Peapods and Gillyflowers is an exhibition at Wollaton Hall, Nottingham, of mainly Elizabethan and Jacobean embroideries. It is on until Sunday 1 November 2026 (weekends, school holidays and Bank Holidays, except the 1st and 6th August). The exhibition is in the Lord Middleton Suite, and consists of just a few items, but these items are rare, and date mostly from 1580-1650.
There is an Elizabethan jack, with a replica made by Ninya Mikhaila, and an x-ray showing the horn discs within it. This is the only survival of a jack with horn discs.
Fig. 1: The Elizabethan jack
There is a rail, described by the exhibition as a cape collar. It is linen with silk blackwork embroidery in a scrolling design. Another, unembroidered, rail is in the Manchester collection.
Fig. 2: The rail. c.1600-25
There are two men’s, Jacobean, blackwork nightcaps, and a woman’s embroidered coif with a design of barberries. The coif is unusual in that the strings/tie has survived.
Fig. 3: The coif with its tie.
The exhibition includes a forehead cloth, an incomplete sampler, a panel of slips, and a panel that may be part of a book cover. There is also a cushion cover (1600-50), which is complete with its ribbons. The cover is embroidered in coloured silks, metallic threads and spangles, on cream silk satin. It has central pictorial cartouche, the rest of the design being strapwork incorporating mainly flowers and birds. The exhibition finishes with two eighteenth century embroidered men’s caps.
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| Fig. 4: Edge of the cushion cover with its ribbon bows. |
These items are rarely on display. Wollaton Hall was designed by Robert Smythson for Sir Francis Willoughby between 1580 and 1588. The collection is all associated with the Middleton Willoughby family. Digby Wentworth Bayard Willoughby, 9th Baron Middleton (1844-1922), lent the collection to Nottingham City Museums, and his descendants have continued to do so.
