Cumbrian rag rugs take centre stage at The Hub

A NEW exhibition will open next weekend with a focus on a very particular type of textile - rugs made of rags.

- BY TED O'NEILL

“Winifred Nicholson, Cumbrian Rag Rugs” opens at The Hub on Saturday and runs until November 16. It will celebrate the English tradition of rag rug making.

Winifred Nicholson (1893-1981) was a painter born into a fine artistic tradition.

She was the daughter of the Liberal Party politicians Charles Roberts and Lady Cecilia Maude Howard, herself the daughter of the politician George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle, and the activist Rosalind Howard.

Winifred started painting as a teenager with her grandfather George Howard, who was a capable amateur painter and a friend of the Pre-Raphaelites William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, and of the Italian landscape painter Nino Costa, founder of the Etruscan School.