(December 2022) This is a post about my trip in July to view the collection of Lopham linen in Norfolk Museums, with photographs and descriptions of rare examples of handwoven huckaback cloth made around 1900. I am grateful to Ruth Battersby Tooke, senior curator of Costume and Textiles at Norfolk Museums Service, and Rachel Kidd, … Continue reading Lopham Linen
(November 2022) Concering the locations of Ralph Watson and Thomas Jackson, and the distribution of linen manufacture in North Yorkshire. The first image above is a map of North Yorkshire pinned to my studio wall. The black pin at the top right, near the mouth of the River Tees, locates the tiny village of Wilton, … Continue reading The linen manufacture of North Yorkshire, once upon a time.
(October 2022) Concerning a grave in Yorkshire and a manuscript in a New York museum. . In the churchyard of St. Cuthbert’s, in the hamlet of Wilton, near Lazenby in the North Riding of Yorkshire, is a gravestone bearing the following inscription: In Memory of JaneWife of Thomas JacksonBuryed Oct br. ye 13th 1758Aged 26 … Continue reading In Memory of Jane, Wife of Thomas Jackson
(September 2022) Concerning a nineteenth century loom and the recollections of a hemp worker in the French Alps. Ecomusée du Clos Parchet The star exhibit of the Ecomusée du Clos Parchet is the building itself, situated on a mountainside in the Haute Savoie, built in 1815 and now preserved as a typical example of a … Continue reading Hemp weaving at the Ecomusée du Clos Parchet
(August 2022) The following is a transcription of the documentary film Bäuerliche Leinenweberei 4: Herstellen von Leinwand, with my translation of the original German commentary presented alongside stills from the corresponding scenes in the film. The film is the fourth in a series recording the re-enactment of traditional linen weaving in the town of Dickenshied … Continue reading Rural Linen Weaving in Germany: Part 4: Weaving the Cloth
(March 2022) The following is a transcription of the film Bäuerliche Leinenweberei: 3: Aufbäumen, Anknüpfen und Schlichten der Kette, with my translation of the original German commentary presented alongside stills from the corresponding scenes in the film. The film is the third in a series recording the re-enactment of traditional linen weaving in the town … Continue reading Rural Linen Weaving in Germany: Part 3: Beaming, Tying and Dressing the Warp
(February 2022) The following is a transcription of the film Bäuerliche Leinenweberei: 2: Aufschlagen des Webstuhls, with my translation of the original German commentary presented alongside stills from the corresponding scenes in the film. The film is the second in a series recording the re-enactment of traditional linen weaving in the town of Dickenshied in … Continue reading Rural Linen Weaving in Germany: Part 2: Building The Loom
(February 2022) The following is a transcription of the film Bäuerliche Leinenweberei: 1: Schären der Kette, with my translation of the original German commentary presented alongside stills from the corresponding scenes in the film. The film is the first in a series recording the re-enactment of traditional linen weaving in the town of Dickenshied in … Continue reading Rural Linen Weaving in Germany: Part 1: Winding The Warp
(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
(December 2021) 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 Weavers’ Thesis Book: the Thomas Jackson Record