HISTORY was made in Wootton Courtenay Village Hall when a tapestry wall hanging made by members of the village sewing group was officially unveiled.

The hanging, which uses a mixture of embroidery and appliqué to depict village life, was the brainchild of Tricia Wright and took three years to complete.

George Burnell, a lifelong resident of Wootton Courtenay, performed the unveiling to an audience of more than 80 people, many of whom saw their own homes carefully woven into the work of art.

Tricia said: "We couldn't fully appreciate the overall effect until we saw it finally hung because we had all worked in such close detail on small areas. It was breathtaking."

Tricia formed the sewing group with fellow villager Sally Farmer in 2009 and now includes members from nearby villages, including Timberscombe and Porlock.

The group takes trips to the Malvern and Exeter Quilt Shows to learn about new products and provide inspiration and it was following one such visit the idea for the village wall hanging was born.

After several planning discussions, the project started in earnest in 2012.

Working from an old Women's Institute map, Trish drew out an eight-by-ten foot plan of the village on to calico, including roads, fields, brooks, pathways and properties.

She then began the long job of quilting in the fields as a base to start from.

From there, the group took over the project adding the hedging, woods, moors and animals, as well as textures and colour.

At the same time other work was in hand to create a border using larger-scale appliqués of some of the houses in the area. Each person worked their own pieces individually from photographs before the whole work was finally sewn together.

Group member Mary Noble said: "It has been fun trying to find the exact piece of fabric, wool, colour or texture required for certain bits.

"Many of our ladies have contributed to the wall hanging but the skills and inventiveness of Jane Barbieri, Janet West, Roz Griffin and Maggie Chaffey have been amazing and worth a special mention.

"The finished work is a wonderful creation and we hope it will hang in our village hall for future generations to marvel over for a very long time."

Photo: Paul Scullion