A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



stockings, and Leicester for worsted," was 

 gradually transferring its manufacturing activi- 

 ties from the framework to the lace trade. Sir 

 Richard Phillips, writing in iSaS, 66 expresses 

 himself as ' astonished at the change of employ- 

 ment of the people.' ' I used to see,' he says, 

 on revisiting Nottingham after the lapse of 

 several years, ' hosier on every mercantile door, 

 but now every second or third house had on it 

 lace warehouse or lace manufacturer.' Of these, 

 the writer tells us, there were from three hun- 

 dred to four hundred. Mr. Drinkwater again 

 reported in 1833 that while the thump of 

 the lace-machine was to be heard in all the 

 approaches to the centre of the town, the run- 

 ning click of the frame resounded only in the 

 obscure courts and alleys. 67 There was an 

 inevitable increase in the production of low- 

 priced articles. Stockings which had formerly 

 been made with two or three threads were now 

 manufactured in single threads of varying fine- 

 ness, nos. 7 to 20, Manchester being the chief 

 source of the yarn supply. 68 Earnings averaged 

 6s. per week at the narrow frame and from gs. 

 to I2s. at the wide frame. 59 A framework 

 knitter's expenses were stated to be on an average; 

 rent, is. per week, needles, 2^., half a pound of 

 candles, for eight months in the year, 3^., metal 

 and oil, id. per week, or 55. average per annum, 

 seaming, is. 5^. 60 From a statement compiled 

 by Thomas Emmerson, stocking-maker of 

 Arnold, the scale of prices paid to stocking- 

 makers for work, per dozen, showed a steady 

 decline from 1811 to 1 842." An inquiry 

 ordered to be made into the condition of the 

 framework knitters in 1845 proved it to be 

 ' very deplorable.' Working from daylight till 

 10 o'clock at night, five days in the week, they 

 merely contrived to earn a scant livelihood. 62 



Every plain stocking frame was estimated to 

 make twelve pairs of fashioned hose per week, 

 and from ten to fifteen dozen ' cut-ups.' About 

 a tenth part of the output only were sold in 

 England, the rest going abroad, where, however, 

 the market had declined. 63 There were now 

 10,500 frames in Nottingham, 64 the vexed ques- 

 tion of frame rents being still in evidence, as 

 before a Factory Commission of 1833, when a 

 workman named Gretton gave evidence to the 

 effect that he had in his shop three frames, rented 



" Phillips, Persona/ Tour, 162. M Ibid. 



67 Factory Com. Rep. 1833 (C. i), 34. 



68 Phillips, op. cit. 1 68. M Ibid. 169. 



60 Factory Com. Rep. 1833 (C. i), 63. 



61 Rep. Framework Knitters, 1845, p. 37. 

 61 Ibid. 17. 



Factory Com. Rep. 1833 (C. i), 62. Theexporta- 

 tion of hosiery frames was being largely carried on at 

 this date to North America, shipments of one house 

 in machinery alone amounting, it was said, to many 

 thousand tons annually ; Notts Review, 29 Nov. 1833. 



64 Rep. Com. Framework Knitters, 1845, p. 16. 



by the year at 40*., or by the week at is. The 

 men paid 6d. for standing and bringing in. 

 Sitting sixteen hours a day, the workman received 

 IQS. bd. for fifteen pair of slender women's hose, 

 seaming being paid for at the rate of 3^. per 

 dozen. 



It will be of interest at this point to pass 

 briefly in review the various productions to 

 which the stocking-frame gave birth until, by 

 an irony of economics, there sprang from 

 William Lee's invention the lace trade which 

 was finally to overshadow in great measure the 

 hosiery industry of Nottingham. The first 

 stockings made on the frame were of worsted, 

 three, four, or five threads being used. 66 The 

 first pair of cotton stockings ever made in 

 England was produced in 1730. The material 

 employed was Indian spun cotton, 66 which had 

 been introduced by some Indian merchants to 

 the notice of the London market, but having 

 been rejected by them, was sent to Nottingham, 

 where a workman named Draper, of Bellargate, 

 undertook to make stockings from it on a 2O-in. 

 gauge stocking frame. The cotton was so fine 

 that he doubled four threads for the leg, and 

 five for the heel. 67 Thomas Heywood, who 

 was Sheriff of Nottingham in 1744, is said to 

 have been the first to venture on the experiment 

 of making silk stockings on a frame, of which 

 he had as many at work as ten at one time. 

 The goods produced by this hosier were largely 

 exchanged, it was said, for foreign tobacco. 68 

 In 1745 Joseph Stocks ('Old Joe Stocks') was 

 employed to make a pair of stockings from a 

 28-gauge frame, and succeeded in producing a 

 pair weighing not more than ifoz. 69 Lyons 

 was a great rival of Nottingham at this date in 

 the manufacture of fine hose. Large numbers 

 of orders, however, were received at the English 

 manufacturing centre from Spain, the Spanish 

 fleet, which sailed every third year, being fitted 

 out, we are told, with silk hose from Notting- 

 ham, at a price 31. or 41. dearer than those 

 usually made for the home market. This trade 

 with Spain lasted until the close of the century, 

 when it fell off, owing to the rise in the price of 

 silk. 70 Prior to 1 8 14 silk framework knitters, work- 

 ing twelve hours a day, earned from 1 5*. to 2Oj. a 

 week. The making of plain silk stockings and 

 gloves was styled the plain silk branch ; in it, at 

 the beginning of the igth century, wages 

 averaged from 10*. 6d. to 15*. a week. 71 The 

 silk trade, as it was concerned with that of 



65 Henson, op. cit. 105. 



66 India (' bob ') cotton was imported in bunches 

 in the early part of the igth century, and wound in 

 Nottingham ; Phillips, Personal Tour, 1 74. 



67 Bailey, Annals of Notts, ii, 1 1 96. 



68 Henson, op. cit. 160. M Ibid. 165. 



70 Young, Annah of Agric, x, 447. 



71 Blackner, Hist. Nott. 1 5 ; Rep. Ftametcork 

 Knitters, 1812, p. 9. 



356 



