A Lace Jennier

[Sparrowlady]

Just pulled my grandmother's 1911 Census details up and she was employed as a Lace Jennier in Nottingham.  Cannot find this job title anywhere to pin down what the job was, so does anyone know who can fill me in please?  I  know she did work in the lace factories, but nothing more than that.

Also, where would the lace factories be in relation to Havelock Street, which  I cannot even find on an old map!

[copperbeech5]

Hi,

I can't help with identifying your Grandmothers trade, though I have a feeling that  a jennier is to do with spinning the thread.... but I really am not sure.

But from a book of old Nottingham street names I have , it suggests that Havelock St was off St Ann's Well Rd, and that road does still exist, it is not far from Huntingdon St, and runs up the side of St Mary's Rest Gardens.

My Great Grandmother worked at a lace factory on Weekday Cross, in the lace market, at the top off Low Pavement.  I imagine that there were factories all over Nottingham.

Nottinghmam Library have very good large scale old Nottingham maps, worth a visit if you can.

Hope that helps!

Copperbeech5

[CaroleW]

If it was connected to spinning the thread, then it may have derived from the "Spinning Jenny"

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TEXjenny.htm

[Sparrowlady]

The spinning jenny connection is what I had in my own mind regarding this job. 

Thanks for the info on Nottingham Library, when I get chance to go over there I'll check them out. 

I know so little about my grandmother's early life in Nottingham that I have this need to know every detail I can gather!

[Galium]

Possibly lace joiner?  A search of 1881 census on Ancestry by occupation shows up quite a few - it's clearly a female occupation.   

[Sparrowlady]

Lace  joiner?  No, this is clearly lace jennier, and on 1911 Census for Bolton, Lancs another relation is a cotton spinning gentor... so I think different areas had their local names for the job, and I think theh *jenny* element may be the best option.  Thanks for that info though.

[Ratae]

My aunt was a lace jennier in Nottingham.

Jennying was the last process when the finished lace was wound onto cards prior to sale.

In Chapter 10 of " Sons & Lovers" ( D.H.Lawrence) there is a mention e.g.

" Clara began to work. Her jenny spun with a subdued buzz, the white lace hopped from between her fingers onto the card. It was filled, she snipped off the length and pinned the end down to the banded lace. Then she put a new card in her jenny "

It was obviously work which could be done at home as well as in a lace factory.

Hope this is of use.

John

[Sparrowlady]

John

many thanks for this response.  I can now, at least, visualise what the task would have been. 

Putting my grandmother's young life together has proved difficult, but knowing her work before she married helps build a picture of her.  She moved from Nottingham to Derby after her marriage, lost her first husband at the Somme in 1916 and eventually married my grandfather and lived until thes late 1970's but she rarely spoke of her childhood.

[ankerdine]

Just thought I'd post on this old thread because it has helped me.

I've been searching for an ancestor Ada Buxton who married my grandfather's brother Fred Saxton in 1912 and just found the families on the 1911 census where she is a Lace Jennier.

Fred Saxton died in 1918 so that's another widow in the Nottingham Lace Factories!

She lived at Stretton Street and he lived at Herbert Street. I wonder how they met. Are these streets close together?

On their marriage certificate both their residences are down as No. 6 Stretton Street.

Interesting thread.

Judy