A BANNER created by unconventional English artist Grayson Perry will be displayed alongside Anglo-Saxon textile treasures as part of a new exhibition.

Death Of A Working Hero, a work inspired by traditional miners’ banners, was created by the cross-dressing artist during a visit to Durham for a TV documentary series on masculinity.

The piece portrays strong men from the past and present, miners and cage fighters, above a funeral symbolising how the high mortality of the pits has been replaced with soaring suicide rates among young men in the former coalfield.

The modern piece will be displayed alongside textile art from across the centuries in the exhibition Textiles: Painting With The Needle which opens at Durham cathedral on Saturday.

Durham Cathedral’s Head of Collections, Lisa Di Tommaso, said: “This latest and much anticipated exhibition, puts on display some of the Cathedral’s richest textiles; rich in their history, their splendour and their symbolism.

“With such a breadth of subject matter from the most modern piece on loan to us by Grayson Perry to our Anglo-Saxon relics, we hope to attract a wide spectrum of visitors to the exhibition ranging from textile scholars and enthusiasts, to those who simply wish to admire the beauty of these splendid and often eye-catching pieces.”

Among the treasures are two pieces retrieved from St Cuthbert’s tomb when it was opened in 1827, an Anglo-Saxon silk church vestment dating back to the Eighth Century and decorated with Northumbrian braid and a Spanish silk shawl decorated with double-headed peacocks though to date to 1100.

Perhaps the highlight of the display is the Coronation Cope, worn by the Bishop of Durham at the coronations of the last four British monarchs, most recently by Bishop Michael Ramsay at Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953.

Another is the cope commissioned by the Cathedral for the visit of Charles I in 1633, a rare example of 17th century church needlework.

Silver gilt thread from the grave of William of St Calais are also displayed alongside the bible belonging to Lady Arabella Stuart, cousin of King James I who was arrested in 1610 for marrying without the King’s permission.

She escaped from her guards while travelling to Durham, but was recaptured and died in the Tower of London. She embroidered the cover of the bible herself.

Textiles: Painting with the needle is part of the Open Treasures exhibition at Durham Cathedral and runs until February 11.