INDUSTRIES 



foundations of wigs, 6 forty machines being em- 

 ployed in this manufacture alone. No descrip- 

 tion of the machines on which 'spider net' was 

 made is forthcoming, although as many as 400 

 were at one time engaged in the production of 

 this article, which was largely used for ladies' 

 habit-shirts, but went out of fashion about 1810. 



Warp-lace was introduced into Nottingham 

 by Mr. Ingham in 1784, the undertaking, how- 

 ever, only lasting for about three years. William 

 Dawson, a needle-maker, set up a factory for 

 this lace in Turncalf Alley, where numbers of 

 warp-engines were employed, but the manufac- 

 ture met with so little success that it was replaced 

 by that of net for officers' sashes, window cur- 

 tains, and braces. 7 In 1786 John Rogers of 

 Mansfield invented durable, pressed, fast-point 

 net, fifty frames being soon at work, each 20 in. 

 wide, 8 but the extreme fineness of these frames, 

 says Blackner, formed an obstacle to its manu- 

 facture with other than silk until 1804, when 

 success at length crowned the persevering efforts 

 of the spinners to spin yarn sufficiently fine to 

 admit of its being worked double. Fine cotton 

 and flaxen yarn, the latter costing 40*. per lb., 

 had been tried in conjunction with silk, but the 

 thread always cut and became discoloured. In 

 1808 Joseph Page of Nottingham made the first 

 piece of double press point net in which doubled 

 fine yarn was used. 9 This net sold at 3;. 6d. 

 per square yard. 10 



Two years later 15,000 persons were engaged 

 in this industry, 1,500 to 1,800 frames being 

 at work. 11 The advent of the twist bobbin net 

 trade dealt a blow at the manufacture against 

 which it struggled vainly for a few years. By 

 1815 scarcely a yard of cotton point net 12 was 

 being made, except a little single-press at Mans- 

 field, 13 and the last twenty-eight point-lace 

 frames ceased working in i8a8. 14 



The winter of 1811 brought great distress, 

 not only to the weavers, who suffered from the 

 ' curtailment of hands by the wholesale hosiers,' 

 but also to the lace-making operatives. Great 

 injury was being done at this date to the trade 

 by the production of fraudulent goods, that is, 

 by the production of single-press lace, which was 



6 Felkin, Hist. Hosiery and Lace, \ 36. 



7 Blackner, op. cit. 231. Dawson removed to 

 Islington in 1800, his Nottingham actory being 

 converted into a silk mill. 



8 Felkin, op. cit. 139. 9 Ibid. 169. 



10 Ibid. The silk of which Nottingham lace was 

 made was brought from Italy as organzine ; Blackner, 

 Hist. Note. 251. 



"Ibid. 139. 



11 Blackner, op. cit. 235. " Ibid. 



" Felkin, op. cit. 140. The pattern-books of the 

 leading firms in this industry, those of Messrs. W. & 

 T. Hayne, Maltby & Brewitt, Wilson, Burnside & 

 Watson, and Robert & Thomas Frost (ibid. 141) 

 containing upwards of 20,000 patterns, are still pre- 

 served at Nottingham. 



made at a third of the cost of the double-press, 

 and sold for \d. a yard, whilst the superior 

 variety cost from 6d. to "jd. The single-press 

 lace, owing to its being looped only once in the 

 process of manufacture, was rendered loose in 

 texture, and was consequently liable to become 

 ragged when washed. So great was the preju- 

 dice against it that an instance is related of a 

 framework knitter having to carry his double- 

 press lace round the country, and being unable 

 to obtain a market for it then. Persons to whom 

 he offered it declared that they had been so often 

 imposed upon by the fraudulent single-press lace, 

 that they would sooner give 7*. a yard for Buck- 

 ingham lace than 6d. a yard for his. 16 In 

 addition to this grievance, a final blow seemed 

 to the lace hands to be dealt at their industry 

 by the introduction of the wide frames, which 

 aroused equal opposition amongst the stocking- 

 makers. Frame-breaking riots were reported 

 from all parts of the county. A carrier bringing 

 a consignment of the obnoxious frames from 

 Button was set upon by the mob, who broke the 

 frames in pieces, and burnt the woodwork. 16 

 Three months later several valuable warp-lace 

 frames, 17 one 7 2 in. wide, belonging to Mr. Harvey 

 of West Street, Broad Lane, Nottingham, were 

 destroyed by the rioters. 18 The method of the 

 frame-breakers was to cut the warp asunder on 

 the beam of the frame, and to take away the 

 wheels necessary to the formation of the two- 

 course-hole mesh. 19 



The bobbin -net manufacture, with which 

 the name of John Heathcoat is associated, 20 was 

 firmly established in the county by 1815, when 

 there were 1,500 frames and lace machines at 

 work in Arnold. 21 About 1816 warp-pearling 

 was introduced by Kirkman of Nottingham, 

 and by 1819 warp Mechlin had disappeared 

 from the trade. 22 In 1820, the application of 



15 Rep. Framework Knitters, 1812, p. 12. Against 

 this description of lace the fury of the Luddites was 

 particularly directed; see Russell, 'The Luddites,' 

 Tkonton Sac. Trans, x, 54 et seq., also for facsimiles 

 and transcripts of Luddite proclamations from the 

 private papers of Mr. Richard Enficld of Bramcote. 



16 Ann. Reg. I 8 Nov. i 8 I I . 



17 Mechlin net, made from cotton yarn, specially 

 prepared, at a cost of 1 5 gns. per lb., was made on 

 these frames, the workers earning 4 gns. a week 

 Phillips, Persona/ Tour, 175. 



18 Ann. Reg. 24 Feb. 1812. 



19 Ibid. Luddism, according to Felkin, became 

 extinct about 1817, when about 1,000 stocking- 

 frames and 80 lace machines had been destroyed 

 by the Luddites ; Hilt. Hosiery and Lace, 239. 



10 His patent (no. 3151) is dated 14 July 1808. 

 At a later date, owing to the frame-breaking riots in 

 Notts, the inventor withdrew to Tiverton, where 

 his factory was 'the largest in England' in 1833; 

 Factory Com. Rep. 1833, xx, 70. 



81 Curtis, Hist. Notts. 34. 



" Felkin, op. cit. 149. 



359 



