A LONG-FORGOTTEN archive of needlework is to go on display at the University of Edinburgh.

The embroidery collection includes birds, an elaborate Chinese headdress and the striking image of an angel adorned with gold thread.

Other items to be displayed from today are the remnants of a 400-year-old Italian bed hanging, an ornate replica of a 19th-century man’s wedding smock and a vibrant shroud dedicated to the patron saint of embroidery, St Clair.

The Touching Stitches exhibition will go on display in the university’s main library, having been part of the Needlework Development Scheme which was disbanded in 1961.