A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



woman in her own house ; the children began 

 sometimes at the tender age of four. The mis- 

 tress insisted on a certain amount of work being 

 done, and if moral suasion was not sufficient a 

 cane was ready for use. The other duties of the 

 mistress were to prick the parchment (on which 

 the pattern had been previously designed), also to 

 buy the materials for the work, to wind the 

 bobbins by means of a small wheel and strap, and, 

 finally, to sell the lace to the lace-buyer, deduct- 

 ing a small sum for house-room, firing, candles, 

 etc. Boys were sometimes sent to these schools 

 until they were able to find other employment. 

 In the Hiitory of Lace by Mrs. Palliser, a very 

 full description is given of the once-famous lace 

 school of Spratton. She says : — 



' The girls left the day school at the age of eight years 

 and joined the lace school, and here the hours were from 

 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the summer, and from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. 

 in the winter. Half an hour was allowed for break- 

 fast and for tea, and one hour for dinner, so that there 

 were ten hours for actual work. The girls had to 

 stick ten pins a minute, or six hundred an hour; and 

 if at the end of the day they were five pins behind 

 they had to work for another hour. On 5?turdays, 

 however, they had a half-holiday. 



They paid twopence a week (or threepence in 

 winter) for lights, and in return they received the 

 money realized from the sale of the lace they made, and 

 they could earn about sixpence a day. Pay-day was a 

 great event ; it came once a month. 



In the evenings eighteen girls worked by the one 

 tallow candle, value one penny ; the " candle-stool " 

 stood about as high as an ordinary table with four legs. 

 In the middle of this was what was known as the " pole- 

 board," with six holes in a circle and one in the centre. 

 In the centre hole was a long stick, with a socket for 

 the candle at one end and peg-holes through the sides, 

 so that it could be raised or lowered at will. In the 

 other six holes were placed pieces of wood hollowed 

 out like a cup, and into each of these was placed a 

 bottle made of very thin glass and filled with water. 

 These bottles acted as strong condensers or lenses, and 

 the eighteen girls sat round the table, three to each 

 bottle, their stools being upon different levels, the 

 highest nearest the bottle, which threw the light down 

 upon the work like a burning-glass. In the day-time 

 as many as thirty girls, and sometimes boys, would 

 work in a room about twelve feet square, with two 

 windows, and in the winter they could have no fire for 

 lack of room. 



A "down" in Northamptonshire is the parchment 

 pattern, generally about twelve inches long. . . . The 

 pillow is a hard, round cushion stuffed with straw, and 

 well hammered to make it hard for the bobbins to 

 rattle on. It is then covered with the butcher- 

 blue piUow-cloth " all over " ; a " lace-cloth " of the 

 same for the lace to lie on goes over the top ; then 

 follows the lace-paper to pin it in as made, covered 

 with the " lacing," which is a strip of bright blue print. 

 The " hinder " of blue linen covers up all behind, the 

 " worker " keeping the parchment clean in front 

 where the hands rest. A bobbin-bag and scissors 

 are then tied on one side and a pin-cushion on the 

 top ; a cloth " heller " is thrown over the whole when 

 not used.' 



The villagers usually sold their lace to dealers 

 or lace-buyers, from whom they were often 

 obliged to purchase their thread at exorbitant 

 prices. These dealers would travel from village 

 to village buying up the completed lengths, and 

 in many cases making large profits on their trans- 

 actions. They would also buy all the output of 

 the lace schools. 



In common with all industries the lace-makers 

 had their yearly festival, which they shared with 

 the weavers, St. Catherine's Day, locally known 

 as ' Cattern.' It is thought by some to have 

 been chosen in honour of Catherine of Aragon, 

 as she is credited by tradition with having done 

 her utmost to encourage lace-making in Bedford- 

 shire and the adjoining counties, but possibly it 

 has a much earlier origin. 



The children in the lace schools also claimed 

 holidays on the days dedicated to St. Thomas and 

 St. Andrew. 



The Franco-German war of 1870— i caused 

 sudden demand in the English lace-market, and 

 prices went up for a time, but during the last 

 twenty or thirty years the lace industry has 

 been threatened with total extinction. The 

 causes were several, the chief being the intro- 

 duction of machine-made cheap laces, foreign 

 competition, a gradual rise in the scale of wages 

 on all sides, the many new employments opening 

 to women which took them from the villages to 

 the towns, while the rapid changes of fashion 

 called for a less expensive article than real lace. 

 Finally the operation of the Education Act in- 

 terfered with the long apprenticeship to the trade, 

 and as the old workers died off none took their 

 places. 



Within the last few years a vigorous attempt 

 has been made to revive this and other village 

 industries in the county. The Home Arts and 

 Industries Association for Northamptonshire, and 

 the Midland Lace Association have both been 

 started with this aim in view. The Lace Association 

 endeavours to stimulate and improve the local 

 manufacture of pillow-lace, to provide lace- 

 workers with greater facilities for the sale of their 

 work at more remunerative prices, to provide 

 instruction in lace-making, to save the old designs 

 of the point-lace and discourage the coarser 

 Maltese, to get new designs copied from old 

 laces, to insist on the use of the best thread, and, 

 finally, to bring the lace before the public' 



In connexion with the Northamptonshire lace 

 industry it is of interest to note that pin-making 

 was also carried on in the county. We know 

 that the pins used in lace-making were of a 

 special kind made for the purpose, of fine brass 



' For further information the reader must be re- 

 ferred to the valuable History of Lace by Mrs. Bury 

 Palliser (190 1 edition), revised and enlarged by 

 M. Jourdain and Alice Drj'den, and the excellent 

 account of Lace Making in the Midlands by C. C. 

 Channer and M. E. Roberts. 



338 



