Blackwell Brides: Dress, Story & Skill

Blackwell Brides began as part of the wider Home Truths local heritage project in Blackwell Parish, developed with resident collective Greater Creative and creative arts organisation Platform Thirty1 to gather, share and preserve local histories rooted in community voice. First shown in full at St Werburgh’s Church, old Blackwell over Valentine’s Weekend 2026, the original exhibition brought together wedding dresses, cakes, photographs and oral histories gathered from residents across the parish.

This touring version offers a smaller selection of works from that exhibition; a distillation of some of the stories and items first shared in the church. Loaned wedding dresses, resident made cakes, photographs and oral histories that trace changing traditions and enduring community rituals. Together, these fragments continue to reflect the everyday extraordinary lives of Blackwell Brides past and present.

Curated by Platform Thirty1

Part of the Women Who Make Festival at Hardwick Hall.