Previous Exhibitions
Over the years since we opened in 2009, we have had more than 70 exhibitions. Some of these are available online. We hope you will enjoy browsing these pages. If you live far from Settle, perhaps it will whet your appetite to pay us a visit. In the summer of 2019 we staged a special tenth anniversary exhibition at the Folly Museum in Settle. It ran from July 6 to September 6 and told the story of how we established the gallery. It listed all the exhibitions; included many of the posters we used to promote them and included tributes from many of our previous exhibitors, including Brian May who has shown some of his fascinating collection of Victorian photographs on two separate occasions. The boards from the exhibition are in the NOW WE ARE TEN section of this page, which you can reach by scrolling back to 2019.
Drummers drumming
26 November 2023 – 6 January 2024
The all-knitted twelve days of Christmas made what has now become their annual appearance at the Gallery. Featuring lords-a leaping, maids a milking, swans a swimming and all the rest, including of course the partridge in its pear tree, Christmas in Settle would not be complete without this excellent work by our local knitters.
Since their first showing nine years ago the 78 tiny all knitted figures that act out the words of the Twelve Days of Christmas have amazed visitors and set many of them reciting the lines about what their true love gave to them on each of those days of Christmas.
The eight ladies knitting who produced the exhibition are Settle residents: Jeanne Carr, Catherine Holland, Shirley Crosby, Alison Tyas, Joyce Elliot, Jacqui Lewington, Betty Beesley and Janet Lillywhite. Credit is due too to Barbara Rigby who designed the window panels, giving the exhibition a truly festival spirit.
It has long been believed that the words of the Twelve Days of Christmas did not reflect the rather odd collection of gifts given to a fiancée who would probably have preferred a box of chocolates, but were a device used by 16th century Roman Catholics to convey the basics of their belief without arousing the suspicions of non-Catholics.
Up to 2020 the exhibition was enhanced by more practical gifts of chocolate left for visitors: that did not happen in the years that Covid restrictions were in place, but now with the virus hopefully under control and with less concern about transmission through touch we felt confident to go back to the happy chocolate tradition – whilst stocks lasted.
Sadly though when it came to return the gifts to storage, two had gone missing. So if anyone got a swan a swimming or a dancing lady during the 12 days of Christmas please could you arrange to return it otherwise the 2024 version will be lacking.
Eight knitters knitting
11 September – 25 November 2023
Local artist Alex Pilkington first exhibited at the gallery in spring 2021 with his unique collection of paintings of bothies on stone.
Since then Alex has been busy adding to his works and in this exhibition featured a new set of painting on stone of these mountain huts whose stories are as fascinating as they are extraordinary.
Alex explained: “Not everyone is familiar with the word ‘Bothy’, so as a simple explanation… It is a mountain shelter that is open for people to stop over for a night, or take refuge in poor weather, or just visit for a picnic or lunch. There is much more to the Bothy than this as they are all individual and have rich histories, both from the peasant farmers and shepherds that use to live in them with their families generations ago, to the mountaineers that have used them on epic and pioneering winter climbs. They are a wonderful asset to have in the UKs wilderness areas and a night in one can enhance any visit to the mountains, as well as the chance to have a great social encounter with other likeminded mountain visitors, of whom you may of never met before, nor meet again – but often those stories told and memories will never be forgotten.
“I have been visiting the bothies for a number of years using my mountain bike to bike-pack between them, sometimes doing 3-4 day trips, or sometimes just a night, sometimes with friends, sometimes with family and quite often just on my own.
“During the pandemic the Bothy stone painting became a good escape for me and I found it very therapeutic, I have created some 30 images on a range of stones, most from my own photographs of bothies that I have visited. There is a wide range of landscapes from sunny coastal vistas to winter mountainscapes and those under the crisp night sky, similarly the stones are all varied and provide a nice medium to paint on to.
A section of the exhibition
“My painting exploits have had to take a back seat just recently, due to moving house and also having been appointed as a ‘Maintenance Organiser’ by the Mountain Bothy Association to help-out and maintain Greensykes Bothy in Southern Scotland.”
14 July – 3 September 2023
The idea of a Flowerpot Festival for Settle was born in 2013. Since then it has grown faster than a well-watered sun-flower seed.
As the festival moved into its second decade Gallery on the Green was pleased to join in the celebrations with this exhibition of photographs that reflect on what the festival has achieved and the work that goes on behind the scenes to make the festival a blooming success for Settle.
The exhibition featured some of our favourite flowerpot creations and also a peep behind the scenes with a series of photographs by local photographer and former Gallery on the Green exhibitor John Bentley. These showed the work that goes into turning common or garden plant pots into fantastic creations.
The original aim of the flowerpot festival was to boost the town’s tourism trade and with festival visitor numbers reckoned to be more than 12,000 it has certainly achieved that objective. But more than that it has also drawn out the creativity and humour that makes Settle such a great place to live and visit. In short it has ‘made people smile’ – the aim of the festival and title of our exhibition..
There are now more than 300 displays each year all made out of ordinary flowerpots and all helping to create three fantastic flowerpot trails for families to enjoy.
Crucially there is a mixture of major works created by the official festival and the do-it-yourself creations of families and neighbours. The Edinburgh Festival might have its fringe but so too does Settle.
Last year saw two big developments. There was a welcome spurt of national publicity and a significant change in production.
At the start of 2022, the festival was featured on national TV in” Susan Calman’s Grand Day Out”. This was followed by national newspaper coverage – notably in The Times and as a result visitor numbers grew still further
At the same time the main production centre moved from a backyard gazebo to the “Potting Shed” in Watershed Mill which is both dry and spacious. The organisers now run workshops for children and community groups, helping them make their own potty creations. In 2022 there were 18 workshops involving more than 120 children during the easter and summer school breaks.
The chief flowerpot men are Steve Amphlett and Richard Handscombe. They run the festival as a Community Interest Company (CIC), a non-profit organisation aimed at solidifying its future as an event benefitting and involving the community of Settle, offering volunteering opportunities for all-comers, and recycling thousands of plastic flowerpots!
You can read more about the festival at:
Website: settleflowerpotfestival.co.uk
Facebook Page: @settleflowerpotfestival
Or by emailing steve@visitsettle.co.uk
15 April – 2 July 2023
Talented local artist Teresa Gordon and local historian Sarah Lister from Settle Graveyard Project returned to the Gallery on the Green this spring with ‘Ribblehead Tales’
For this exhibition the focus moved several miles up the Settle to Carlisle Railway line to Ribblehead. Sarah’s new research gave a fascinating insight into life at the Ribblehead shanty towns during the building of the Settle to Carlisle Railway and a glimpse into the tiny churchyard at Chapel-le-Dale, the final resting place of 75 navvies and many other family members.
The navvies were a colourful and often naughty bunch but provided some heart-warming and often hilarious stories. Teresa’s poignant, clever and witty illustrations ensure visitors enjoyed an alternative perspective of life at Ribblehead.
Teresa and Sarah first exhibited at the gallery in 2021 with a show based on Sarah’s research into the lives of those buried in Settle Graveyard. They featured some of the ‘underdogs’ of Settle, the characters that tend to be forgotten by the history books.
Teresa and Sarah both left careers in education to retire to Settle. They have each fallen in love with the town, its heritage and its people and have found new full time hobbies. Sarah continues her research and delivers numerous talks and graveyard trails to raise money for local charities. Teresa is expanding her repertoire and portfolio by working for a number of local groups.
For more about the project google ‘Settle Graveyard Project, visit ‘Settle Graveyard Project’ Facebook page, or email settleresearch@gmail.com. See some of the research findings on dalescommunityarchives.org.uk.
Teresa and Sarah with the exhibition
The Gallery was closed during the early part of 2023 but opened again in April with an exhibition by local artist Teresa Gordon and historian Sarah Lister telling the story of the people behind the construction of the famous Ribblehead Viaduct. Later in the year the gallery joined in the tenth annual Settle flowerpot festival with a retrospective exhibition showing some of the best and most imaginative of the flowerpot creations.
Later in the year we put on another show by Alex Pilkington, featuring his paintings of bothies on stone, before, once again featuring the all knitted 12 days of Christmas to mark the 2023-24 festive season.
If you would be interested in exhibiting in the gallery, or if you know someone who might be, please contact us by email on: info@galleryonthegreen.org.uk. We would be happy to hear from you.
You can see more about what exhibiting in this small but demanding space involves in the ‘submissions’ section of our homepage About us
Many thanks to all our friends and supporters.
