To continue on the theme of knitted stockings, first some pictures from the ArtUk website. Knitting was done by anyone and anywhere. This picture is called Minding Baby by William H Ward [active 1850 - 1899] and is at the Wednesbury Museum and Art Gallery. Knitting is hanging from the girl's belt. This picture is called Welsh Landscape with two women knitting and is by William Dyce [ 1806 - 1864] and is at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff. I can't say I have ever thought, "oh I must go and sit on a hard rock and do some knitting". This is called The Peat Boat, Shetland by William Fleming Vallance [1827 - 1909] and is at the Shetland Museum and Archives. One of the girls in the boat is knitting. Isn't this amazing? it is called Pittenweem Fishergirls and is at the Scottish Fisheries Museum. Never a minute to be wasted. They are posed on wet ground, I presume sand, wearing clogs, each with a knitted stocking. All this activity out of doors, and not the main source of income. But these pictures give the idea that knitting was part of everyday life. Daniel Defoe's tour guide is a classic that you can turn to again and again and is oft quoted. His tour missed many places out but he probably stuck to the main roads. His tour was undertaken in the 1720s before the mania of Turnpikes. He described Richmond as - A Large town ... here you begin to find a manufacture on foot again, and as before, all was clothing, and all the people clothiers, here you see people great and small knitting, and at Richmond you have a market for wool and yarn stockings which they make very coarse and ordinary, and they are sold accordingly; for the smallest sized stockings for children are here sold for eighteen pence per dozen, or three ha'pence a pair, sometimes less. This trade extends itself also into Westmoreland ... for at Kendal and Kirkby Stephen ... the chief manufacture of yarn stockings is carried on; it is indeed a very considerable manufacture in itself, and of late mightily increased....... As the eighteenth century advanced more people travelled so more guide books were written. Thomas Pennant actually wrote a book about Scotland, but on his way back south he stopped in Yorkshire and wrote - Before I quit these delicious tracts [he liked the dales] I must remark that from Leybourne to their extremity there is scarcely a mile but what is terminated by a little town, and every spot, even far up the hills, embellished with small neat houses. Industry and competence seem to reign among the happy regions ... Mittens and knit stockings are their manufacture. The hills produce lead, the valleys cattle, horses, sheep, wool, butter and cheese. This book was one of the earliest written about knitting in the dales. It explains how wool was sent out on carrier carts and how the knitted stockings, caps and gloves were then gathered back in by the hosiers. The wool was coarse and the finished articles were then put on wooden boards and fulled. Hartley and Ingilby went through the whole region of the dales across to Dent and Sedbergh and described the last of the knitters that they met. One little snippet of information I was delighted with in this book is that the knitters used to meet together in each other's houses to knit of an evening and had Knitting Songs. And evidently number 804 in the Old Methodist Hymn Book, tune called Dent Dale, is the tune of an old knitting song. "Spread, O spread, thy mighty word/ Spread the Kingdom of the Lord" are the words in MHB, I wonder what the original words were? Oh what joy to combine knitting, singing, and the Old Methodist Hymn Book! On the subject of Dent, which is stunningly beautiful, the memoirs of Benjamin Shaw, born in 1772 in Dent, describe that his father was a weaver, how he, Benjamin, learnt to knit as a small child, and his mother, as well as producing a baby every two years until there were seven of them, had to augment the family income by "winding" while her husband was at the loom, presumably winding onto the shuttles. As well as that she was always knitting stockings or spinning worsted for stockings or stuff gowns which was "her common employ [and] she learned and kept us children to this work constantly this helped my father's earnings a little..." Benajmin Shaw and his family then moved as a man came over to Dent to get factory workers for a Lancashire mill and they left in 1791. But what happened to all these stockings? Abraham Dent in Kirkby Stephen was a hosier who bought wool, supplied knitters, and sold knitted stockings to clothiers in London who then supplied the military. A few of his accounts and letters books have survived which give an insight into his commercial business. In the 1760s he supplied John Cleasby in Swaledale with wool and soap, John Cleasby then put this out to knitters and the accounts have a list of names, not reproduced in the book, but examples given - George Alderson knitted a dozen pairs, Ed Cherry the same. John Cleasby distributed the wool and collected the finished stockings and then took them to Abraham Dent who packed them up to go to London. If Dent could not supply the style of stockings required he had contacts and in 1784 wrote to a potential customer recommending Mr John Harrison and a Mr Stuart of Hawes who could supply them. Abraham Dent supplied two companies in London, one was called Harley and Lloyd, and the other was the company of Nicholas Pearse, whose portrait is here, painted by Thomas Gainsborough [1727 - 1788] Nicholas Pearse [1720 - 1793] had his clothier business at 41 Lothbury, London and did very well indeed. He had country houses in Essex and Wiltshire and his eldest son became a Governor of the Bank of England. The portrait above is on the Sotheby's website (bidding closed). This indicates there was money to be made in knitted stockings. The hosiers who collected them and marketed them did very well. Some of them were enterprising men who had cash to invest in other industries in the dales such as mining or quarrying. In Swaledale Thomas Parke of Feetham, hosier, was involved in speculating for mines. Some had contacts in London and other parts of the country. To illustrate these countrywide connections here are some documents. John Thwaite of Ramsgate in Kent made a will in 1808. He mentioned a nephew who was a Hosier in Nottingham called James Thwaite, bequeathed property in the dales at Raydaleside and a Freehold estate at Countersett where a cousin called James Thwaite lived, some of this land he had inherited in 1787 as recorded in a Deed witnessed by two hosiers in Hawes, John Harrison and Cuthbert Allen. How and why John Thwaite died in Ramsgate I don't know, but his life in the dales had involved hosiery. Some probate documents give an idea of how much a person was worth when they died. Their executors had to take out a bond of administration often double the value of the estate. In Askrigg there were several members of the Burton family who were hosiers. George Burton of Askrigg, hosier was buried 3 January 1787. The administration documents for his estate give a value of £1,000. The first document dated 10th January 1787 is the swearing of an oath and the second, with crossings out, is because the first executrix was under twenty one and her sister took over, but as she was married, her husband had to be the executor in her place. Both state the value as £1,000. This bond is dated 1792 and the widow of George Smith of Askrigg, another hosier, took out a bond for £3,000. and here, Annas, his widow, declared that George Smith's estate was valued at £1,600. Usually the bond was about double the estate value. The £3,000 was not produced, but would have to be paid if the estate was not administered. This is the will of Cuthbert Allen of Hawes in the parish of Aisgarth in the North Riding of the County of York, hosier .... he first bequeaths several items of silver ..... Probate was granted to his widow Mrs Hannah Allen on 24 November 1803 and she swore that his estate was valued at about £2,000. There was money in stockings. Some of the money was made in London. this is the trade card for George Holland in London, a hosier and hatter, from the Lewis Walpole Collection. The Trade Cards were a work of art in themselves. There was a Teesdale man called Charles Waistell, born 1747, who moved through several careers, but ended up making a fortune as a hosier in London. He went into business with Henry and George Holland and a William Orton or Horton. They were no ordinary hosiers and did not sell ordinary stockings, oh no [not quite M & S though] they advertised that they were the Patentees and Manufacturers of "Fleecy Hosiery" and even supplied the Royal Family. They supplied stockings and knee caps, gloves, mittens, night caps, pantaloons, feet baskets, bosom friends, muff linings and drawers as well as pieces of material for great coats and waistcoats. This sounds to have been some sort of thermal clothing as they laid extravagant claims to its warmth and benefits to many ailments. Doesn't it sound wonderful. They then had retail suppliers who advertised in all the provincial newspapers. Charles Waistell, having made a mint out of hosiery, retired into Camden Town and made a will. His relatives were very well provided for including his brother and nephews in Romaldkirk. He had also ventured into Banking and a bank note issued in 1792 for the Godalming and Surry [sic] bank is on a Goldaming website.
In conclusion, as the sun sets ever earlier, and the temperature starts to fall, I can recommend wearing a pair of woollen socks. It really does make a difference. Now as to a Bosom Friend, fleecy if possible, does anyone know where I could get one?
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AuthorThis is where you can share creativity with me. I believe that everyone has something creative within them, and it is a joy to find ways of being creative. Blogging is NEW to me, so here goes ..... Archives
January 2024
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