• 1911-2001  

    Beryl Dean MBE, ARCA, FSDC

    © The Beryl Dean Archive
  • 1911  

    Beryl was born in Bromley, Kent

    © The Beryl Dean Archive

  • 1917  

    Beryl, left, with her mother and sister.

    One of her earliest memories - Stitching clothes for her dolls.

    © The Beryl Dean Archive
  • 1922-29  

    Bromley High School

    Excelled in Art and Needlework

    © The Beryl Dean Archive

  • 1929-32  

    Royal School of Needlework Distinction for final examination piece.   More information.

    © Gawthorpe Textiles Collection

  • 1932-35  

    Teaching and studying at Bromley School of Art

    New influences: Rebecca Crompton and Elizabeth Grace Thomson.  More information.

    Photo: Robert Kennard  Reproduced with the permission of Twisted Thread. © The Beryl Dean Archive
  • 1934  

    Beryl achieved early success at Exhibitions

    Photo © Iveta Olejkova. Collection of and reproduced with permission of the Embroiderers' Guild

  • 1935  

    Double Distinction in Industrial Design: Leatherwork and Dress design

    Bromley School of Art

    © The Beryl Dean Archive

  • 1935  

    Won a Royal Exhibition Scholarship to study at Royal College of Art.

    Until 1960 the RCA did not have its own premises.  In 1930s it was based within the V&A Museum Building.

    © Royal College of Art

  • 1938  

    Diploma Show, RCA Graduation

    © The Beryl Dean Archive

  • 1939-45  

    Head of Women's Crafts, Eastbourne School of Art.

    Becoming Acting Director

    © The Beryl Dean Archive

  • 1940  

    Began designing and making sets and costumes for a number of wartime ballet companies

    © Iveta Olejkova. The Beryl Dean Archive

  • 1945-46  

    Senior Lecturer, Department of Fine Art, Kings College, Newcastle, University of Durham.

    © Sarah Cossom.  Wikimedia

  • 1947-50  

    With Renee Hetherington set up a Couture Studio in Pimlico, London.

    © Iveta Olejkova. The Beryl Dean Archive

  • Early 1950s  

    Beryl was commissioned by Dorothy Allsopp, Head of Needlework Development Scheme to make exhibition pieces.

    St Peter, 1953.

    Photo © The Beryl Dean Archive, Collection of the V & A Museum.

  • 1951-52  

    Head of Royal School of Needlework

    © Look and Learn / Peter Jackson Collection

  • 1952  

    Hammersmith College of Art and Building at Lime Grove, Shepherds Bush, West London.

    © London Metropolitan Archive

  • 1952  
    © The Beryl Dean Archive

  • 1955  

    Beryl set up the first Ecclesiastical Embroidery Course and led it for the nexxt 20 years.

    © The Beryl Dean Archive

  • 1958  

    Solo Exhibition at British Colour Council, London, opened by Elizabeth Grace Thomson

    © J E Lowe / The Beryl Dean Archive

  • 1958  

    Beryl's first book. Featuring practical contemporary design and technique, it linked historic and modern embroidery and connected church fabric and vestments to modernist architecture.  More information about the book

  • 1958-68  

    10 Years in the making the Hammersmith Cope, designed by Susan Riley, was a class project, managed by Beryl and gifted to St Paul’s Cathedral.    More information on the cope.

    © The Beryl Dean Archive. Reproduced by permission of the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's Cathedral

  • 1959 onwards  

    Numerous commissions followed from cathedrals and churches across Britain. Information about this altar frontal

    Photo © Nigel Roberson. Reproduced with permission of The Priory Church of St. Margaret, King's Lynn

  • 1962  

    USA Lecture Tour

    © The Beryl Dean Archive

  • 1968  

    Organised and curated with Constance Howard "New Ecclesiastical Embroidery" Exhibition at St. Paul’s Cathedral.

    © The Beryl Dean Archive

  • 1969  

    Beryl in her studio at Canonbury Grove, Islington, London. New commission for 5 panels for St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.

    © W Taylor.  The Beryl Dean Archive

  • 1974  

    The Windsor Panels completed

    Photo: Jeremy Marks, © Woodmansterne 1984

  • 1974  

    "Beryl Dean and Her Students" Exhibition at St Andrews Church, Holborn.

    © David Field, The Beryl Dean Archive

  • 1974  

    Beryl married Wilfrid Phillips

    New studio at Thornhill Square, Islington, London

    © The Beryl Dean Archive

  • 1975  

    MBE for Services to Embroidery in the Church

    © The Beryl Dean Archive

  • 1976-77  

    Major collaborative project of Beryl's advanced Embroidery class at Stanhope Institute, London: The Jubilee Cope, a gift to St Paul's Cathedral, Worn by Bishop of London at all Jubilee services since 1977.  More about the cope here

    © Nigel Roberson.  Reproduced with permission of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's Cathedral

  • 1978  

    Broderers Company Midsummer Prize (runner up)

    © The Beryl Dean Archive

  • 1979  

    Retires from Teaching to focus on commissions and writing.

    More information about the book

  • 1980  

    Enthronement cope and canons copes for Canterbury Cathedral designed by Beryl Dean and worked mainly by Elizabeth Elvin.  More information.

    © The Beryl Dean Archive

  • 1980s  

    Beryl began work on some of many commissions she had received from the United States.

    Cope for St Mark's Church, Philadelphia

    © The Beryl Dean Archive

  • 1982  

    Major commission for 'Cathedral in the Forest', Newland, Forest of Dean, in association with long time friend and collaborator, Sylvia Green.  More information.

    © The Beryl Dean Archive Reproduced by permission of the PCC of All Saints, Newland

  • 1983  

    Hanging for East Wall, Chelmsford Cathedral.  More information

    © Nigel Roberson. With permission of the Dean and Chapter of Chelmsford Cathedral

  • 1987  

    Twelfth Night (a Private commission)

    © The Beryl Dean Archive

  • 1990  

    Organised and curated British Ecclesiastical Embroidery Exhibition at St. Paul’s Cathedral opened by Lord Palumbo. Over 190 exhibits and 12 lectures.  More information

    © The Beryl Dean Archive

  • 1991-4  

    Beryl's last large commission, a sculptural piece, incorporating leather work and using glovemaking techniques learnt in 1933.
    Golden Madonna and Altar frontal for Church of All Saints, East Finchley, London.

    © The Beryl Dean Archive

  • 1996  

    Rebecca Crompton and Elizabeth Grace Thomson: Pioneers in stitchery in the 1930s.  
    Beryl Dean co-authored with Pamela Pavitt and self published with the assistance of Thelma Nye.

  • 2011  

    Beryl Dean Gallery at Knitting and Stitching Show, (to mark Beryl’s Birth Centenary) curated by June Hill and Elizabeth Elvin.  More information about the Gallery.