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In 1839 Eliza Gibbons stitched a silken sampler of Chieveley Church. Her artistic ability was somewhat better than her spelling as she identified the church as that of Chievely. The sampler depicts the Church of St. Mary the Virgin at Chieveley and is surrounded by religious texts and foliate motifs. A stylised leaf pattern border encompasses the central embroidery. It shows the church before the fire which damaged the nave in 1873. If one looks closely at the edges of the sampler the rust marks left by nails (from the original framing?) can still be seen. Her rendering of our church is quite accurate, even down to the flock of rooks flying home to roost, and it is recognizable still today.
Eliza was the older daughter of William Gibbons and Martha Head, and was born 1821-1822, and baptised on 13th January 1822 at Leckhampstead Chapel, the old Church of England chapelry which used to stand at Chapel Farm. Whether the old church became derelict before 1859 when the new church of St James was opened at Leckhampstead is not known.
Her father was a wealthy man who worked as a shoemaker and later as a farmer on their three acres of land at Hillgreen; this land was taken over during the Second World War by the Abbott family and for some reason was never returned. Eliza and her sister Ann grew up at Hillgreen in the family home, Yew Tree Cottage. This lovely black and white thatched house, which was built about 1503, belonged to the family for nearly 300 years; it still exists but is now known as the Old Manor House, and is the home of Mr Kevin De Brett, owner of De Bretts Hairdressers in Newbury.
When she worked her sampler Eliza would have been 17, and we can speculate that she may have sat with her sister on one of the gravestones in the churchyard, whilst making the sketches of the south side of the church for her design. Eliza and her family probably walked from their home down the old burial road to Chieveley via what is presently known as Bardown.
We do not know whether Eliza went to school, but she was probably taught to sew by her mother. Although the back of her sampler is a tangle of loose ends and knots, she went on to become an accomplished needlewoman, and she and her sister are recorded as being dressmakers in the Census of 1851. Eliza may also have sewn the impressive crinoline that she is wearing in this photograph; this dress and others were still in the family home until the 1950s when they were given away to a drama group.
The sisters' expertise as needlewomen is confirmed in a letter dated 21 July 1955 from Pauline Mills to Gwen Taylor: "The Miss Gibbons I fancy were first cousins of Grandfather Taylor... I Believe they were expert needlewomen in the days before sewing machines, and they made sheets for the Prince Consort..."
Neither of the sisters ever married, and Eliza died early in 1907 and was buried on 18th January 1907 at St James Church in Leckhampstead, where her gravestone may still be seen. In her will Eliza left her house and three acres of ground to her nieces Mary Ann and Rachel Taylor, as her sister Ann had died some years previously.
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