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Rural Linen Weaving in Germany: 3: Beaming, Tying and Dressing the Warp

(March 2022) The following is my (unofficial) translation of the German commentary to the film Bäuerliche Leinenweberei: 3: Aufbäumen, Anknüpfen und Schlichten der Kette. The film is the third in a series recording the re-enactment of traditional linen weaving in the town of Dickenshied in 1978/9, produced by Landschaftsverband Rheinland. The translated commentary is presented … Continue reading Rural Linen Weaving in Germany: 3: Beaming, Tying and Dressing the Warp →

Rural Linen Weaving in Germany: 2: Building The Loom

(February 2022) The following is my (unofficial) translation of the German commentary to the film Bäuerliche Leinenweberei: 2: Aufschlagen des Webstuhls. The film is the second in a series recording the re-enactment of traditional linen weaving in the town of Dickenshied in 1978/9, produced by Landschaftsverband Rheinland. The translated commentary is presented alongside stills from … Continue reading Rural Linen Weaving in Germany: 2: Building The Loom →

Rural Linen Weaving in Germany: 1: Winding The Warp

(February 2022) The following is my (unofficial) translation of the German commentary to the film Bäuerliche Leinenweberei: 1: Schären der Kette. The film is the first in a series recording the re-enactment of traditional linen weaving in the town of Dickenshied in 1978/9, produced by Landschaftsverband Rheinland. The translated commentary is presented alongside stills from … Continue reading Rural Linen Weaving in Germany: 1: Winding The Warp →

Rural Linen Weaving in Germany – An Introduction

(February 2022) In the 1970s the German organisation Landschaftsverband Rheinland (LVR) began an ambitious project to record vanishing rural crafts, customs and work practices – including bell casting, mousetrap making, clay pipe making, butchery and bakery, as well as the cultivation and processing of flax. As part of the project, former weavers in the town … Continue reading Rural Linen Weaving in Germany – An Introduction →

Back to Thomas Jackson

(January 2022) This is an update to my post From Thomas Jackson to Ralph Watson (March 2021), where I describe how I came across a manuscript written between about 1711 and 1769 by four generations of North Yorkshire weavers all called Thomas Jackson, and how that lead me to another manuscript by a weaver called … Continue reading Back to Thomas Jackson →

Linen Landscapes

(June 2021) The Dutch artist Jacob van Ruisdael (1629-1682) made at least eighteen paintings of the linen bleaching fields around Haarlem. The landscapes are seen from an elevated vantage point, with the church of Sant Bavo on the horizon, and the bleaching fields in the middle distance, intersected by water channels, with strips of white … Continue reading Linen Landscapes →

Following Ralph Watson

(April 2021) Follow this link to my guest blog for the North Yorkshire County Records Office, April 2021.

From Thomas Jackson to Ralph Watson

(March 2021)   I went looking for Thomas Jackson and found Ralph Watson. Back in the early days of coronavirus lockdown, stuck at home and spending too much time browsing the internet, I came across a beautiful collection of linen cloths on the Cooper Hewitt Museum’s website. The rather enigmatic caption under the forty-one photographs … Continue reading From Thomas Jackson to Ralph Watson →

Machines in Disguise

(February 2021)   I recently bought a second-hand copy of ‘Mechanics for Textile Students’ by W.A. Hanton (1954). When it arrived through the letterbox I found some of the pages stamped by a previous owner: HOWARD & BULLOUGH SCHOOL – ACCRINGTON. Accrington is a small town in north-east Lancashire midway between Blackburn and Burnley. It … Continue reading Machines in Disguise →