Weaving and Spinning Mills

[rolnora]

Whenever my Dad was asked about his job in a cotton spinning mill, the same mill he had worked in since the age of 14 until the outbreak of WW2 he would reply that he was,
“a fitter, I mend the machines when they break down”
Anyone else heard this term used?
 

[lonetrooper]

Thanks for that Youngtug

What an excellent website for all things weaving.

I especially like the 17th century weaving poem with links from each weaving terms.

http://trowbridgemuseum.co.uk/cloth-making-2/

[Rena]

Whenever my Dad was asked about his job in a cotton spinning mill, the same mill he had worked in since the age of 14 until the outbreak of WW2 he would reply that he was,
“a fitter, I mend the machines when they break down”
Anyone else heard this term used?
 

Everything was mechanised in the 20th century and "fitter" is a common term for "mechanical engineer".   

My father was a "fitter" too but served a 7 year apprenticeship in an engineering company manufacturing excavators and grabs.

[Rena]

Oh my goodness!

Thanks for that Rena,

Confess I'd need more that 9 minutes to take that in. It certainly makes sense of the need for 7 years training!

My ancestors were Trowbridge, not Tewksbury, sorry. The whole village seemed to be dedicated to wooler-weaving but in 1750, it must have been more like the film you posted.

Some of the old looms were astonishing contraptions. I can't find the link now but some of them were like a hut size timer frame and the weaver sat inside it and kind of rode it like a bicycle and played it like an organ.

You are right about the whole family being involved. On each census, almost every neighbour is a  weaver as well.

Do you think these would be more the type of loom for a small company at that time?


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/JacquardLoomsSAFALodzPoland.jpg/412px-JacquardLoomsSAFALodzPoland.jpg


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bb/PSM_V39_D325_Carpet_loom_with_jacquard

I had to weave my own school scarf (on a portable handloom) so my answer is that the size of the loom would depend on what the weaver specialised in.  The foot pedals were a labour saving invention to change the weft for the shuttle to pass through.   Having seen TV documentaries showing the cottage weaving industry of Scottish islanders it was noticeable just how large their looms are, which in turn, were not too dissimilar from your illustration.

On this page there's a historical drawing showing a cottage weaver in the Glasgow district of Scotland on the main loom using the foot pedals and his young apprentice. http://www.glasgowhistory.co.uk/images/BridgetonBookPhotos/14a-Loom.JPG

Each breed of sheep has its own unique wool properties so I was interested to read that the wool actually falls off the wiltshire breed sheep plus they roamed freely, which must have brought down the cost.

I wonder if you've seen these two websites, one of which gives a potted history of the breed of sheep in the area and the other outlines the importance of the area to the British economy throughout history.

http://www.wiltshirehorn.org.uk/about_the_breed/

 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=102806

[lonetrooper]

Dear Rena,

Thank you so much for these articles – they have completely enhanced my understanding and appreciation for this period of family history and as ever, this is such a palatable way to connect with history generally. It also puts the severity of apprenticeships into context. What irony that the high standards of Trowbridge cloth are what did for them in the end. My folks went into shoemaking after the decline.

How wonderful that the native sheep of Wiltshire have been protected and are making a comeback; it makes perfect sense and another nice little article to add to the folio; a much appreciated illumination.

Here is that, organ like contraption. I believe it is called a Diderot draw loom  abt 1763.

http://mediasvc.ancestry.co.uk/v2/image/namespaces/1093/media/61138071-8566-47e8-a2b6-3ebf6a60c17d?client=TreesUI&maxSide=500

Thanks again

 

[lonetrooper]

William Hogarth - Of industry and idleness 1747

'The fellow ‘prentices at their looms’.
http://www.londonlives.org/static/images/prentices.jpg

The interior of a weaver’s workroom; to the left, an apprentice is busy at his loom while to the right, his fellow apprentice is asleep at his. To extreme left, the Master is raising his cane, in the centre is a spinning wheel and a cat on its hind legs, additional objects are a tankard wheel and spindle wound with silk thread, symbolic embellishments added to the margin include the Mace, the Lord Mayor’s chain, fetters and halter

Source - hover mouse over picture here: http://www.londonlives.org/static/IA.jsp

[Rena]

Dear Rena,

Thank you so much for these articles – they have completely enhanced my understanding and appreciation for this period of family history and as ever, this is such a palatable way to connect with history generally. It also puts the severity of apprenticeships into context. What irony that the high standards of Trowbridge cloth are what did for them in the end. My folks went into shoemaking after the decline.

How wonderful that the native sheep of Wiltshire have been protected and are making a comeback; it makes perfect sense and another nice little article to add to the folio; a much appreciated illumination.

Here is that, organ like contraption. I believe it is called a Diderot draw loom  abt 1763.

http://mediasvc.ancestry.co.uk/v2/image/namespaces/1093/media/61138071-8566-47e8-a2b6-3ebf6a60c17d?client=TreesUI&maxSide=500

Thanks again

 

lol, I've never seen anything like that before.  From the illustrations of that loom in situe I can see with the low ceilings we have today it wouldn't fit into a modern house, but it would fit into one of the high ceiling rooms of my stone terrace house which was built in 1853. 

Local Weaver Guilds (like all other craftsmen Guilds) kept records of members plus their annual subscriptions and were supposed to send their apprenticeship records to London.  I have tried to find some of my ancestors' apprenticeships but not many records seem to have survived. 

[lonetrooper]

hi again Rena,

Not sure if this will help but my folks were listed under this title:

UK Register of Duties Paid for Apprentices' indentures

There was a heading: Flower & Salmon  - Wiltshire

Not sure who they were: solicitors or Masters?

I just put the above into a search and this came up:

http://history.wiltshire.gov.uk/archives/archive_search.php?subject_in=POOR%20RELIEF/Parish%20workhouses

You may find your folk under miscellaneous papers in the relevant Council?

Well worth trying one or more of the tree building sites such as 'find my past' and doing a search under tax and legal, wills and probate links etc.


thanks again

[Rena]

hi again Rena,

Not sure if this will help but my folks were listed under this title:

UK Register of Duties Paid for Apprentices' indentures

There was a heading: Flower & Salmon  - Wiltshire

Not sure who they were: solicitors or Masters?

I just put the above into a search and this came up:

http://history.wiltshire.gov.uk/archives/archive_search.php?subject_in=POOR%20RELIEF/Parish%20workhouses

You may find your folk under miscellaneous papers in the relevant Council?

Well worth trying one or more of the tree building sites such as 'find my past' and doing a search under tax and legal, wills and probate links etc.

thanks again

Flower & Salmon ... I noticed one of them had two looms in the 1400s.  There's a potted history on what looks like a legal company which shows how the two names came together.   It looks like men with both of those names were social climbers acquiring money and plots of land (even a castle!) on their way up to wield power over the community. 

"Workhouses" were a combination of being the local hospital and for those who had fallen on hard times.  Children were taught a trade and adult paupers who were able to had to work for their keep - it seems Wiltshire put their paupers out for farm work and I also spied this on the link you gave:

 <<"Notebook recording the amounts earned for the parish by paupers from spinning and weaving in the parochial workhouse.>>

On the face of it, it might be construed that the buyers of the woven material paid such low prices that workers had to apply for entry to the workhouse where they would have to work but would at least have food & a roof over their heads.

Have you see the timeline list of inventions in the textile industry from 1733 to 1856?  You'll see why we have a period in our history called "the industrial revolution".  http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blindustrialrevolutiontextiles.htm

Weavers, etc., had a major dispute in the late 1700s with the mill employers due to ever decreasing wages and the militia were called out to quell the workers.  The wages and/or prices paid for work done decreased for various reasons, one being the costly war with Napoleon in France which raised taxes for employers and the rich, which was one factor in there being a long and severe recession - ordinary people on the bottom rungs of the ladder were starving.