DORSET " BUTTONY." 73 



The names of the wire buttons were mites, bird's-eye, ' 

 spangles, shirt, jams, waistcoats, and outsizes, and four 

 different-sized wire. The wires or rings were made from a 

 roll of wire, burned, and twisted on a spindle, the nipped ends 

 put together and soldered by dipping in hot melted solder. 

 This work was done by expert girls or boys called " winders 

 and dippers," and others called " stringers " counted the 

 rings and threaded them in lots of 144. The brass wire was 

 from Birmingham, brought in waggons with very wide wheels, 

 a ton, or ton and a-half, at a load. The price of the best work 

 was 3s. 6d. or 3s. 9d. a gross, and it was done by the Mowlems 

 and other families at Whitchurch, who could make a gross a 

 day. 



The lower sorts of buttons were sometimes soiled, and this 

 was remedied by placing them on yellow paper ; the next 

 quality on dark blue paper ; and the very best were papered 

 on pink. There were about a dozen expert paperers in 

 Milborne Da vises and Lanes chiefly. The papers were 

 had from a paper company in Upper Thames Street, London ; 

 some women could earn double as much as others, an ordinary 

 worker earning from 7s. 6d. to 9s. a week. 



This flourishing trade was not, however, destined to last, 

 and it is curious that the year of the great Industrial Exhibi- 

 tion in London should have seen the death blow given to the 

 famous Dorset industry. Mr. Case shall relate it in his own 

 words : 



" Perhaps you would like to learn something of Ashton's 

 patent machine button and its disastrous effect on the hand- 

 made button. It was in the year of the great Exhibition 

 (1851) that it was whispered among the people of East Dorset 

 (for there were only a few stray buttoners west of 

 Puddletown), and the smash came at last, 1851-2-3, worse 

 and worse. We employed in wire-makers, paperers, and 

 button workers, from 800 to 1,000 ; but they were soon in a 

 state of poverty, some starving, and hundreds were sent off 

 to Perth, Moreton Bay, and Quebec by the noblemen of the 

 county ; about 350 left Shaftesbury. My uncle and father 



