A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



steam and water to the bobbin-net machinery 

 caused great distress amongst the owners.** In 

 1822, warp tattings were placed upon the 

 market by Copestake of Stapleford and Read 

 of Radford. In 1824 William Hardy of 

 Nottingham invented a machine for spotting 

 and figuring twist net. 14 In 1825, 'new real 

 Mechlin lace ' had ' begun to be made at New 

 Basford.'** A considerable impetus was given to 

 the lace trade of Nottingham in 1831, when 

 Queen Adelaide appeared at one of her balls in 

 a dress of white silk lace, the product of the 

 Nottingham frames.** According to the Popula- 

 tion Returns for that year, the extension of the 

 lace and lace-machine manufactories caused a 

 marked increase in the numbers of the in- 

 habitants of Basford.* 7 



John Heathcoat was the son of a farmer of 

 Long Whatton, who in 1784 was apprenticed to 

 a framesmith, and at the close of his apprentice- 

 ship was engaged as a setter-up of hosiery and 

 warp frames at Nottingham. His chief con- 

 nexion was with Leicester, his first machine, 

 which he named ' the Loughborough,' having 

 been used in a factory near that town owned by 

 himself and his partner, Boden, where fifty-five 

 people were employed. It was against this esta- 

 blishment that the Luddites marched, 28 June 

 1816, from Beeston and Lenton, destroying 

 fifty frames, besides burning and cutting the 

 lace. 28 Heathcoat's factory eventually passed 

 into the hands of Messrs. Hine & Mundella of 

 Nottingham. 23 



The growth of the bobbin-net manufacture 

 may be estimated by the fact that the population 

 of Nottingham, Lenton, Beeston, Radford, Bas- 

 ford, Arnold, and Sneinton, which was 47,300 

 in 1811, at the beginning of the industry, had 

 risen by 1831 to 79,ooo. 30 One-fourth of the 

 frames at this date were worked by their owners, 

 who thus placed themselves in the position of 

 journeymen as well as masters, thereby exer- 

 cising a marked influence on wages. Numbers 

 of persons who owned two or three machines 

 were compelled to mortgage them for more than 

 their worth in the market, owing to the fact that 

 fall in prices of nets did not correspond with the 

 reduction in the price of cotton and its wages. 

 Excessive prices were also paid for thread, in 

 consequence of the net makers' indebtedness to 

 the thread merchants. The brown nets sold in 

 Nottingham were disposed of by agents employed 

 by about fifteen of the larger houses engaged in 

 the trade, to the extent of ,250,000 per annum. 

 The remainder, valued at ^1,050 more, was 

 sold by about two hundred agents, who carried 



a Blachcootfs Mag. Oct. 1882, p. 484. 



" Felkin, op. cit. 149. 



M Glover, Dir. 1825, p. 8. 



* Felkin, op. cit. 1 50. " Op. cit. 480. 



" Fletcher, Chapter! in the Hut. of Loughborough, \. 



" Ibid. 6. M Pop. Ret. sub anno. 



the goods from one warehouse to another. Silk 

 bobbin-net shawls were a feature of the Not- 

 tingham lace trade at this time. These were 

 embroidered by young women who earned is. a 

 day. A ' splendid specimen ' of this kind of 

 needlecraft is noticed by Felkin as having occu- 

 pied seven workers for 6 weeks, 6 days, 14 

 hours.* 1 



'Twist-lace' hands paid premiums of 10 to 

 15 for learning their art, the course of instruc- 

 tion extending over 15 to 1 8 months.** 



Children were largely employed in the bobbin- 

 net trade in winding and threading the bobbins, 

 also in 'winding off,' which consisted in un- 

 winding the remnants of thread from the used 

 bobbins, and tying them together to be rewound 

 and worked up. The trade of ' threaders,' in 

 which numbers of little girls were employed, 

 was claimed to be peculiar to Nottingham. 

 The children lived with their parents, and were 

 sent for, sometimes in the middle of the night, 

 when a piece was ' ready to come off,' several 

 being allotted to one machine. Winders-off 

 earned wages averaging 2s. bd. per week. 33 Lace- 

 runners, who embroidered bobbin-net by hand,** 

 and often worked fifteen hours a day, earned 

 3*. (>d. a week. 34 Spotters with the tambour- 

 needle earned from 5*. to 6s. a week, being 

 paid at the rate of \d. per 100 for sprigs.** 

 Thousands of girls were employed throughout 

 the Midlands in figuring net at 4.5. to 51. a 

 week. 37 The run tambour lace, which accord- 

 ing to Mrs. Palliser came into fashion after the 

 machine-made net had made such work possible, 

 was largely copied from designs in foreign speci- 

 mens, chiefly those in use at Lille.* 8 



The yarn used in the bobbin-net manufacture 

 was spun exclusively at Manchester, girls and 

 women being employed in doubling, that is, in 

 twisting two yarns together, when the yarn 

 arrived from Nottingham in cops (heads), as 

 taken from the spindles of the spinning-frame. 39 



By 1833 from 220 to 230 frames were 

 employed in the blonde branch of the warp- 

 lace industry, which was considered a separate 

 manufacture. 40 There were large exports of 

 Nottingham lace to France at this date, the lace 

 being bought unbleached through the medium 

 of ' commissioners,' who effected a sale at a 

 charge of 2^ per cent. The lace was taken 

 abroad to be gassed, 41 bleached, and figured, 



11 factorj Corn. Rep. " Phillips, Personal Tour, 172. 



a Factory Com. Rep. 1833 (C. 2), 63. 



14 Ibid. (C. 2), 1 6. "Ibid. 1 8. "Ibid. 64- 



17 Phillips, Personal Tour, 85. 



** Palliser, Hist. Lace, 441. 



* Factory Com. Rep. 1833 (C. l), 38. 



40 Ibid. (C. 2), 64. 



41 Samuel Hall & Co. patented the process of 

 gassing lace in 1828, when it was described as that 

 of exposing the lace to a horizontal tube pierced 

 with holes through which carburetted hydrogen gas 

 ascended. The machine was worked by two or three- 



360 





