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Some Special Interests => Occupation Interests => Topic started by: zowster on Sunday 22 July 07 23:01 BST (UK)
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Could anyone tell me what a tape weaver is please.
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when and where?
(although I suspect that the occupation is as it says)
Pauline
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it appears on the 1881 census and before i have been researching thomas holland born 1841 in west bromwich he is married to Hester they are living in wilnecote staffordshire in 1881 and Hester and the daughter Agnes are tape weaverss?
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Sure it isn't taper weaver?.
did you look at original images, and at the pages around?
Pauline
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it certainly looks like tape weaver to be honest i wouldn't konw what a taper weaver is either ???
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Hi, in the Victorian dictionary, a tape is "a narrow fillet or band of woven cloth, used for strings and the like (AngloSaxon-toeppe.)"
I don't know if that's any help? :)
Fred
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A taper weaver was someone who made wicks for candles.
Tape and ribbon weaving was a fairly common occupation in the midlands amongst the women of the labouring classes who did it at home.
David
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Hi there was a very long established tape-weaving (i.e. ribbon) factory in Tamworth. It was started by a French refugee, and was called Hamel Mills. It was only demolished in the late 1970s. There are a couple of photos of it here -
long link to search.staffs.pasttrack.org (http://www.search.staffspasttrack.org.uk/engine/resource/exhibition/standard/child.asp?txtKeywords=hamel&lstContext=&lstResourceType=&lstExhibitionType=&chkPurchaseVisible=&txtDateFrom=&txtDateTo=&x1=&y1=&x2=&y2=&scale=&theme=&album=&resource=5729&viewpage=%2Fengine%2Fresource%2Fexhibition%2Fstandard%2Fdefault%2Easp&originator=%2Fengine%2Fsearch%2Fdefault%5Fhndlr%2Easp&page=2&records=25&direction=1&pointer=8433&text=0&exhibition=604&offset=0)
This mill was in the centre of Tamworth. There was also a tape-weaving mill in a nearby village, Bolehall, but as your ancestors lived in Wilnecote, Hamel's would have been nearer.
Oldtimer
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thank you so much for the info i found the website you provided very interesting, thanks again
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You are welcome! If you search on the same site you will find some pictures of Two Gates, home of the infamous Reliant Robin!!!
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A taper weaver was someone who made wicks for candles.
Tape and ribbon weaving was a fairly common occupation in the midlands amongst the women of the labouring classes who did it at home.
David
Hello behindthefrogs,
As an Overlooker mechanic many years agoin the early 30's, A tape weaver or weavers were mainly women, they worked on what were termed Narrow Fabric Looms, which could weave 4, 6 to 8 tapes at a time. These were used mainly in upholstery, and usually the tapes could be woven with the name of the company woven into the tape using the ancient Jacquard system. Usually the main wide (say 200 looms) had a small number of say, about 10 narrow looms in the same weaving shed as we termed it.
Kind Regards
Raphael
UK & Düsseldorf (D)
Ps: I think you may have confused tape with Taper, which was a 6-8in length of wick with a thin coating of wax on it. A company near the Mill I worked in nearby called Pybus from Greece made these tapers among others used in Churches. R.
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A taper weaver was someone who made wicks for candles.
Tape and ribbon weaving was a fairly common occupation in the midlands amongst the women of the labouring classes who did it at home.
David
Hello behindthefrogs,
As an Overlooker mechanic many years agoin the early 30's, A tape weaver or weavers were mainly women, they worked on what were termed Narrow Fabric Looms, which could weave 4, 6 to 8 tapes at a time. These were used mainly in upholstery, and usually the tapes could be woven with the name of the company woven into the tape using the ancient Jacquard system. Usually the main wide (say 200 looms) had a small number of say, about 10 narrow looms in the same weaving shed as we termed it.
Kind Regards
Raphael
UK & Düsseldorf (D)
Ps: I think you may have confused tape with Taper, which was a 6-8in length of wick with a thin coating of wax on it. A company near the Mill I worked in nearby called Pybus from Greece made these tapers among others used in Churches. R.
Firstly tape and taper. If you read back through the thread you will find that both were being suggested.
Secondly we are not talking about the 1930s we are talking about the middle of the 19th century. I realise the Jacquard system was invented in 1801 but it was used for weaving complex designs. The Jacquard head was later incorporated into industrial looms producing multiple patterned or lettered tapes etc.
The production of plain tapes and ribbons was for a long time done on a small hand operated loom and it was to this process, which was a cottage industry, that I was referring. I must admit that by 1881 the women could well have been working in a factory but from the census details of which I am aware, around Nuneaton, it looks more likely to still have been a home industry.
David
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Hello Zowster,
I think the couple you are researching are in my family tree. I have Hester SIMMONS that married Thomas HOLLAND in 1866. Hester was a younger sister of my 2x Gr Grandmother Sophia SIMMONS.
I would be happy to share further information if you would like to.
Pinetree
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I thought I was pretty enlightened about most things, always trying to find out when I didn't know where something came from, or how it was made, but tape is something that slipped by unnoticed.
I wonder how many other people ever gave a thought to tape weavers when they bought a couple of yards at the haberdasher's . . . hmmm, now there's another interesting job title that's almost disappeared from use. . . :)
Mike.
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Hi everyone, just found your descriptions of a tape weaver which is brilliant. I have just received my great great grandmothers marriage entry which states she was a seam room tape weaver in 1866 in Aberdeen. Thanks to all who replied to the original post otherwise in 2017 I would never have found out just what her job entailed. Christine