A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



the production of mats and matting, both of which 

 are made in Suffolk. Messrs. Gurteen & Sons 

 confine their attention to the mats, which are 

 made in every variety of pattern and size, some 

 of them having a border of coloured wool. The 

 competition of prison labour is frequently a sub- 

 ject of complaint in this industry. 



Another industry that is to be found through- 

 out the eastern counties in many of the old 

 textile centres is the manufacture of ready-made 

 clothing. At Haverhill this originated in the 

 manufacture of smock frocks from drabbet. A 

 few of these are still made, but the embroidery 

 which is their distinguishing feature is almost a 

 lost art. As the smocks went out, they were 

 replaced by ' slops,' to the manufacture of which 

 the introduction of the sewing machine in the 

 late fifties gave a great stimulus. 



Some twenty years later another marked 

 advance was made by the application of steam 

 power. Messrs. Gurteen now turn out about 

 2O,OOO garments weekly, and have a large export 

 trade. Their principal workroom in this depart- 

 ment is said to be the second largest in the 

 kingdom. 



Altogether there are about two thousand people 



employed by this firm in their factory at Haver- 

 hill, whilst another thousand are employed in 

 their homes in the neighbouring villages, some of 

 which lie in Essex and Cambridgeshire. 



About half of the 3,000 are women. In the 

 factory at Haverhill, with its multiform activities 

 all organized on a thoroughly modern basis, the 

 industrial progress of the town is summed up. It 

 is a remarkable case, though not unique in Suffolk, 

 of the prosperity of a town of growing population 

 being due to the enterprise of a single firm. 



While the textile industries, with the excep- 

 tion of a little silk-weaving, have entirely 

 deserted Ipswich, the manufacture of ready-made 

 clothing has grown up there during the same 

 period and under much the same conditions as 

 at Haverhill. Like staymaking, which is the 

 other principal employment for women at 

 Ipswich, it seems to have been in its earlier 

 stages a domestic industry carried on as an 

 adjunct to the drapery business. It became a 

 factory industry about thirty-five years ago, 

 when Messrs. W. Fraser & Co., who were then 

 employing over a thousand hands, established a 

 large workshop in Ipswich, where they are still 

 the chief employers. 3 



STAY AND CORSET MAKING 



The beginnings of stay and corset making as 

 a Suffolk industry would probably have to be 

 sought for as far back at least as the seventeenth 

 century. A nonconformist minister of Beccles, 

 Mr. Ottee, referred to in a state paper of 1667, 

 is described as having been formerly a bodice- 

 maker. 1 The industry was extensively carried 

 on in the Ipswich district in 1846,2 and 553 

 women appear as staymakers in the census of 

 1851. In the half-century that has elapsed 

 since then, whilst the population of Suffolk has 

 increased by only a seventh, the number of stay- 

 makers has doubled. This, however, is far from 

 indicating the extent of increase in productive 

 power. During the same period, and especially 

 during the latter half of it, the industry has 

 passed from the stage of primitive handicraft to 

 that of the most highly organized and elaborately 

 equipped factory production. Suffolk is now 

 not only one of the two or three chief centres 

 of corset-making in the United Kingdom, it 

 exports corsets very largely to every part of the 

 world. The history of this development may 

 almost be identified with the expansion of the 

 activities of a single firm, Messrs. W. Pretty & 

 Sons of Ipswich. 



The father of Mr. William Pretty, who was 

 a partner in a firm of drapers still carrying on 

 business in Ipswich, bought the goodwill of a 



1 S. P. Dom. 1667-8, ccxxv, 39. 

 'P. O. Direct. Suff. (1846), p. 1426. 



corset-making concern from a lady who claimed 

 to be purveyor to Her Majesty Queen Victoria. 

 The work was then given out to be done by 

 women in their homes, and was one of the main 

 cottage industries carried on in the country 

 round Ipswich. 4 Except for the use of the 

 sewing-machine, it was all done by hand, and 

 its organization was of the simplest character. 

 As a mere annexe to the drapery business, Mr. 

 Pretty did not find the corset-making worth the 

 trouble of management, and as an alternative to 

 giving it up he handed it over to his son to see 

 if he could not make more of the industry by 

 entirely devoting himself to its development. 

 The application of power to the sewing-machine 

 in the seventies afforded a starting point for the 

 concentration of the manufacture in the direc- 

 tion of the factory system. Since that time the 

 division of labour has gone as far in corset- 

 making as it has in the boot and shoe industry, 

 and with every subdivided process mechanical 

 ingenuity has been and is still busy devising im- 

 provements. Mr. William Pretty and his sons 

 have kept in constant touch with American 

 methods, and in their factory at Ipswich, driven 

 by electric power and lighted by electric light, 



* For the data on which this article is based the 

 writer is largely indebted to Mr. F. Unwin, of 

 Messrs. Gurteen & Sons. 



4 J. L. Green, The Rural Industrie! of England, 

 ill. 



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