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In 2023 I made a small batch of huckaback handtowels from the finest unbleached linen yarn I could obtain. One of these I monogrammed in memory of Albert Tyler, the last of the Lopham handloom weavers. Tyler was almost certainly involved in weaving the ‘Lopham linen’ which is now in the collection of Norfolk Museums and which first inspired me to make this huckaback cloth. My towelling is a close copy of the museum huckaback ¹ which was made in North Lopham by T.W. & J. Buckenham in 1906 (more here). My red cross-stitch embroidery is also modelled on the marking traditionally used in North Lopham.

Albert Tyler, pictured below, lived in North Lopham all his life and worked for T.W. & J. Buckenham for fifty years. He was also the organist at the local Wesleyan Chapel. He died in 1947 at the age of 89.¹

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Notes:
1. Norfolk Museum’s reference 1970.553.1.
2. Albert Tyler’s obituary, from a newspaper cutting in the Rita & Percy Beales archive, Crafts Study Centre, UCA Farnham (RPB 2/1/6).