WITH the help of funding from a generous donor, the clergy of Halifax Minster, in Wakefield diocese, are now gorgeously arrayed in new vestments designed by Graeme Willson, who is known for his work at York Minster.

He took as his starting point John the Baptist, to whom the Minster is dedicated, and also the geometric austerity of the Minster's Commonwealth window, and the vivid colours of the Victorian east window (Cromwell did away with their medieval coloured glass). His designs were then passed to Juliet Hemingray, in Derby, who has been making ecclesiastical robes for 13 years.

The Vicar, Canon Hilary Barber, says that because Halifax was the centre of the textile industry, it is right that the church should be celebrating the arts and crafts communities around it.