INDUSTRIES 



a chain apiece. The price paid for weaving a 

 chain varied from 6s. to 8s., according to the 

 fineness, but out of this the weaver had to find 

 his own loom and harness, and also defray the 

 cost of winding and of candles, and find dressing 

 for the warp, so that the net earnings were not 

 more than 6s. A loom and harness were worth 

 4 41. A loom would last a lifetime, but the 

 cords of the harness required constant mending 

 and renewing, which involved an expense of 

 about 8j. a year. The evils of the truck system, 

 which had been complained of in the earlier days 

 of the weaving industry, still prevailed to a cer- 

 tain extent in spite of legislation. The weavers 

 had no organization or collective funds. They 

 complained that their wages had fallen 25 per cent, 

 in ten years, and that their condition was worse 

 than that of the agricultural labourer. A dyer 

 could make half-a-crown a day and some beer, 

 but he was often wet, and the cost of his shoes 

 and clothes was more. The drabbet weavers 

 had not, however, to suffer like the silk weavers 

 from chronic unemployment. 1 



The way in which the fund of skill acquired 

 through many generations by the textile workers 

 of Suffolk has been adapted to constantly chang- 

 ing economic conditions by enterprising ' captains 

 of industry ' can be best illustrated by reference 

 to the history of the largest textile firm in the 

 county, Messrs. Gurteen & Sons of Haverhill. 



It is at the outset worth remarking that not 

 only the heads of this firm but also the manager 

 of its textile departments claim descent from the 

 Protestant refugees of the sixteenth and seven- 

 teenth centuries. 



The grandfather of the present members of 

 the firm set up business as a manufacturer about 

 the beginning of the last century. At that time 

 ' checks ' and ' fustians ' were beginning to be 

 replaced by drabbet, which is still made in con- 

 siderable quantities by Messrs. Gurteen, and 

 which, since the smock-frock fell into disuse, has 

 been adopted as the material for pockets, military 

 outfits, and ' motor ' cloths. Drabbet continues 

 also to be made in other parts of Suffolk. At 

 Syleham on the northern borders of the county 

 there is a small drabbet factory which was esta- 

 blished about 1842 to utilize the water-power 

 which had formerly served to turn a large flour 

 mill. 



Since the middle of the last century Messrs. 

 Gurteen & Sons have built up a considerable 

 industry in other linen fabrics, such as straining- 

 cloth for dairy purposes, which is shipped all over 

 the world, huckaback towelling, &c. About the 

 year 1875 they also began to make jute and 

 canvas fabrics, including a cloth known as 

 ' scryms,' which is used by gardeners and paper- 

 hangers. During the eighties two other branches 

 of textile manufacture, the weaving of horse- 



1 Rep. of Assist. Com. on Handloom Weavers, \ 840, 

 P- 355- 



hair and of cocoanut mats, were undertaken by 

 Messrs. Gurteen, who have since become the 

 largest manufacturers of both in the county. 



The weaving of horsehair had been introduced 

 into Suffolk about the middle of the last century. 

 At Glemsford, Lavenham, and Stowmarket it 

 found work for hand-loom weavers who had been 

 displaced by machinery in other branches of tex- 

 tile industry, and as no satisfactory method has 

 yet been discovered of applying power to the 

 weaving of hair, it is still one of the chief cottage 

 industries of Suffolk, the looms being lent out by 

 the employer, though in many cases the workers, 

 women and girls, are collected in small factories. 

 Messrs. W. W. Roper & Sons employ in these two 

 ways about three hundred women and girls at 

 Lavenham, and the industry is also carried on at 

 Glemsford, where Messrs. H. Kolle & Son estab- 

 lished it in 1844, and at Sudbury. The uses to 

 which the horsehair fabrics are put vary a good 

 deal with the change of fashion. 



Horsehair seatings are much less commonly used 

 than formerly for domestic furniture, but they 

 are still employed to some extent in upholstering 

 railway carriages and waiting-rooms. What is 

 known as hair padding is used for stiffening in 

 garments of all kinds (the vogue of dress improvers 

 in the early nineties led to a great demand for 

 horsehair cloth), and it affords one of the many 

 bases upon which the milliner raises her wonder- 

 ful constructions. In this branch of textile in- 

 dustry, to which they have more recently added 

 the weaving of Mexican fibre, Messrs. Gurteen 

 are the largest producers in England. 



The material is brought from Australia, South 

 America, and Siberia, and the supply of it suffered 

 some restriction during the Russo-Japanese War. 



The textile use of cocoa-nut fibre was intro- 

 duced into this country some seventy years ago. 

 The industry was first established in London and 

 is still carried on there. 2 It would seem to have 

 been set up in West Suffolk about forty years 

 ago, partly with the idea of supplementing other 

 textile industries which were declining. It is still 

 to be found at Lavenham (Messrs. W. W. Roper 

 & Sons), Long Melford, Sudbury, Glemsford 

 (Messrs. H. Kolle & Son, Ltd.), and Hadleigh, 

 which were the earliest seats of the manufacture, 

 and Messrs. Gurteen established it at Haverhill 

 in the eighties. The weaving of cocoa-nut fibre, 

 like that of horsehair, is entirely a hand-loom 

 industry, but it requires the strength of men, and 

 women are employed only in the preparation of 

 the yarn, which they carry on at home, and in 

 the summer time in the open air, affording a pic- 

 turesque parallel to the open-air spinning which 

 caught the eye of the eighteenth-century traveller 

 in Suffolk. The chief use of cocoa-nut fibre is 



' C. Booth, Life and Labour of the People, vi, 340. 

 A good description of the processes of mat-weaving 

 Is given here which applies equally to the Suffolk 

 industry. 



2 75 



