WELCOME

Helen Leighton-Rose was once a biologist. She is now an historian and an artist.  

She lives on the edge of the Northumberland National Park, viewing the windswept Cheviots Hills everyday.

Helen is a PhD candidate in History at the University of Northumbria in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where she gained her Master’s Degree in 2019.

Now in the fourth year of a part time PhD, her research has expanded to explore women’s agency and subversion in the period 1740-1870. ‘From Kirk to Committee: The Impact of Administrative Change on Southeastern Scottish Borders Women’s Lives, 1707-1870′ explores the attempted control of women’s bodies, minds and words by the Scottish Kirk and subsequent secular committees. Of interest are the changes wrought by industrialisation in the area.

She has worked as a professional artist since 2001. Her practise centres on the use of fabric and stitch, with a specialism in free motion embroidery. She was once a wedding photographer, she now prefers landscapes, they don’t disappear to the bar.

She has taught and exhibited internationally; as a C&G Embroidery tutor, an invited artist to the Fashion & Embroidery show at the NEC; at Wallington National Trust House; Paxton House, The Border Textile Towerhouse to name a few. Published in a variety of magazines and books she now concentrates on exhibiting working as a freelance as a tutor and lecturer.