Record-breaking coat making? All things sheep and shearful? The New Brewery Arts centre weaves its magic on John Hudson

B ack in 1811, Sir John Throckmorton of Buck- land House, Newbury, won a £1,000 guinea bet when he assembled a team to make a coat, taking the garment "from sheep to wearer" between sunrise and sunset.

The deed was done in 13 hours, 20 minutes – and at the New Brewery Arts centre in Cirencester a week tomorrow, they plan to better both him and the Berkshire team that completed the task in an hour less in 1991.

It's all part of a Celebration of Making, a weekend in which the arts centre lays on a variety of wool-related activities to tie in with last two days of its current exhibition.

Sheep: From Lamb to Loom, with paintings and drawings by Kate Lynch and sound recordings by Alastair Goolden, stems from a three-year artistic investigation on the Somerset Levels.

The big event next Saturday is a Wool Dance, in which felt flowers made by some 130 children from four Cirencester primary schools will be turned into a felted carpet by the power of visitors' feet.

"Basically, felt is made by putting pressure on dampened wool," says Brewery Arts' Annie Gould.

"The children have already made the flowers here, and now the idea is for them to be incorporated into a length of wool laid out on the floor by the constant tramping of feet.

"The flowers are in all colours, so it will be interesting to see how it works out. We plan to display it in our theatre for a while, so that everyone can admire their own footwork."

The Coat in a Day project is scheduled from 5am to 7pm on the Sunday, though it will need to be wrapped up some time before then if it is to beat both previous records.

"We'll be shearing three Jacob's sheep at sunrise," says Annie.

"Ten of the very best spinners from the Gloucestershire Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers will be ready and waiting for the first hanks of wool, and as soon as they have spun enough yarn, New Brewery Arts' weavers Sarah Beadsmoore and Tim Parry-Williams will turn the fleece into a stunning piece of cloth.

"Then, after it has been washed, our resident textile designers Dorothy Reglar and Liz Lippiatt will cut the coat and finish the garment, so this is a wonderful opportunity to watch all these ancient processes and see a coat made before your very eyes.

"The design will be our own; we won't be trying to replicate Sir John's coat."

The Midlands folkie Bryn Phillips will be singing his Throckmorton Song throughout the day – "There was the shearer the spinner and the loom weaver/ The dyer and the drier with their hands chapped sore/ And then there was the tailor, the tailor with his dummy/ And Good Sir John Throckmorton in the coat that he wore..." – and there will also be music from the Corinium Players.

Bryn was inspired to write the song by a visit to the Throckmortons' Coughton Court, near Alcester, Warwickshire, where the coat is now displayed.

Other events next weekend include felt making, creating creepy-crawlies instead of flowers; "extreme knitting", with giant needles and plenty of wool; and talks throughout the weekend in which experts discuss the history of sheep and the textile industry.

Brewery Arts' celebration ties in with the chamber of commerce's I Love Cirencester weekend, in which 65 local businesses have banded together to give the already stunningly attractive market town an extra buzz.

There will be street entertainers and ventures in the shops that range from live window models to special offers, raffles and lucky dips.

A Sheep Trail will also be organised around the town to encourage families to explore some of its centuries-old corners, while at 2.30pm on Sunday, the Big Brunch Band will be blowing up a storm of the Abbey Grounds bandstand.

Whether Baa Baa Black Sheep is on the programme remains to be seen.

New Brewery Arts' "Celebration of Making" and the traders' "I Love Cirencester" will take place next weekend, June 20 and 21.