INDUSTRIES 



GLOVES 



The name of* Ganterie ' is met with in several 

 deeds as early as the beginning of the fourteenth 

 century.' It was the name given to the east side 

 of what is now called the Drapery in Northamp- 

 ton ; this was the locality for the sellers of 

 gloves. In 1556 a regulation was made that 

 ' no Glover wash no skins in the high river nor 

 without the West Bridge, nor dry any Wool 

 upon the Grass in the Foot-Meadow, but shall 

 wash their skins in the pit under the Bridge near 

 to Dallington.' A fine of forty pence was the 

 penalty, and the like sum for hanging skins on 

 the bridge. 



The members of the Glovers' Gild seem to 

 have lost their privileges for a time about the 

 end of the sixteenth century. Their trading 

 rights were taken from them, and leave was 

 granted to ' foreigners ' to buy and sell in the 

 town ; but in 15 94 their privileges were re- 

 stored to them by an order of the assembly. 



Thirty-five years later another order of the 

 assembly was made that no glover should hang 

 or place any skins or leather upon St. Thomas's 

 Well, hedge, or any part of the town commons. 



In 161 9 great complaint was made that the 

 glovers, as well as whittawers, parchment-makers, 

 and others, washed their skins in the river and 

 made paths across the cow-meadow. A fine of 

 6s. 8d. was imposed upon 'any one making any 

 way or any passage into or through the said 

 Meadow, or washing any manner of Skins or 

 Wools in the high river, or in any brooks about 

 the Meadow.' 



The trade of glover lingered on, not only at 

 Northampton but in the smaller towns of Tow- 

 cester, Daventry, and Kettering, till within the 

 last fifty years ; and parchment-makers were 

 living in the villages of Wilby, Irthlingborough, 

 Weldon, Brigstock, and Gretton, as late as 

 1850. 



WHIPS 



In the eighteenth century Daventry was the 

 centre of the whip-making industry in North- 

 amptonshire, which can be easily understood 

 when we remember that the little town formed 

 the junction of four important main roads over 

 which was a constant flow of traffic, for it is 

 stated that no less than eighty mail and stage 

 coaches passed through Daventry daily. In 

 1809 there was still, according to the report 

 furnished to the Board of Agriculture, a con- 

 siderable whip manufactory at Daventry, ' in 

 which, I am informed, some good properties 

 have been acquired. Two master-manufacturers 

 each employ an outrider and a number of work- 

 men.'^ That its importance as a whip-making 

 centre continued as far as the second decade of 

 the nineteenth century seems to be shown by a 

 curious action at law undertaken by the corpora- 

 tion of the town against one John Dickens. 

 Dickens, not being a freeman of the borough of 

 Daventry, commenced business in the town as a 

 whip manufacturer. The corporation, relying 

 on a charter, 1575, demanded that he should 

 either relinquish his business or become a free- 

 man of the borough. Dickens refused to do 



' In a rental of the abbey of St. James of the reign 

 of Edward I we find among the kitchener's rents, 

 'De Alano le Bourser in Gaunteria, xiiiji/.' Add. 

 R. 6,117 (B. M.). In a deed of the same reign is 

 mentioned Roger de Wolaston, Glover of Northamp- 

 ton (Add. Ch. 22,349), while in another deed of 

 1316a tenement is situated ' in Rengo Cirotecariorum ' 

 (Add. Ch. 22,361). 



' Pitt, Gen. Survey -ligric. Norihants, 243. 



either, and the corporation proceeded against him, 

 claiming ;^500 damages. The case was brought 

 to trial in March, 1825, and resulted in a verdict 

 for the plaintiffs, damages one farthing. 



With the introduction of railways and the 

 gradual removal of coaches from the road Daven- 

 try's whip industry declined, boot manufacturing 

 gradually taking its place. By the year 1847 

 there were only two whip-makers in the town. 



In 1874 Messrs. H. Sharp & Sons were the 

 sole representatives, and a few years later they 

 removed their business to the village of Floore, 

 where they still continue. 



About 1840 Mr. Henry Major commenced 

 business as a whip manufacturer in Northampton. 

 He had been working for a few years for a 

 Mr. Crawley of Wollaston, a whip-maker of then 

 many years' standing, whose business, continued 

 by his son, was relinquished in 1856. Mr. Major 

 had learnt his trade at Salisbury, and had a 

 thoroughly practical knowledge of all its branches, 

 as also has his son, Mr. George Major (born 1841), 

 who still (1906) continues the business inherited 

 from his father. 



In the year 1 86 1 Mr. Thomas J. Crawley 

 started whip-making in Peterborough. He was 

 the son of Mr. William Crawley, who was born 

 at Bedford in 1836, who served his apprentice- 

 ship under a Mr. George Crawley in that town 

 (to whom, though of the same name, he was not 

 related). 



He afterwards went as improver to Messrs. 

 Dickens Bros, of Daventry, a very noted firm in 

 those days. Returning to Bedford he commenced 



33' 



