A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



1 88 1 are, for lace-makers of all ages, 4,456 in 

 Buckinghamshire; 3,231 in Northamptonshire ; 

 and 4,792 in Bedfordshire. Thus while the 

 number had decreased nearly one-half in 

 Buckinghamshire, and more than one-half in 

 Northamptonshire, it had decreased only about 

 one-third in Bedfordshire. It has been since 

 1 88 1 that the chief decrease has occurred, the 

 census for 1901 returning only 1,148 lace- 

 makers for Bedfordshire. 



The large number of children formerly 

 employed in the lace industry is accounted for 

 by the existence in most villages of * lace schools,' 

 in which lace-making was taught, generally by 

 some elderly woman. This teaching largely 

 superseded the ordinary school teaching. A 

 consideration of the conditions under which it 

 was given belongs to another chapter of this 

 work, here it must suffice to state that the 

 discontinuance of these schools is rather one of 

 the causes than a consequence of the decrease of 

 the pillow-lace industry. The best lace can be 

 made only by persons who have been engaged 

 in the work almost from infancy ; and modern 

 conditions of rural life offer outlets for female 

 labour more attractive and more remunerative 

 than lace-making. Despite the efforts of 

 philanthropic ladies, of County Councils, and 

 local organizations, the number of the more 

 tiighly qualified lace-makers is rapidly diminishing. 



A lace dealer and designer, whose designs won 

 a gold medal at the Great Exhibition of 185 1, 

 and whose laces have obtained numerous prizes 

 since that date, tells us that while the supply 

 of the more easily made and cheaper kinds of 

 pillow-lace is equal to the demand, it would be 

 difficult for him to meet much demand for laces 

 of the very best quality of ' Ground Point.' It 

 is his opinion that in the immediate future the 

 making of such lace in Bedfordshire will have 

 become practically extinct. 



At present the greater part of the trade in 

 Bedfordshire is in lace of the Linen Guipure 

 class, made in breadths for flounces, and in shapes 

 for collars and dress-trimmings. The so-called 

 Maltese patterns, which came in about half a 

 century ago, and had a large and sudden vogue, 

 are still made, the patterns being often modified 

 by an admixture of Ground Point net. The 

 pure Ground Point is also still made ; but, as 

 stated above, the best quality is produced in 

 a diminishing quantity. This work requires so 

 much practice and is so tedious that its pro- 

 duction must be considered rather as that of a 

 fine art than as that of a commercial industry. 

 Far higher prices and a much greater certainty 

 of demand must obtain before, under existing 

 conditions of life in England, the best English 

 pillow-lace can enter into successful competition 

 with that of Belgium and France. 



THE PAVENHAM RUSH-MATTING AND WICKER 



BASKET INDUSTRIES 



The village of Pavenham is situated on the 

 River Ouse at a point where for many miles, 

 both above and below, the course of the river is 

 exceptionally tortuous and abounds in pools of 

 bulrushes, and has swampy banks lending them- 

 selves to the cultivation of osiers. When the 

 local rush-making industry began does not 

 appear to be discoverable ; it has probably 

 existed here from the time when the district 

 was first settled by people who knew the art and 

 made use of the matting. The earliest dis- 

 coverable date of its existence, as an industry 

 that met a more than local demand, is the latter 

 part of the seventeenth century ; and either the 

 commencement or the increased extension of it 

 as a widely known industry is indirectly con- 

 nected with the Great Plague of London in 

 1665. From local tradition corroborated by the 

 parish registers, and by the well-authenticated 

 statements of still living descendants of the per- 

 sons concerned, it appears that a man in London, 

 named Hipwell, married a woman from Paven- 

 ham, named Galing. As the parish registers 

 show that there had been a family of the name 

 of Hipwell in Pavenham from the beginning of 



the century, it is probable that the husband 

 mentioned above had also migrated to London 

 from that parish. When the plague broke out, 

 the London Hipwells sent down to Pavenham, 

 by a stage wagon, their little son — who is pre- 

 sumed to have been quite a child — to be t^en 

 care of by his grandmother Galing. It is this 

 son with whom the traceable history of the rush- 

 matting industry in Pavenham begins. It is 

 worth mentioning that, when the plague was 

 over, all efforts to discover the child's parents 

 were fruitless ; they had probably perished dur- 

 ing the prevalence of the epidemic, and no record 

 was made of their deaths. 



As young Hipwell, when he grew up, success- 

 fully developed the industry, it is generally 

 inferred that his relatives in the village were 

 already rush-matting makers. The chief busi- 

 ness remained in the Hipwell family for several 

 generations, and was profitable enough to enable 

 one generation to purchase some valuable water- 

 mills in a neighbouring parish, and thus to found 

 a still prosperous family of millers. 



The period of the greatest prosperity of the 

 rush-matting appears to have been during the 

 24 



