Years ago my Mum visited Nottingham and mentioned lace. Can't remember if
she purchased a lace tablecloth or not now. Many years later in 2001 after
I had had my very 1st bobbin lace lesson my husband and I stopped off in
Nottingham on our travels north and tried to hunt out the 'lace place' . We
went into what was actually now a lace shop, but selling rolls of machine
made lace mostly for bridalwear or evening wear. We spoke with 2 lovely
ladies in the shop, told them our mission and they redirected us to a little
museum place within walking distance. We looked around, saw some books for
sale on hand made bobbin lace, all sorts of stuff and video screening of
their machine processes towards the back of the place, but there was one
lady sitting at her pillow and she was fantastic. I told her I had just
started to learn and she showed me some of her threads, and what she was
doing, lots of small pieces, of torchon lace, (if memory serves me right).
Certainly there are modern lacemakers in the area as in most areas areas of
this country. The more I look the more I see. I was very ignorant of fact
and research then, slowly learning and enjoying the process now.
During the process of family research I have a copy of an 1851 census taken
in a village in Oxfordshire where some of my fathers people came from and
there are several lacemakers listed in the area at that time. Seemed like a
farming area and with a small mix of all the industries you might expect.
Seamstress, Blacksmith, labourer, pauper, and as I say, several lacemakers.
I was fascinated.
Sue T, in Dorset UK, where we have had 3 warmer and sunny days at last.
I can remember being told by an interested visitor when I was
demonstrating, that her mother had made Nottingham Lace. She was quite
insistent. Since
I was making bobbin lace I had to accept that she meant the same process
(of
course she might have meant tatting!.....) I concluded that either she
worked in a lace factory, or that, coming from Nottingham and making
hand-made
lace, she simply called it that.
Rosemary in Sussex
Dear Lacemakers,
Quoting from my memo to Arachne dated 2/28/03:
In 2001, I took an independent travel trip to Nottingham and went to the
Lace
Market Visitors Center (which may now be closed). There was a lovely
lacemaker with whom I chatted, sitting in the window, making bobbin lace.
So, there
was a physical tie with what was - in the rest of the center - machine
lace.
Could be misunderstood by anyone passing by, and misconstrued to confirm
something a mother or grandmother said in social conversation.
It was possible to buy books in this facility. I purchased two copies of
a
spiral-bound book published by Nottinghamshire Bobbin Lace Society to
commemorate their 25th anniversary. This is wonderful documentation of a
slice of
local lace history. I thought it such a nice idea for a lace society to
do, that
one copy was dispatched to the New Jersey lace club to which I belong.
The
book is a fairly thick one, with an introduction by Heather Harris (at the
time,
and maybe still - an Arachne)...
At any rate, the Nottinghamshire Bobbin Lace Society probably still
exists,
since I just confirmed one of their websites was last updated in December
2005.
Go to Google, put in the name of the society, and you'll find several
listings.
In the past, there was also a listing for Elizabeth Cooke's World of Lace
at:
www.theworldoflace.com
However, I found I could not access it tonight. It said "catch you later"
when I tried! This originally had a illustrated story about lace in
Nottingham.
Jeri Ames in Maine USA
Lace and Embroidery Resource Center
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