INDUSTRIES 



hosiery, was carried on by commission, or ' bag- 

 work,' the London hosiers sending two threads, 

 each containing about thirty fibres of silk. This 

 was then wound on bobbins, and afterwards 

 made into threads of the required size by a 

 woman who was known as a ' sizer.' The price 

 charged for making the silk into stockings was 

 from 4/. to 5*., of which the hosier received bd. 

 The first merchant to purchase silk on his own 

 account was a Mr. Booth. 73 Boys were em- 

 ployed in the stocking trade in winding, seam- 

 ing, and chevening, 73 working from fourteen to 

 sixteen hours a day as apprentices. 74 The in- 

 troduction of gore or narrowed clocks increased 

 the labour of stocking-making by about one- 

 third. 



By 1845, when an inquiry was ordered into 

 the condition of the framework knitters of the 

 Midlands, decline was reported to have set in in 

 the silk hosiery trade of Nottingham, notably 

 in the export of silk knotted hose to South 

 America. For this decline, according to the 

 evidence of Mr. Morley 76 before the Com- 

 missioners, the following causes were respons- 

 ible : Changes in fashion, as, for example, in 

 men's dress, the advent of trousers and boots, 

 especially of a kind of boot sold with stockings 

 sewn in ; 76 and in ladies' dress, the boot and the 

 vogue of the trained dress. 77 



Shetland woollen work was begun on the 

 stocking frame by Thomas Hill in 1854. Ex- 

 periments with various grey woollen yarns failed 

 to provide a yarn equal to that employed for the 

 hand-knitted Shetland veils which it was hoped 

 to rival, but the difficulty was finally overcome 

 by Messrs. Walker & Co., of Bradford. 78 In 

 1862 William Farrands of Hucknall began to 

 make shawls of this yarn in bright colours, which 

 were soon in great demand in Spain, South 



71 Phillips, Personal Tour, 173. 



n Chevening, first practised in England, says Felkin, 

 by Mrs. Elizabeth Drake, who began the art in 1782 

 (Hist. Hosiery and Lace), consists in embroidering the 

 fronts of socks and stockings. Stubbes, however, 

 writes in his Anatomie of Abuses of Elizabethan stock- 

 ings adorned with 'quirks and clocks about the 

 ankles, and sometimes haply interlaced with gold or 

 silver threads, as wonderful to behold." Fairholt, 

 Costume In Engl. ii, 385. Nottingham silk stockings 

 were embroidered, says Henson, in gold, silver, and 

 coloured silks, worked in the points and clocks in 

 flowers. The usual weight of these stockings was 

 4oz. a pair ; op. cit. 103-5. 



" factory Com. Rep. 1833 (C.i), 44. 



75 The house of Morley, still honourably repre- 

 sented in the City of Nottingham by the firm of 

 Messrs. I. & R. Morley of Fletcher Gate, was 

 established in 1 79 5, and was noted at an early date 

 for the production of silk and cotton hose, as well as 

 being, according to the evidence of a witness before 

 the Select Committee of 1845, 'the greatest house 

 for silk gloves ; ' Rep. ut supra. 42, 60. 



74 Ibid. 82. 77 Ibid. 



78 Felkin, op. cit. 390. 



America, and the United States, the first order 

 received being for 1,300 shawls. 79 The yarns 

 used cost from 45. to 12*. per Ib. 



Industrial statistics of successive decades point 

 to the fact of the modern hosiery trade of Not- 

 tingham being completely overshadowed, as we 

 have said, by the phenomenal activities of the 

 lace trade. In 1894 the hosiery framework 

 knitters' workshops were reported to be ' gradu- 

 ally disappearing ' owing to the work being more 

 and more absorbed into the factories. One large 

 firm, which had been in the habit of employing 

 one dozen outworker occupiers of workshops in 

 1884, had but two thus engaged in 1894. The 

 superior class of silk hose was, however, still 

 being made in such workshops, and hosiery seam- 

 ing carried on under the same conditions. The 

 villages of Ruddington, Gotham, Arnold, Wood- 

 borough, and Calverton were said to be spe- 

 cially affected by the economic changes at this 

 date. 80 



The hosiery trade of Nottingham at the pre- 

 sent day may be said to strike an almost national 

 note in economics, the firm of Messrs. I. & R. 

 Morley, of Fletcher Gate, with several factories 

 in different parts of the town and county, being 

 under contract, along with other firms in the 

 district, with his Majesty's Government for the 

 supply of hosiery to the War Office, the Ad- 

 miralty, and the India Office. 



The total output of the above-named house 

 comprises all kinds of hosiery and underwear in 

 silk, cotton, lisle thread, wool and merino, the 

 yarns being supplied from Lancashire and York- 

 shire and also, in the case of woollen yarns, from 

 France, Belgium and Germany. In silks, those 

 from Italy, China, and Japan are used, being 

 procured principally from English throwsters. 

 In the various factories may be seen the gradual 

 process of hosiery in the making, from the wind- 

 ing of the yarn to the final stage of the forward- 

 ing of packages to the retailer or to the London 

 wholesale warehouse. 



Between these operations are the successive 

 processes of the actual making upon every variety 

 of machine ; followed by the scouring, dyeing, 

 trimming, folding and packing of the various 

 products. 



An interesting feature in Messrs. Morley's 

 factories is the presence of some old stockingers, 

 whose memories of the days of the hand-frame 

 are still vivid. These old workmen are em- 

 ployed in winding oddments of yarn or in fixing 

 needles into the leads. Of the old hand-frames 

 this firm has still about five hundred employed 

 in the city and county, chiefly in the homes of 

 the workmen, or in small workshops where a 

 few operatives gather together. The very finest 

 and best goods are still made by hand upon 

 the frames just referred to. 



" Ibid. 



80 Ann. Rep. Factories and Workshops, 1894, p. 187. 



357 



