INDUSTRIES 



are the workers and not the masters, but the fact 

 about the long hours is most probably true. 



Children, other than apprentices, employed as 

 ' turners ' began to work at six, seven, or eight 

 years of age, turning the spinning-wheel from 

 6 a.m. in the summer and 7 a.m. in the winter 

 until 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. They received is. ()d. 

 to 2s. per week.'' 



The making of twine, whether for immediate 

 sale or for use in nets, followed the same lines as 

 rope-making. The hemp was prepared by the 

 'combers' and then given over to the 'spinners.' 

 Nets seem to have been made in the same way 

 from time immemorial, and the description of a 

 woman netting to-day would probably be equally 

 true as a description of her ancestor working in 

 King John's reign as far as the actual netting went, 

 but the woman of to-day works far fewer hours 

 and earns more in coin, if not in kind, than her 

 ancestor did. 



Present Organization. — This is dependent 

 partly on the goods made and partly on the 

 materials used. To recapitulate, the goods that 

 are made in Bridport are : — 



Rope : Of this a little is now made, but not of 

 the heaviest kinds. 



Twine, thread, and small cordage of every de- 

 scription : The speciality of the town is a particu- 

 lar kind, which is known as Bridport laid twine. 



Nets of every variety made by machinery and 

 by hand : Machine-made nets are chiefly used 

 for drift nets for herring, sprat, mackerel, and 

 pilchard. Among the various nets made by 

 hand are : — seines — these are very long, but not 

 very wide ; one side is loaded with lead, the other 

 buoyed with corks ; some of them are as much 

 as 1 90 fathoms long ; trawl nets — these are 

 dragged along the bottom by fishing boats ; 

 minnow nets and trouting nets. Besides fishing 

 nets, all sorts of nets for games, sports, and 

 practical purposes are made, for cricket, tennis, 

 billiard-table pockets, forage, hammocks, hatch- 

 ways, laundries, &c. 



Sail-cloth : Of this a small quantity is still made. 



The materials used are hemp, Manilla fibre, 

 flax, and cotton. 



It is obvious that Bridport manufacturers can 

 no longer depend on home productions to supply 

 the raw material they need, and as a matter of 

 fact, hemp is no longer grown in Dorset, but 

 is imported from Russia and Italy. The Russian 

 hemp is sometimes shipped direct to Bridport, at 

 other times it is sent to an East-coast port by sea 

 and then is transported by rail. The connexion 

 between Russia and Bridport is so close and so 

 firmly established that at Riga there is a special 

 brand of hemp which is called the ' Bridport 

 selection,' and this is said to be the best of all the 

 Russian hemp. The Italian hemp is imported 

 through London or Liverpool. 



" Loc.ll information. 



A small quantity of Manilla fibre is imported 

 from the Philippines; this is the only fibre which 

 is now spun by hand ; it is used for the trawl 

 twine for which Bridport is so justly famous. 



Flax is imported from Russia, Belgium, Hol- 

 land, and a little from Ireland, though Irish flax 

 is generally kept for finer manufactures. A very 

 small proportion is still produced locally. There 

 was a flax market at Yeovil until within the last 

 twenty years, and still from time to time a farmer 

 grows a field or so of flax and sells his crop to 

 Bridport manufacturers, though the knowledge of 

 the proper way of ' retting,' i.e. soaking and pre- 

 paring, the flax is becoming more and more rare. 



A feature of the last half century has been the 

 introduction and increasing use of cotton in the 

 industry. This is imported in the form of cotton 

 yarn. It is made up into nets, lines and twines. 

 The majority of machine-made nets are composed 

 of cotton. 



The introduction of machinery marked the 

 beginning of the reorganization of labour which 

 was involved by the gradual substitution of mills 

 and all that they imply for the old system of 

 home-work. This process was very slow. The 

 first step was taken when water-power was ap- 

 plied to turn the spinning-wheels. Up to that 

 time a boy or girl supplied the power required 

 by the single wheel, and each man span alone, 

 usually in his own premises. Water was in its 

 turn superseded by steam ; sometimes water-power 

 was not used at all, but the change was made 

 directly from human power to steam-power ; in 

 other cases the water-power was retained until 

 late in the nineteenth century. The introduc- 

 tion of water or steam necessarily implied that 

 the spinning-wheels were brought together and 

 driven by one force, usually at the head quarters 

 of each manufacturer for which the individual 

 men had worked. Despite the use of steam or 

 water to turn the wheels the spinning was almost 

 all done by hand ; this continued to be the case 

 until within the last fifty years, although spinning- 

 machinery was introduced between 1789 and 

 i8oi. 



The 'combers' followed the 'spirmers' to the 

 mill. This move was probably dictated by a 

 desire to economize in space and to institute 

 some method of supervision, for a good deal of 

 the combing is still done by hand. Some of the 

 hemp is ' balled or rolled ' before it is ' combed 

 or heckled,' then it is roved and spun, and finally 

 twisted into threads. Cotton yarn also under- 

 goes this last process. All this is done in the 

 mills. The men work by time and by piece. 

 The wages are so influenced by the kind and 

 quantity of the work done and by the individual 

 skill and industry of the worker that it is almost 

 impossible to give any figures about them which 

 would not be called in question. The aristocrat 

 among the workmen is the man who makes 

 small cordage, as this branch of the industry 



351 



