Awhile back on Daniel Mitsui's site,
The Lion and the Cardinal, I came across some 15th century English vestments which originally belonged to Whalley Abbey, a Cistercian abbey in Whalley, Lancashire, England. At the time of the dissolution of the monasteries, these vestments then came to reside in the possession of the Towneley family, a recusant Catholic family in England.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaN90sRZCVq9s9R1Oqn3YViGuVyNAnTdO6OvPQ4YtmYLlPi2UTUzAn_2Ddnl1qn4WIhZzI2snbMVPGacsWTDCbCi6A7td8hHr1x0IhTjRee4wXxCFHcdg4KxTTL95emk66cSJs0g/s400-rw/800px-Towneley_Hall_edit.jpg)
Towneley Hall
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ2wwpkgGFgOmplVMbQ8kkTr3WV4SHK_Z5ySKxNciAFOc2p3IQbIK4juMXfUirZxOXJfSFbRFDSEYaTixj0bAKCT3YxgmIba3nZHz1AJhzJ0dgL4rnfih5XTMizbL81EtLIX2yHw/s400-rw/chapel.jpg)
The Chapel in Towneley HallThe vestments have beautiful embroidered orphreys with scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary, and incorporate within their basic design red fruit -- which the Towneley Society identify as strawberries, but as one of our readers astutely observed, may also be pomegranates.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1fP50G7Ea34bVkuLy0N-2wBgoomC0uC0SR7_WG2RXjzfa-fpZaR2YHsjbndXkFtKk1iGT3x_XrTKhUYSd0RmWKPzkJOE8Ljf4hRQy-xl1PYJ-vG9vKsb6xtN9eJXjsuZ6lQ0TTQ/s400-rw/DSCN3770.JPG)