Debbi wrote:
I first took lessons from a lacemaker who had learned from an older
lacemaker. She had been a friend of the older lacemaker for many
years and had inherited all of her supplies. The lacemaker was now
very frail, and my teacher had taken her into her home to care for
her. She was very sweet and very excited that I was going to learn
how to make lace. My lessons were arranged to be about the time she
went to bed, so I didn't get to talk much to her. I don't think I
ever even wrote down her name, but now I must go through my things and
see if perhaps I did. My teacher shared a pattern, a pin with a glass
head, a bobbin, and a tea towel (covercloth) from this older lacemaker
with me when I left England...sort of a gift from generation to
generation. This older lacemaker was in her 90's in 1983.
Diana Smith wrote:
I have collected, researched and recorded pictures and information on
the old
East Midlands lacemakers for 25 years. At the last picture count 179
Buckinghamshire, 90 Northamptonshire, 129 Bedfordshire and 40 from
minor
surrounding counties plus some unidentified. Many of the 438+ pictures
are of
multiple workers.
I first learned to make BL from Mrs Vera Rigney (now in her 90s and
quite frail). She learned from Mrs Helen Hoppé of Cobham, Kent who had
learned from her mother Mrs Mary Ainger (1868-1930) of Cobham who in
turn learned from her mother Mrs Jane Dillow of Twyford, Bucks.
I used to have a photo of Helen Ainger aged about 20, (and identified a
copy of same photo in Rochester Guildhall museum some years ago) but I
passed it on to a descendant of Jane Dillow's who originally made
contact with The Lace Guild in his efforts to trace his lacemaking
ancestors. That query was passed to me as I lived in the area. David
and I exchanged quite a lot of emails at the time, but on my old system
and now deleted :-( and he made quite a lot of progress with his
family history. Diana, if you are interested I'll put you in touch
with him, I believe that he has several photos of his lacemaking
ancestors.
Brenda
http://paternoster.orpheusweb.co.uk/
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