In message <42023D74.000025.03844@MRC>, Chris and Odette <chrisandodette @blueyonder.co.uk> writes > Hi > >I wanted to ask if any one had any info on the lace makers in the Steeple >Claydon area of Bucks around the mid 1800's. >I have about 15 families now connected to my STEVENS and HAZELL lines, and >almost every female of a working age was a lace maker. This was the staple female employment in most of Bucks for centuries, all of them working from home, in between other chores. Small boys also made lace, but went into farming as they grew older and clumsier. The standard system was using a large stuffed lace pillow, on which parchment patterns were laid and pins placed according to them. Cotton (or rarely silk) thread attached to bone bobbins was twisted round the pins in this pattern and miraculously stayed put when the pins were removed. The trade was profitable to about 1820, when some spoilsport invented a machine, at first producing coarse quality, then finer, almost indistinguishable from hand made bobbin lace and much faster, therefore cheaper, to make. In the very north of the county, lace workshops were established to combat this competition, but the hand made industry went into decline by the end of the C19. Lacemen supplied the cotton thread and collected the finished yards of lace from the women's homes. From being better paid than farm labourers in the C18, the prices and profits declined sharply after about 1830. There were always a few old ladies who made lace after the rest had given up, and they were encouraged by the gentry, since there was a cachet in owning hand made lace. The craft is still carried on by a few, not commercially, but as a middle class hobby, and the lace groups demonstrate their skills at craft fairs. It is very impressive and some beautiful work is made. (It does sell, at these fairs, for large prices) There is an excellent Shire Album (sold on our bookstall)_ on Pillow Lace Making. -- Eve McLaughlin Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society

At 12:24 AM +0000 4/2/05, Eve McLaughlin wrote: >There were always a few old ladies who made lace after the rest had >given up, and they were encouraged by the gentry, since there was a >cachet in owning hand made lace. The craft is still carried on by a few, >not commercially, but as a middle class hobby, and the lace groups >demonstrate their skills at craft fairs. It is very impressive and some >beautiful work is made. (It does sell, at these fairs, for large prices) My great-grandmother, Jane Garner (born 1837 in Water Eaton), was described (described herself?) as a lace maker in the 1881 census of Water Eaton. Does that mean she was pretty good at it - or, maybe she was just a stubborn old lady? Regards, Mike King. -- _____________________________________________________________________ Michael King 255 McClellan Road, Ottawa ON K2H 8N7, Canada ( Phone (613) 828-3781 2 Fax (613) 728-1933 + Email miking@sympatico.ca The box said, Win2K or better required....so I bought a Mac

>My great-grandmother, Jane Garner (born 1837 in Water Eaton), was >described (described herself?) as a lace maker in the 1881 census of >Water Eaton. Does that mean she was pretty good at it - or, maybe she >was just a stubborn old lady? It means that she was doing the only work she knew how or conveniently could - the pay was dismal by then, and some dealers got away with exchanging yards of beautifully made lace for a hunk of tired cheese. -- Eve McLaughlin Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society

At 4:08 PM +0000 4/2/05, Eve McLaughlin wrote: > >>My great-grandmother, Jane Garner (born 1837 in Water Eaton), was >>described (described herself?) as a lace maker in the 1881 census of >>Water Eaton. Does that mean she was pretty good at it - or, maybe she >>was just a stubborn old lady? >It means that she was doing the only work she knew how or conveniently >could - the pay was dismal by then, and some dealers got away with >exchanging yards of beautifully made lace for a hunk of tired cheese. > Many thanks for the reply. I hope it was a bit more than that, although I think I know (from dimly remembered conversations between my grandparents and various great aunts/uncles) that the family was considered impoverished, even for the standards of the time. My great grandfather, Francis King, was an only child. His mother, Frances, appears to have died (or run off) when he was small (can't find her burial) and his father, William, never re-married (could be because she was still alive, somewhere?). The two of them lived together (nobody else enumerated in the family in 1851) in Water Eaton. My grandfather, Frank, took off for London (NW5) around 1900 when he found a job there with the railway. Regards, Mike King. -- _____________________________________________________________________ Michael King 255 McClellan Road, Ottawa ON K2H 8N7, Canada ( Phone (613) 828-3781 2 Fax (613) 728-1933 + Email miking@sympatico.ca The box said, Win2K or better required....so I bought a Mac