Lace making in Nottingham in 1884

 

This blog is based on an article written by a reporter called Bernard H Becker for The English Illustrated Magazine in 1884. It is not, therefore, an accurate description of lace, lacemaking, lace machines, or even Nottingham, but gives a flavour of how people at the time celebrated the lace industry. Describing the history of the machine lace industry, Becker notes that in 1810 Nottingham was known for the production of machine-made net and tens of thousands of people in the town and the neighbouring counties were employed in needle running and tambouring net. The girls employed in this industry used needles or tambour hooks and thread to embroider patterns on to the net, which was held taught in a frame to make the work easier. He then quotes a story about John Heathcoat being inspired to develop his lace machine after a young woman told him her cousin had been employed in London by a man named Dawson who had made a fortune by making lace using machinery.

Becker was obviously visiting the Birkin works at Kimberley (shown in the image above) gathering material for his article as he notes that ‘it is a pleasant little run by rail to Kimberley from Nottingham and gives an excellent idea of the great recent extension of Nottingham and the surrounding townlets’. He also contrasts the conditions of Lancashire cotton workers with the lacemakers of Nottingham. He notes that the Lancashire mills are huge and the workmen’s homes are small and poor ‘suggesting the wide gulf which separates capital from labour and master from man’. In Nottingham, by contrast, ‘the transition from one condition to another is more gradual’ and workmen can hire machines and set up their own smaller manufacturers and ‘have opportunities of development, and with skill, ingenuity and conduct often succeed’ in bettering their life styles.

Although there are many small enterprises involved in the lace industry. Becker focuses on the ‘great mill at Kimberley’ owned by the Birkin family where he sees lace curtains being made. He comments that many children are employed in the works and the girls in particular are neat, quiet and of a modest demeanour. One of their main jobs is to wind the cotton thread from the spools on to the thin, round bobbins used in the lace machines and you can see a girl and a woman operating the bobbin threading machine in the image above. The work of setting up and running the lace machines is done by men and Becker praises their skilled work. The lace curtains are also designed by men who are trained at the Nottingham School of Art and Design in the studio on the top floor of the factory. The draughtsmen who translate the designs into the instructions for the lace machines are also trained at the Art School and Becker commends the school for the improvements in design it has encouraged. He also praises the conversion of Nottingham Castle into a museum, with help from the South Kensington Museum, which he says has ‘given new impetus to the arts of design’.

Once the lace has been removed from the machine, women are employed to check for holes and broken threads, which are repaired by hand. This drawing by A Morrow shows women mending the lace curtains, while the image at the top of the blog shows them checking the curtains. The lace then requires finishing, which involves starching, bleaching and gassing to remove the fluff from the cotton thread. Overall, Becker seems to have been impressed with the skill and dexterity of all the workers involved in the lace industry and pleasantly surprised by the working conditions and the way the industry had developed in Nottingham.