INDUSTRIES 



tries of the county. Some clue to the apparent 

 oversight may be gathered from the fact that the 

 more important glove-making centre of Yeovil 

 was within easy reach, and it is probable that, 

 even at a very early date, the Dorset glovers 

 were chiefly employes of those of Somerset, 

 rather than manufacturers on their own account. 



According to the evidence of Mr. Willmott, 

 silk manufacturer, before a Select Committee on 

 the Silk Trade in 1 83 1, there was no gloving 

 carried on at Sherborne at that date except in 

 the form of a home industry, the gloves being 

 sent over from Yeovil and Milborne Port, and 

 sewn by the Sherborne women in their cottages. '' 

 Gloving was formerly carried on at Beaminster,^" 

 at Cerne Abbas," and Bere Regis.*^ 



At the present time the trade centres in Sher- 

 borne and includes Gillingham and Sturminster 

 Newton, though in earlier days glovers were 

 found all over the county. 



There are 45 men and 631 women who 

 work at this trade, and of these the majority are 

 home workers.*^ The industry is carried on by 

 Dorset firms, who manufacture gloves from start 

 to finish in the county, and by London and 

 Worcester firms who have established glove- 

 sewing branches in Dorset. 



There are three factories in Sherborne in 

 which the process of glove-making is carried 

 through all its stages ; the skins are prepared and 

 dressed, then the gloves are cut out, sewn, 

 stitched, buttoned, and finished. But glove- 

 sewing is practically a home industry, very little 

 of this being done in the factories. The kinds 

 of gloves made are ' Lamb, Kid and Goat.' 



As a rule the workers congregate in North 

 Dorset, but occasionally in other parts women 

 are found making the heavy shapeless thumbed 

 gloves with which hedgers protect their hands 

 while working. The industry is especially im- 

 portant as a home industry in contradistinction 

 to the silk weaving, which is carried on in the 

 mills. On account of its smallness, and of the 

 clearness of the issue, Sherborne should yield a 

 distinct answer if an investigation were under- 

 taken as to the relative advantages of home and 

 factory work for women. Glove-sewing ranks 

 next to the hemp industry in providing work for 

 Dorset women, but it is not nearly so wide- 

 spread, nor so independent, as it would not be 

 hard at any moment for the manufacturers to 

 have their gloves sewn elsewhere. 



The fame of Dorset pillow-lace has been some- 

 what eclipsed by that of Devon ; the industry 

 was, however, profitably carried on in three 

 towns at least in the county during the eighteenth 

 century. Blandford in Defoe's day was ' chiefly 



" Pari. Rep. on Silk Trade, 1831, p. 284. 

 *" Green, Rural Indus, of Engl. 72. 

 " Pigot, Dir. 1830, p. 280. 

 ** Green, Rural Indus, of Engl. 74. 

 " Population Returns, 56. 



famous for making the finest bone-lace" in 

 England. They showed me,' he adds, ' some so 

 exquisitely fine as I think I never saw better in 

 Flanders, France, or Italy, and which they said 

 they rated at above ^^30 sterling a yard.' *^ 



In 1594 bone lace could be bought at is. ^d. 

 per yard ; in 1685, largely owing to the increased 

 fashionable demand, the price ranged from 2s. \d. 

 to 30J." 



In 1750 Broad Street, Lyme Regis, was 

 ' chiefly inhabited by lace-makers, who worked at 

 their doors in the summer.'*' In 1752 prizes 

 were awarded by the Anti-Gallican Society to 

 Lyme lace, the specimens submitted being ' ruflles 

 of needle point and bone lace.' ■** A narrow cap 

 piece was valued at four guineas, five guineas a 

 yard being considered a not exorbitant price. 

 A lace dress for Queen Charlotte was made at 

 Lyme, the lace-makers also taking in work from 

 Honiton and Colyton.*' The last of the lace- 

 makers was Catherine Power, who excelled in 

 the production of designs of interlaced initials 

 and other ornaments.*" 



Up to 1780 much blonde lace, both white 

 and black, was made at Sherborne. '^ 



In 1875 a few makers were at work at Char- 

 mouth.'^ 



Hat-making had a brief existence as a Dorset 

 industry in 1791, when it was introduced as an 

 employment for the prisoners in the new gaol at 

 Dorchester, which was run, so the county boasted, 

 on humanitarian and economic lines. Materials 

 and instruments were procured, and a hatter im- 

 ported to teach his art ; but the latter speedily 

 decamped, and the justices of the peace, coming 

 to the conclusion that prison labour was not 

 profitable, directed the clerk to make inquiries 

 about treadmills.*' 



The manufacture of bandstrings, which went 

 out of fashion about 1720, was largely carried on 

 prior to that date at Blandford.** Bandstrings 

 were laces or ribbons used for securing the bands 

 worn around the neck, and which sometimes 

 appeared like a hanging bow in front, or like a 

 stout silk cord with pendent tassels.** 



The commercial activities of Sherborne were 

 transferred, as its cloth trade gradually passed 

 away, to the production of haberdashery wares, 

 with which the town supplied the west of 

 England markets.*'^ 



" Defoe, Tour, i, 330-I. 



*" So called from the use of bone pins prior to the 

 adoption of those of metal. 



" Rogers, Agric. and Prices in Engl, v, 55S. 



" Roberts, Hist. Lyme Regis, 118. 



" Palliser, Hist, of Lace, 354. 



" Roberts, Hist. Lyme Regis, 380. 



^" Ibid. " Palliser, Hist, of Lace, 354. 



*^ Palliser, op. cit. 



" Dorset Accounts (1791), iii, 75. 



" Cox, Magna Britannia, i, 560. 



" Dillon (Fairholt), Costume in Engl ii, 28. 



^^ Rural Elegance Displayed (1768), 268. 



29 42 



