I think the Lace schools taught boys as well as girls, and I seem to remember the stories (Possibly in Thomas writes book The romance of the Lace Pillow) that the schools charges 3 pence for girls to be taught, and 6 pence for boys!! Also he tells the wonderful story of the boy in Elstow who ran out of class with his pillow and dropped it down the well!!!!
Somewhere I read of some old men on the continent,(6 or 7 of them, I think.) who taught lacemaking at a lace School - and their beards were so long they had them tied up in little bags to keep them out of the way of the pins!!!!! You can see I have a very warped sense of humour - these are the bits I remember from books!!!!!!!!!! :) As to girls going to school (other than Lace School) -- my Great, Great Grandfather was almost banished from the family, as he sent his daughter (my Great Grandmother) to school to learn to read and write. The family were outraged that he wasted his hard-earned money sending a Girl to school!!! How times have changed!! Regards from Liz in Melbourne, Oz. - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
