Shropshire Magazine

It takes two to make sure that the garments look perfect.

Shirley Tart visits an ecclesiastical outfitter whose products take to a world stage at the end of this month. Pictures: Alex Taylor

Much Wenlock gets many visitors from across the world. And some of them will mysteriously disappear into a small doorway opposite the road to the Abbey and close to the parish church.

If not in civvies, they might even be wearing the purple of a Bishop – and may eventually walk out with new robes or other vestments.

Intrigue upon intrigue.

But what brings other clergy or their representatives to Much Wenlock is a fascinating story. Local man Brendan Quinn and his wife Julie – a talented embroiderer – who run their Croft Design business from a pair of old cottages in the Shropshire market town, regularly measure up clerical clients, from deacons and priests to deans and bishops.

It is a great success story too: this year they are making and embroidering altar frontals and vestments for the great Lambeth Conference, held in Canterbury from the end of July.

Beautiful work produced by Croft Designs.

The three-week religious extravaganza happens only once in 10 years, with more than 800 bishops from across the world gathering at the spiritual home of the Anglican church.

The last time the conference took place, in 1998, Brendan and Julie and their then fledgling business were invited to exhibit their skills and goods – “which was a real feather in our cap,” he says.

So how did Croft Design come to win such a lofty place at a prominent, worldwide event?

Tucked away in Brendan’s inner sanctum – on a comfy sofa upstairs in a one-time cottage bedroom, with its delightful view across to the Abbey walls – I heard the fascinating story.

Brendan says: “We started in 1994 working from home and soon needed somewhere with a bit of space. We struggle here a bit, even now. I suppose an industrial unit might be a much better size, but we wouldn’t get customers wandering by and it does have atmosphere.”

It certainly does. And a browse through the icons, altar furnishings, cassocks, surplices, albs and stoles, with Julie producing her beautiful embroidery upstairs, is a delight.

It all began when Brendan worked briefly in a similar business in Ironbridge. He grinned: “Julie came in asking for work experience and I told her to clear off, I was far too busy. But she came anyway.”

Julie with a strikingly decorated mitre.

Just as well she did. For not only is Julie a fine embroiderer but Brendan more than liked having her around, she felt the same about him, and they were married. Son Thomas, four, is now their pride and joy.

The fact that Julie is both trained in, and wonderful at, embroidery is clearly a pretty good bonus all round.

And so from their cottage base in the heart of England and with a small, but much valued, staff they dress clergy and lay ministers from across the world, help furnish churches and cathedrals, and now have a great part to play in the Lambeth Conference as it makes its once-in-a-decade bow.

That the conference is again being staged in this country is a bonus for Brendan and the team. He says: “There was talk of it being in South Africa which would have been quite something but a bit more difficult for us.”

It certainly would since he, Julie and Thomas will now be in the Kent city for most of the three-week run.

“Because we have the commission to make the altar frontals and vestments for all the communion services, we also undertake to launder the linen and are effectively the vergers. If wine is spilt on anything, it will be our job to get it sorted, washed and returned.”

Showpiece

So from making it to cleaning it, the Much Wenlock team is well geared up to care for the Lambeth Conference which does, after all, become a showpiece of the Anglican community and faith.

Brendan, who is also choirmaster and organist at the Shropshire town’s Holy Trinity Church, and has just finished a stint as church warden, clearly knows the essence and importance of Lambeth. He is thrilled to have been chosen yet again to play a part – this time a bigger part – in staging it. A little exhibition and a good website have helped bring Croft Design to a global audience.

They “dressed” their first Bishop (of St Albans) back in 1995, about a year after moving their work from the kitchen table to the cottages.

To drop a name or two, the Most Reverend Donald Mtetemela, Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Tanzania, wears Croft Design gear, while at the Lambeth Conference Archbishop Rowan Williams will be seen across the world in vestments direct from Much Wenlock.

Actually, the town’s own place in Christian history is sound. It was here that St Milburga, saint and abbess of Wenlock Priory, was buried, although her remains are said to have been moved around a number of times. However, in life, she supposedly started the Much Wenlock church for local women and her nuns to attend services. A small step then from Wenlock to Canterbury.

Wives who attend the great conference are gathered up by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s wife, Jane, to a parallel gathering known not surprisingly as the Spouses Conference.

And so, Canterbury 2008, another holy moment in Christian history, dressed by Brendan of Much Wenlock!

Brendan and Julie Quinn dress clergy of international renown from their unassuming little business in Much Wenlock.