190 STRAW-PLAITING — A LOST ESSEX INDUSTRY. 



The next operation is the removal of the projecting splint 

 ends (Fig. 6 a) by the use of scissors or shears, and then the 

 mill or the roller is again requisitioned and the plait is passed 

 through or under till sufficiently flat. 5 



But even when passed through the mill the plait is not 

 finished, for it retains the yellow brown tint of nature's painting. 

 This has to be removed by bleaching, a process formerly carried 

 out by the plaiters, but now done by the factors. The old plan 

 was simple, just a wooden box, a foot or two long and 

 proportionately broad, with a few bars inside, half way up its 

 height, on which the plait was laid, while underneath was placed 

 a pan of live charcoal, or glowing embers, on which a few pinches 

 of brimstone were cast. The door or lid being shut, the box 

 was covered with old clothes or carpet to keep in the fumes, and 

 n a couple of hours the plait was removed white and ready for 

 market. (Fig. 6 b.) 



FIG. 5. — HAND ROLLER FOR FLATTENING THE STRAW. 



As a collection of gaudy-coloured plaits is exhibited, I must 

 explain that the villagers of Offley occasionally make up this 

 material for the Luton trade. I am told that the factor's agent 

 brings a pattern book of designs to some clever worker, who 

 makes up plaits till the result is satisfactory to the agent. She 

 then proceeds to instruct the other villagers, and the plait is in a 

 few days ready for the factor who has provided the material. 

 But as part of the material used is a foreign fibre, the subject is 

 perhaps outside the scope of this paper. 



Returning to the old Essex straw-plaiting, those of us who 

 have seen women and children at their cottage doors on a fine 

 summer day, busily plaiting straw, cannot but feel some sadness 

 that this homely industry should have been killed by the 



5 But fashion having occasionally decreed that a lady's hat should be decorated by 

 having slightly projecting ridges on its surface, it became necessary to produce what is 

 called a whip-cord edge to the plait. Therefore, the upper roller of some mills is made 

 with a little rebate on one end. The whip-cord edge of the plait projecting over this rebate, 

 or groove, would not be crushed flat as the rest. 



