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 linen stretched … Continue reading Linen Landscapes (June 2021)
Follow this link to my guest blog for the North Yorkshire County Records Office, April 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 read: Woven … Continue reading From Thomas Jackson to Ralph Watson (March 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 gives its … Continue reading Machines in Disguise (February 2021)