A METHODIST minister in Bradford will see her rug-making community project receive national recognition.

The Reverend Dr Barbara Glasson set up Weaving Women's Wisdom, a project designed to create a safe space for inter-community groups around faith and life.

She was awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship in 2012 and travelled to Nepal, India and Indonesia to research the scheme, which looked to discover economic regeneration through local enterprise, in particular through weaving.

When she returned to Bradford, she set up 20 women's rug-making groups in the UK, including four in Bradford and others in Cornwall and Birmingham, as well as five in Pakistan.

Each group was invited to make a rug and given a starter pack of materials to celebrate the wise women in their lives and what was the wisest piece of advice they had been given.

Those participating in the project included interfaith forums, schools, Girls' Brigade groups and a book group.

The project focused on the common textiles heritage in Bradford and Pakistani communities.

The process saw women come together in open discussion, allowing them to find their own voice and create a safe space for group members to talk about issues around both their lives and faith.

The rugs used a number of traditional techniques from the UK and Pakistan, including rag rugging and locker hooking.

The Carpet of Wisdom exhibition which followed on from the rug making exercise embarked on a UK tour in 2015 and earlier this year, including Bradford Cathedral, mosques, churches and schools.

The weaving project has now been referenced in Building Better Communities through Global Learning, a report by The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and The Rank Foundation, which will be unveiled at an event in Portcullis House in the House of Commons on June 9.

Rev Glasson, 60, who is team leader at Touchstone Methodist Centre, Merton Street, Bradford, said she was delighted to receive the recognition from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust.

She said: "It's really important for Bradford for the project to receive this national recognition. It is good news.

"I think our work is important, as inter-faith work is different in Yorkshire than it is in other parts of the country.

"It's colourful and interesting.

"I took part in a fact-finding mission to India, Nepal and Indonesia.

"I was looking at styles of weaving projects that were empowering local communities and making a difference.

"Each of the groups designed rugs including Muslims, Christians and Buddhists, all different faiths.

"It started off in City Hall in Bradford but it has been on a UK tour. The exhibition has inspired a lot of interest."

During her initial fact-finding mission in 2012, completed during a sabbatical, Rev Glasson watched Tibetan refugees in Nepal weaving with back strap looms hooked on to door posts.

In Bali she learned dyeing techniques at the Threads of Life Co-operative and in north India she even discovered a Bradford carding machine at a women's co-operative.