In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes >Is there a needle museum in your country?
Forge Needle Museum, Studley, near Redditch, Worcestershire. (We passed it yesterday, on the way to Coughton Court - home of the Throckmorton Family - of Gunpowder Plot fame - though also on display is Edward VIII's abdication letter - where the chemise Mary Queen of Scots wore for her execution is on display - the edgings are needlelace). It is worth going - in the same complex is Bordesley Abbey, and one of the Sheldon tapestries (a panel about 15-18 inches square) was on display in the Visitor Centre when we went (it is probably still there). This tapestry has a border of silver (metal) lace - Spanish fan and torchon ground if I remember correctly. Dates to late 17th Century. I have been a couple of times, and honestly can't remember many pins amongst the display (though there were pincushions, following the publication of Audrey Babbington's Pincushion Book a few years back) - the processes for making them are different (needles are made in pairs, the eyes punched in the centre of the rod before separating and pointing). I think there may have been a few to show the differing heads (from lumps of wax? to the current flat type). Being the gr gr gr granddaughter of a Bromsgrove nailer (Bromsgrove is not very far from Studley) I suppose this is the sort of thing I should know! BTW, nailing is another industry we were supposed to have no clue about until the Flemish refugees landed....! As you may gather, this area was famous for the production of needles and nails - though sadly, no longer - but a short while back it was more or less certain that any needle you held had been made in Studley. Now they are made in the far East, too. -- Jane Partridge - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED]
