l86 STRAW-PLAITING — A LOST ESSEX INDUSTRY. 



children in the north-western parts of the county," and Mr. 

 Christy's statistics show that so late as 1871 there were many 

 people in Essex engaged in the trade, either as plaiters, dealers, 

 or shop-keepers, and it lingered on here and there for nearly 

 twenty more years. 2 Now the trade is absolutely dead in our 

 county, and in the towns and villages of North Herts, where 

 it lingers, id. per score is all that the dealers give the plaiters, 

 who rarely earn more than 6d. a week, except for specially 

 fine work such as the villagers of Offley turn out, thereby 

 realizing a rather larger payment. 3 



Passing from statistics of the trade to the processes by which 

 straw became a fit material for hats and bonnets, we have first 

 to picture the crop on the farm. Farmers who laid themselves 

 out for the trade grew wheat producing a fine straw suitable for 

 plaiting, and it was reaped by hand with care to avoid bruising 

 the straws. The breaking action of the reaping machine is fatal 

 to stems intended for plaiting. 4 In the earliest days of plaiting 

 the farmers (as I have said) charged a nominal price for the 

 straw, having first cut off the heads of corn, relying on the wheat 

 to repay them, as well it might in the days of ,£5 a quarter. 

 But as the demand grew, the farmer found it better to prepare 

 and cut the straw into lengths himself. Whether at the farm or 

 in the cottage, the first process was, by rake and hand, to remove 

 the flags or leaf growths from the sheaf of straw. The rake 

 shown is the wreck of one long used in the North of Essex. The 

 straw, being thus cleaned of superfluous growth, was next cut 

 into lengths between the joints, the latter being cast aside. 

 Often, however, we note that the joint is on some of the straws, 

 where it certainly ought not to be. 



The straw being thus cut into lengths, usually about nine 

 inches, it is tied up into bundles such as the one shown, which 

 costs id. in Hitchin market, the price the plaiters pay for it 

 there. Bundles in her apron, the plaiter went to her cottage, 

 when in some districts it was customary to bleach the straws, 

 but as the bleaching process in Essex and Herts usually took 



2 Miss M. Ruggles-Brise writes that till about fifteen years ago straw- plaiting was 

 extensively practised in Finchingfield. 



3 The villagers of Offley have retained in that little centre the traditions of their 

 grandmothers as to the production of fine work worthy to compete with what was known 

 in early Victorian days as Leghorn straw plait. 



4 Although Essex farmers grew and sold some straw for plaiting, the North Hertford- 

 shire men appear to have made this more specially their trade, so much so that it was not an 

 unusual occurrence for an Essex dealer to buy £100 worth of cut straws in Hitchin market 

 and carry them to the Essex village plaiters. 



