Following consultation with the Silver Rainbows Network the LGBT+ Heritage Project was developed to recognise the contribution of the LGBT+ communities to the history and heritage of Cheshire. In collaboration with Cheshire Archives and Local Studies, Body Positive gained funding to create a permanent LGBT+ archive for Cheshire. From Prejudice to Pride the heritage project, collects memories, artefacts, oral histories and gathers historical documents together to highlight the broad history of LGBT+ people from Cheshire’s past.

The exhibition in 2019 featured some of the AIDS quilts from the national collection. The idea of a quilt for Cheshire came from visitor feedback from the exhibition. Cheshire does not have a quilt in the national archive, and it was felt that a broader theme of LGBT+ history would reflect the progress of LGBT+ lives in the county and remember some of the important individuals and events that have shaped the LGBT+ experiences.

The quilt highlights those individuals and events that shaped the lives of LGBT+ people in Cheshire and marked society’s attitude at particular moments in time. The quilt used documents and images from the archives and individual’s personal collections to illustrate the wealth of history that has its basis in Cheshire. The quilt was created during 2020/21 in lockdown, with the contributions of older LGBT+ people from the Silver Rainbows Network working with textile artists Molly Brown.

The quilt moves from the dark to the light signifying the journey that we have come on, the progress made and the things still to change. There are a range of techniques used including , hand stitching, freehand and shisha embroidery, digital transfer and quilting.

The quilt will be on display throughout 2022 at a range locations across the county, starting with Weaver Hall Museum in Northwich for LGBT+ History Month in February 2022.

Detailed images available in The Rocket 23