News Letter [issue 34] - David Evans Craft Centre of Silk

David Evans Craft Centre of Silk

A Silk Block printing operation at David Evans & Co - compare this with the Museum's demonstartion - see Newsdesk[Full size image 42.6kb]

As announced in the Evening Standard in February under the headline "End of Kent's silk trade as Mill bows to cheap imports" David Evans and Co is being forced to close the Kent printing works because of competition from the Far East and will be moving to smaller premises at a mill near Macclesfield in Cheshire.

Liz Hulf - Retail and Tourism manager reports "The David Evans Craft Centre of Silk" is closing down. It closes on 18th May and all textile printing work will in future be done at Macclesfield. However all the remaining 40 printers will be made redundant and have not been offered work elsewhere

[Full size image 42.6kb]
Textile printing has taken place there since 1843 and there has been a history of textile printing on the site going back to the 17 hundreds.

The museum and shop complex will remain open until the end of the summer season. The collection of printing artifacts and displays have been in place for 17 years and have been a great tourist attraction

The London borough of Bexley had been approached to house the unique collection. So far they have agreed to house all the artifacts under controlled conditions at Thamesmead

It is to be hoped that the Borough will be able to display them in the stable block of Hall Place in Bexley which is run by a charitable trust with funding from Bexley council

The stable block needs refurbishing before the collection can be displayed at a cost of Ł100,000 to Ł200,000. I understand that the council have agreed to the project but it will obviously be some time before the David Evans collection can be properly displayed once more for the benefit of the public."