cookham.org.uk . Any member of the local community with artefacts to lend to the Textiles and Crafts exhibition is encouraged to contact
info@cookhamfestival.org.uk 
