Elly Bagnall - Acting Co-Chair, joined 2020
Elly Bagnall is one of four sisters. “We all had ballet lessons, but I had to give up when I was six. My mother realised I was only doing it for the chocolate. All the others still dance though. One’s a professional pole-dance teacher in Beckton.”
Elly was always “creative” but in a different way. “As a kid I was mad about art and majored in history of art at uni. For my last birthday I got a big embroidery stand. It’s in the sitting room. My favourite way of winding down after a long day is to cross-stitch or embroider. I’m working through a set of mini-masterpieces of famous paintings, and I also like designing my own patterns.”
I am told that Elly is an avid letter-writer. “I have never liked the phone and have always preferred the pace of communication in letter-writing. I write to my grandparents regularly but also have pen-pals in America and Australia. I decorate the borders of the letters and the envelopes with collage and stickers. I like using green ink and fountain pens. I have a Parker and a Lamy pen. I enjoy thinking of the unused Biros kept out of landfill.”
Elly lives in Hither Green with her husband and a very new son. It seems fitting that this very natural craftswoman manages the house where William Morris lived and worked – Red House in Bexleyheath. She is certainly a big fan of this National Trust house (and the other she is responsible for - Carlyle’s House in Chelsea).
“I come from a big family that couldn’t afford NT membership, so our visits were always just to the parks and gardens. Early on I had a sense of the fascinating otherness of historic houses. Now my professional mission is to make their uniqueness accessible. I’m big on the history of people eating their breakfast and doing their laundry. And William Morris seems like such a nice guy! It’s strange he is massive in Japan and not so much in Lewisham.”
Elly started as an STfL Area Rep in 2020 and is now acting Co-Chair of the Board of Trustees. I ask how her background and experience is helping her in the role. “Well I love trees, obviously! Otherwise I think it’s that I’ve always been super-comfortable with lists. I love making them and then working through them. And maybe on a deep level it’s been helpful to have the experience of being so close to my three sisters. My husband is amazed at the way we still carry on, piling onto the same sofa with the dogs. I’d like to say it imbues me with an innate sense of diplomacy and a willingness to compromise, but I’m not sure it’s true!”
Interview by Dom Eliot.