A Community’s Common Ground

Words by J Miller

Edited by Georgina Way

Common Ground: Sleaford’s Shared Stories was curated by The Hub (the national centre for craft and design), alongside Sleaford Museum, demonstrating the past, present, and people of Sleaford through several media. According to their website, “By unearthing, reinterpreting, and reframing selected pieces from the Museum’s collection, the artworks challenge us

to see aspects of our local heritage from different perspectives.” The exhibition will run from 18 Jul – 8 Nov 2026 over two separate sites. Over the Summer Holiday, I visited The Hub, one of the two spaces showing this exhibition. The Hub endeavours to bring together the Sleaford, wider North Kesteven, and Lincolnshire communities with contemporary art made by locals, for

locals.

The first piece that caught my attention was a piece suspended from the ceiling. It is a large piece of material made to look as though it is floating in an open space. This is a beautiful tribute to the industrial and agricultural history of Sleaford delivered in a tasteful, elegant way. To create this piece, the artist collected old bags from (what had been) Lincolnshire’s seed factories to be cut up and stitched back together, like a patchwork quilt, in homage to the once booming seed industry in the area. The curation of this piece is incredibly intentional, with the piece being cleverly positioned to allow the light to fall through the fabric, so that parts of the writing, embroidery, and the different colours of the bags are visible to the viewer. These aspects complement each other in such a delicate way that viewers have come to love and reflect on.

Land That Carries Lour Histories, Madara Vimba, 2026, Image Taken By Author

In the back corner of the room, I found two long pieces of paper stretched out inside a cabinet, with photographs accompanying them either side. This piece was made by a gentleman named Jack R Thompson, who used to wash the windows of the businesses on Southgate during the 1930s 1940s, later in the 1990s, he recreated the street in a sketch from memory. He was not an artist before this, and appaently never consulted a single photograph for the duration of the project. Despite this, his recreation was incredibly accurate and the photographs, which have been chosen to accompany these sketches, were selected specifically to prove just this. Each individual shop is decorated intently with vivid colour, showing still-popular brands (such as Clarks, Boots, or W.H. Smith), alongside notable town icons that have since been lost to memory for most of the locals. It is currently owned by the Sleaford Museum but will remain on display for the duration of the exhibition.

Sample of A Facade of Southgate, Jack R Thompson, 1999, Image Taken By Author

Another artwork I found to be of note was a beautiful model recreation of Sleaford Castle, a building which was constructed on the order of the Bishop of Lincoln. Only the impressions left in the ground from the monument, as well as one small corner which requires support to prevent further damage, remain. Created by Steve Giulliari in 2024, the model is a realistic recreation of the chaos of life that would have inhabited the castle in its hay day, featuring figurines of people carrying out day to day tasks, both moats, the drawbridges used to cross them, and the Great Barn positioned just outside of its walls. After seeing the model in The Hub, I visited the castle site. It is known to have been visited widely by royalty including the likes of Henry VIII, who visited with his then wife Catherine Howard, after the Pilgramage of Grace.

Sleaford Castle Model, Steve Giulliari, 2024, Image By Author

The Remains of Sleaford Castle, Image Taken By Author

Each piece is a testament to the everyday people, who have lived and worked in Sleaford, as well as the wider area of Lincolnshire. It highlights specific industries and individuals that changed the history and function of the area in more meaningful ways then it may have first been considered. It is a beautiful collection that many more people should see.

The exhibition will remain open until November 8 th 2026. If you are interested, click on the link to the website to find out more:

https://hub-sleaford.org.uk/exhibitions/common-ground-sleafords-shared-stories