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Linen Samples after Thomas Jackson.

Alice Pastoret Macdonald, a weaver from Iowa, spent the best part of a decade weaving samples from all the draughts in the eighteenth century Thomas Jackson manuscript. In this post I present my photographs of her linen samples alongside the corresponding drafts from the manuscript.

Background

The weaver Thomas Jackson lived near Kirkleatham in the North Riding of Yorkshire from 1668 to 1746. In 1711 he bought a notebook in Rotterdam which he then used to keep a record of the cloth he was weaving for customers and family. His son and grandson, both also called Thomas Jackson, continued the tradition. The book contains drafts for about 65 different cloths woven by the three generations and is probably the best record we have of the techniques used by eighteenth century weavers in rural England. You can view the whole notebook here.

The manuscript was acquired by the Cooper Union Museum in New York in 1958. Over the following six years Alice Pastoret MacDonald, a weaver from Iowa, transcribed all the patterns in the manuscript and wove three sets of samples, one of which she gave to the museum. They include linens, woollens, ‘Iinsey-wonseys’, and coloured stripes.

 

I went to look at the manuscript and the samples in March 2024. The Cooper Hewitt’s curator of textiles generoulsy had the samples brought in from the storage facility in New Jersey where they are usually kept.

In this post I show my photographs of a selection of Macdonald’s linen samples. They are arranged in the order in which the draughts appear in the manuscript. For each sample I include my close-up photograph with an image of the corresponding draft in the manuscript.

In the notes I refer to the elder Thomas Jackson as Thomas Jackson Junior and his son as Thomas Jackson III, following the convention used by Harriet Tidball in the Shuttle Craft monogram “Thomas Jackson, Weaver; 17th and 18th Century Records.”

With thanks to Cooper Hewitt Museum, New York, for making the manuscript accessible and facilitating my study visit. Manuscript images courtesy of Cooper Hewitt.

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Diaper in 12 Leaves (Little Die Spot)

Sample accession number: 1962-121-1
Draught appears on manuscript page 10, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior), with the following notes:
“Diaper in 12 Leaves. Work the 34th
This work I first wrought for Mrs Sandforth in the year of our Lord 1689. The draught is over and over and makes a little die (?) Spott proved (?) per TJ (?)”

A point draught on 12 leaves. The same draught is repeated by Thomas Jackson (III) on page 52, where the name “Little Die Spot” is more legible. The term ‘diaper’, with various spellings, is also used for the damask block patterns such as the ‘Very Prity Dieber’ (below).

Treadling orders are not given for most of the draughts, which are to be ‘treadled as drawn’.

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Fours & Fives for Happings

Sample accession number: 1963-15-3
Draught appears on manuscript page 11, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior).
There are several draughts for ‘hapings’ or ‘happings’ in the manuscript but the precise meaning of the term as used in eighteenth century Yorkshire is uncertain. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the following definition: Something that covers a person, as a wrap, shawl, coat, etc., or a coverlet or bed-covering… Now chiefly Scottish and English regional (northern). The online Yorkshire Historical Dictionary has: A bed cover, a quilt or coverlet. The English Dialect Dictionary (Volume 3) has an entry for the verb ‘to hap’: to cover, enwrap; to cover up up for the sake of warmth. Jackson includes no notes about which kind of yarn was used in his happings. The definitions above suggest to me a woolen, or part woolen cloth, rather than one woven entirely from linen.

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Sattonett

Sample accession number: 1963-15-5
Draught on manuscript page 13, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior).

Thomas Jackson (Junior) gives a six leaf satinette as well as this 8 leaf version which is one of three draughts on page 13 of the manuscript. Nothing indicates this was meant for linen. The draught below it is Bird’s Eye in Worsitt (worsted).

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Huggaback (Dumb-flowers)

Sample accession number: 1963-15-6
Draught on manuscript page 14, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior) with notes added by Thomas Jackson (III):
“This Huggaback will take 6 cuts to Lay a yard if it be but 20 cuts to ye pound it must be in the 46 slay 2 in a reed”.
If a ‘cut’ is 300 yards, then 6 cuts is 1800 yards. Does Jackson mean it takes 6 cuts for the warp – in which case his warp has 1800 ends – or for the weft as well, in which case his warp is perhaps 900 ends? I estimate his 20 Lea yarn would be sett at about 40 ends per inch. In that case 1800 ends is 45 inches, or one Ell, while 900 ends is about 22 inches. “46” refers to the reed, but I am unsure how the reeds were measured.

This structure, with a figure of flushed weft on a tabby ground, is similar to a group of weaves called “Dumb Flowers” in John Murphy’s Treatise on the Art of Weaving (1827), chapter IX “Flushing”, section III. “Dumb-flowers are generally woven on cambric grounds; although they are sometimes applied to the ornamenting of shawls and gown pieces, the warp and weft of which are of different colours.”
The Jacksons use the term Huggaback or Huckaback to describe a variety of weaves where floats or ribs alternate with a tabby ground.

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The Garnished Table

Sample accession number: 1963-81-2
Draught on manuscript page 16, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior)

“This work is called the Garnished Table“
Point draught on 16 leaves.

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For Lady Standish

Sample accession number: 1963-81-3
Draught on manuscript page 20, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior)
“Work the 20th; This work I wrought for my Lady Standish”

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M and O Huggaback

Sample accession number: 1962-148-3
Draught on manuscript page 20, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior).
“The Right M and O huggaback;
The same above.”

M & O (sometimes referred to as Ms and Os) is not usually thought of as a kind of huckaback, and the structure is quite different. See this post for my speculations about huckaback and its origins. Perhaps like huckaback it was used as towelling in eighteenth century Yorkshire. The structure alternates between plain weave and rib weave. Jackson’s version has three ribs per block rather then the more usual two, making a resemblance to the letter M of the name.

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Harts & Diamonds in 16 Leaves

Sample accession number: 1963-81-5
Draught on manuscript page 22, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior).
“Harts and Diamonds in 16 leaves. Work the 4.”

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Hearts with Pops About Them

Sample accession number: 1963-81-7
Draught on manuscript page 24, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior).
“This work makes hearts with pops about them. Work ye 6th.
This work the draught is all over and over and proved by me Thomas Jackson to be new work.”

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The Barley Corn

Sample accession number: 1965-40-1
Draught on manuscript page 25, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior).
“This work is called The Barley Corn. You may work it either in Lining or worsitt.
The draught; The Barley Corn 172?.
Draw all one way”

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Unnamed draught on 16 Leaves

Sample accession number: 1965-40-1
Draught on manuscript page 25, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior).

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Diaper in 15 leaves

Sample accession number: 1963-81-9
Draught on manuscript page 30, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior).
“Diaper in 15 leaves. Work the 32nd.
This work is called W?…
I first wrought it for Mrs…of Durham in the year …
Be sure to draw this work … ottherways it will make… proved by me Thomas Jackson …”

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Very Prity Dieber

Sample accession number: 1965-40-1
Draught on manuscript page 39, written by Thomas Jackson (III).
“This very Prity Dieber”

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Fower and Fives Work

Sample accession number: 1963-81-11
Draught on manuscript page 44, written by Thomas Jackson (Junior).

“This is fower and five’s work. It was wrought for Elizabeth R(?)igg.”

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Huckaback

Sample accession number: 1962-148-8
Draught on manuscript page 45, written by Thomas Jackson (III).

Huckaback linen is traditionally used for towelling, with warp and weft floats giving its charactistic texture. It is normally woven in white or unbleachged grey linen, but Alice MacDonald wove this sample with a turquoise weft. The 1962 Accession number suggests it was amongst the earliest of her samples.
This draught has two alternative spellings of huckaback:
“Hukaback Ye tying. / Huggaback should be slayed common by two or three porteth farder than comon plane cloth. / For fifty cuts to ye pound you may work it in 66 slay two in a reed.“

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Dieper Happings

Sample accession number: 1962-121-2
Draught on manuscript page 46, written by Thomas Jackson (III).

“This work is for working dieper happings. When you begin to draw any haping you must begin in ye Midle of one of ye great spots as you see marked w’th et X because when you sue them together ye two half spots joyns to gether and makes ye spots whole then all ye twill runs right through out all ye happing. 1755.”

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For Women Pettecots

Sample accession number: 1963-81-10
Draught on manuscript page 58, written by Thomas Jackson (III).

“This may be wrought in Lin tow or S…? for Women Pettecots. Ye tying up.
The Draught and tread”.

Tow is coarse yarn made from the shorter flax fibres discarded during the preparation of the finer ‘line’ yarn.

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Thomas Jackson’s “Right M and O Huggaback”

I recently made some linen towels and napkins from a draught written in the 1700’s by Thomas Jackson in North Yorkshire. Why did he think his version of M & O was the “right” one? And why is M and O a kind of huggaback?

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I wove the linen for these hand towels in 2024, from unbleached and half-bleached 28 Lea yarn. The distinctive weave structure comes from an eighteenth century draught by the North Yorkshire weaver Thomas Jackson (1668-1746). 1 Jackson called it “The Right M and O Huggaback”.

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Above is the draught as it appears on page 20 of the Thomas Jackson manuscript, which is catalogued as “Weaver’s Thesis Book” in the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York. It is one of about 50 such notations in the manuscript. This particular draught has 48 ends in one repeat. For some reason Jackson has written out the whole draught three times. Between the first and second rows he wrote: “the same above”. The third row differs slightly, the difference seeming to be an error.

‘M and O’, otherwise known as ‘Ms and Os’, is a familiar weave structure consisting of alternating blocks of plain weave and rib weave. It is commonly woven with 8 ends and picks in each block, giving two 4-end ribs in each rib block. Jackson’s version is unusual in having 12 ends and picks per block, giving three ribs rather than two (and making it more complicated to thread). There is a formal similarity between the three ribs and the uprights of the letter M, which can be seen in the close-up photograph below:

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This close-up shows a section of cloth about one-inch wide, after washing and ironing. The denser plain-woven sections have expanded into the looser rib-weave areas, becoming somewhat circular in shape. The letters M and O can be read in the surface of this version (the three ribs forming the upright of the M, the rounded outline of the plain weave areas making the O), which is presumably why Jackson called it the “right” M and O. This also suggests how the name may have originated.

Most modern authorities on weaving consider Huckaback and M & O as quite distinct families of weave structure, but Jackson seems to have thought of M & O as a type of huggaback / huckaback. In my previous post Huckaback / Piggyback I argued that that the word Huckaback derives from the German huckepack, for piggyback, referring to the way in which huckaback’s long ‘floats’ are carried on the back of otherwise plain-woven cloth. Given that huckaback and M & O share this charactertic as variants of plain-cloth, and both are useful as towelling, it seems reasonable to see them a related structures, as Jackson seems to have done.

Notes:
1. For more about Thomas Jackson and the Weaver’s Record Book see my previous posts:
From Thomas Jackson to Ralph Watson
Weavers’ Thesis Book: the Thomas Jackson Record
In Memory of Jane, Wife of Thomas Jackson
The Linen Manufacture of North Yorkshire, Once upon a Time

Hand Loom for Linen.

Building a new loom along historic lines in 2023.

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I spent much of 2023 building a new loom specifically for linen. The finished loom is shown in the photographs above. The images further down this post show the various stages of the design and build process.

The loom is modelled on examples of nineteenth century linen looms in museums in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. These old looms share the ‘four-post’ frame configuration, with a full-height post at each corner, a type sometimes referred to as ‘Old English’ although by no means peculiar to England.1 The framework is strong and heavy to withstand the strenuous beating and high tension needed for closely woven linen. The sides are open, giving easy access to the harness and the warp, and the looms are rather long to expose a generous amount of warp for dressing.2

The new loom has a countermarche shedding mechanism, and is fitted with a fly-shuttle. The unusual forked swords are modelled on those used in North Lopham in Norfolk, adjusted with a twisted cord. The warp beam is fitted with interchangeable ratchet wheels with 12, 14 or 16 teeth. The cloth beam is advanced with a pulley-operated lever and ratchet.

At the very bottom of this post is a video showing how the wedged and pegged joints allow for quick assembly of the loom frame.

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Notes:
1. See for example my post about the 1724 Treatise known as Farming in Scotland in which the ‘French’ loom has this configuration.
2. The essential characteristics of a good linen loom were described by Percy Beales in the article Hand Loom for Linen Weaving, Quarterly News of the Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers, November 1936. Here are some extracts:
If we are intent upon sound work, the essentials towards a good craftsmanship are just as inexorably the same for us as they were for our forefathers. They knew well enough that good linen would never come off a flimsy loom. They built heavily and made all rigid above and below fore and aft…
In order to ensure rigidity, year in year out under constant stress and strain, the old handlooms i knew as a child had their uprights let into and firmly embedded in the ground. When a suspicion of tremor was discovered in the upper framework, this was braced with baulks of timber let into the walls…
The beater must be really heavy and swing forward with considerable force…
An average distance of not less than five feet is a suitable stretch of warp to have exposed at a time.

The Ballydugan Looms, part 2.

The second of two posts presenting photographs of the linen looms at Ballydugan Weaver’s House in the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum, Northern Ireland.
This post deals with the ‘damask loom’, the previous post with the ‘plain loom’.

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Ballydugan Weaver’s House is a reconstruction of an 1850s weaver’s cottage from Ballydugan, County Down. It currently houses two working linen looms, both dating from around 1900. The two looms are similar in size and construction. Both have previously been fitted with Jacquard mechanisms, but one is currently set up for plain weaving with the Jacquard harness removed. The other is set up for damask weaving. In these posts I refer to them as the Plain Loom (see previous post) and the Damask Loom.
I visited in April 2023 to look at details of loom construction to inform my own loom build later in the year. I am grateful to the weavers Roisin & Joanne for welcoming me.

The Damask Loom

The frame of the Damask loom is narrower than the Plain loom but of similar form, with the addition of extra uprights and rails to support the Jacquard mechanism, punch cards and harness. It is fitted with a flanged warp beam with a large wooden brake wheel with only twelve teeth (the plain loom has a wheel with sixteen teeth). The pawl lever has an additional step at the end to allow the brake to be held midway between two teeth. The fly-shuttle arrangement is very similar to that described on the plain loom. The Jacquard harness works in tandem with the front eight-shaft harness to weave damask.

The ‘Damask’ loom, general view.

The ‘Damask’ loom, general view.

Ratchet wheel & pawl (left); turnscrew for adjusting warp beam height (right).

SIde view showing front harness & fly-shuttle box.

Fly-shuttle box.

Fly-shuttle picker made from apple-wood.

Fly-shuttle picking stick.

Front harness.

Jacquard mechanism on top of loom.

Jacquard punch cards.

The Ballydugan Looms, part 1.

The first of two posts presenting photographs of the linen looms at Ballydugan Weaver’s House in the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum, Northern Ireland.
This post deals with the ‘plain loom’, the second post with the ‘damask loom’.

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Ballydugan Weaver’s House is a reconstruction of an 1850s weaver’s cottage from Ballydugan, County Down. It currently houses two working linen looms, both dating from around 1900. The two looms are similar in size and construction. Both have previously been fitted with Jacquard mechanisms, but one is currently set up for plain weaving with the Jacquard harness removed. The other is set up for damask weaving. In these posts I refer to them as the Plain Loom and the Damask Loom (see next post).
I visited in April 2023 to look at details of loom construction to inform my own loom build later in the year. I am grateful to the weavers Roisin & Joanne for welcoming me.

The Plain Loom

Both looms have the four-post frame configuration typical many old linen looms, with a post at each corner and open sides, giving easy access for adjusting the harness and dressing the warp. The frame of the ‘Plain Linen Loom’ is 1.5m wide and 1.97m long measured from the outside of the posts, and 1.78 high to the top of the top side rail. The timber appears to be pine. The posts are about 7.5cm wide and 14cm deep. The loom is braced into the roof structure for added stability. The base of the posts once sat directly on the earthen floor but have rotted and now sit on a pair of new floor plates. The treadles are set above a shallow pit in the floor.

The steel warp beam is fitted with a very large brake wheel with sixteen teeth and a large wooden pawl. The ends of the beam are supported on brackets which can be raised or lowered with an iron turnscrew. If very long warps were used it would have been be necessary to lower the beam periodically to maintain a consistent warp line. The current warp of bleached linen was wound by Fergusons of Banbridge.

The cloth beam has an iron or steel ratchet with about one hundred somewhat irregular teeth that appear to be hand-cut. The weaver advances the warp by pulling on a cord running up and down inside the right front post and over a pulley at the top. Pulling on the cord raises a lever,attached to the ratchet mechanism under the seat.

The loom is fitted with a fly-shuttle. The fly-shuttle pickers run on steel rods and are each made from a single block of apple-wood with the grain running across. Small willow branches attached to the swords operate as springs. Old rubber bicycle pedals have been repurposed and fitted on the rods to make buffers to arrest the motion of the pickers.

The batten is hung from a repurposed wooden rail spanning between the tops of the side-frames. The height of the batten can be adjusted by tightening or loosening the twisted cords which secure the swords to the rail.

There are four heddle shafts hung from coupers in the top-castle. The heddles are hand-knitted and varnished. The two treadles are pivoted at the back. There are four lamms or marches pivoted at the left. The front two lamms are tied together, as are the back two. The harness has a counterbalanced action: one treadle raises the two front shafts and sinks the back two, and the other treadle does the oppsoite.

The ‘plain’ loom, general view.

Front posts.

Junction of front post & top rail.

Front post, breast beam, seat.

Front of loom from the side.

Underside of warp beam with treadle pivot over floor pit.

Warp beam with brake wheel.

Warp beam with brake wheel.

Warp beam with brake wheel.

Warp with lease sticks.

Underside of cloth beam with ratchet mechanism.

Underside of cloth beam with ratchet mechanism.

Fly-shuttle box.

Fly-shuttle box.

Junction of sword and rocker with twisted cord for height adjustment.

Junction of sword and rocker from the rear, with peg for twisting cord for height adjustment.

Heddle shafts.

Heddle shafts.

Heddle shafts.

View into top-castle with coupers.

The Ballydugan Looms

A post about the two linen looms at Ballydugan Weaver’s House in the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum at Cultra, Northern Ireland. I visited in April 2023 to look at details of loom construction to inform my own loom build later in the year. I am grateful to the weavers Roisin & Joanne for making me so welcome.

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Ballydugan Weaver’s House is a reconstruction of an 1850s weaver’s cottage from Ballydugan, County Down. It currently houses two linen looms, both dating from around 1900. The two looms are similar in size and construction. Both have previously been fitted with Jacquard mechanisms for damask weaving, but one is currently set up for plain weaving with four shafts, with the Jacquard harness removed. in this post I refer to this as the Plain Linen Loom and to the other as the Jacquard Loom.

The Plain Linen Loom

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Both looms are fairly typical four-post looms with a post at each corner and open sides, giving easy access for adjusting the harness and dressing the warp. The frame of the ‘Plain Linen Loom’ is 1.5m wide and 1.97m long measured from the outside of the posts, and 1.78 high. The timber appears to be pine. The posts are about 7.5cm wide and 14cm deep. The base of the posts once sat directly on the bare earthen floor but have rotted and now sit on a pair of new floor plates. The treadles are set above a shallow pit in the floor.

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The steel warp beam is fitted with a very large brake wheel with sixteen teeth and a large wooden pawl. The ends of the beam are supported on brackets which can be raised or lowered with an iron turnscrew. The warp of bleached linen was wound by Fergusons of Banbridge.

The cloth beam has an iron or steel ratchet with about one hundred teeth. A ratchet mechanism allows the weaver to advance the warp by pulling up on a lever under the seat.

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The loom is fitted with a fly-shuttle. The fly-shuttle pickers run on steel rods and are each made from a single block of apple-wood with the grain running across. Small willow branches attached to the swords operate as springs. Old rubber bicycle pedals have been repurposed and fitted on the rods to make buffers to arrest the motion of the pickers.

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The batten is hung from a repurposed wooden rail spanning between the tops of the side-frames. The height of the batten can be adjusted by tightening or loosening the twisted cords which secure the swords to the rail.

There are four heddle shafts hung from coupers in the top-castle. The heddles are hand-knitted and varnished. The two treadles are pivoted at the back. There are four lamms or marches pivoted at the left. The front two lamms are tied together, as are the back two. The harness has a counterbalanced action: one treadle raises the two front shafts and sinks the back two, and the other treadle does the oppsoite.

The Jacquard Loom

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The frame of the Jacquard loom is narrower than the Plain loom but of similar form, with the addition of extra uprights and rails to support the Jacquard mechanism, punch cards and harness.

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It has a flanged warp beam with a large wooden brake wheel with only twelve teeth. The pawl lever has an additional step at the end to allow the brake to be held midway between two teeth.

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The fly-shuttle arrangement is very similar to that described on the plain loom.

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The Jacquard harness works in tandem with the front eight-shaft harness to weave damask.

A handtowel for Albert Tyler

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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).

Lopham Looms: Coleby Cobb’s Loom.

“In a low, dark shed, green with damp and crumbling with age, there still stands the very last of the old Lopham looms…”

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“In a low, dark shed, green with damp and crumbling with age, there still stands the very last of the old Lopham looms, exactly where it was worked for at least a century and a half. Though not so interesting a specimen as the fine example in the Norwich Bridewell, the loom still standing dusty and desolate is probably much older, and is not without its story. We know but part of it, and that is linked chiefly in memory with one, Coleby Cobb, who sat at it well over forty years, and was still a weaver at 70.”

These lines, and the photograph above, are taken from an article by Percy Beales that appeared in The Journal 1 on Saturday 29th March 1929. A cutting of the newspaper article is preserved in the Rita & Percy Beales archive in the Crafts Study Centre in Farnham.

The halftone photograph makes a tantalising image. The closer you look, the less you see, as the details disappear amongst the printed dots. It is likely that the original photograph was taken by Percy Beales himself, but the original is not in the archive. He described the loom as “of the primitive type for plain, full-width sheeting.” It has some features in common with other Lopham looms, including the four-post open-sided construction, forked swords and an iron or brass ratchet wheel on the yarn beam. In front of it you can make out the big wheel of a bobbin-winder for winding weft onto quills or pirns.

I have been trying to track down the old Lopham looms, some of which were sold at auction when the linen industry of North Lopham ceased with the closure of T.W. & J. Buckenham’s in 1925. The only one I have so far located belongs to Bankfield Museum in Halifax. Coleby Cobb’s loom, however, was evidently still in North Lopham a few years later when Percy Beales wrote his article in 1929. What happened to it after that?

When Michael Friend Serpell wrote A History of the Lophams in the late 1970’s he believed this loom was in Thetford Museum. 2 I assume he was referring to Thetford’s ‘Ancient House Museum’, although there is no trace of the old loom there now. Ancient House is now part of Norfolk Museums, whose curators believe a loom from Ancient House was moved into storage at Gressenhall Museum & Workhouse in the 1990’s. Whether this is the same loom or another is unclear. The stores are currently inaccessible, but I hope to be able to visit later this year once some reorganisation has been completed.

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This is a photograph of Coleby Cobb, linen weaver of North Lopham, with his wife. On the reverse of the photograph (also in the Crafts Study Centre) is an inscription in Percy Beale’s hand: “Coleby Cobb + wife. Schoolmaster Weaver + Sunday School Teacher”.

There seems to be some confusion about Coleby Cobb. Names were frequently handed down from father to son and perhaps there were two Coleby Cobbs, or more. Michael Friend Serpell mentions a Coleby Cobb who had been a linen manufacturer in North Lopham by the 1820’s and had died before 1851.3 There is no date on the photograph above but I suspect it is later than 1851. Coleby Cobb was one of the weavers who met with John Mitchell, Commisioner for the Parliamentary Report on the Condition of the Handloom Weavers, one day in 1839 in the ‘Bell’ public house in North Lopham.4 A Coleby George Cobb was born 1813 and baptised in 1818, according to North Lopham parish records. It is perhaps this Coleby George Cobb who appears as a weaver in the Buckenham’s putting-out ledger between 1876 and 1895. According to Percy Beales, Coleby Cobb (but which one?) worked for the Buckenhams and was one of “the finest hand-weavers Lopham – that is to say England – ever knew”. 5

Notes

  1. “The Journal” was perhaps a supplement to the Eastern Daily Press? The title of the article is Coleby Cobb’s Loom: a Lopham Survival of the Days of the Old Weaving Industry: Stories of a Village Hampden. Crafts Study Centre ref. RPB 2/2/4
  2. Michael Friend Serpell (1980): A History of the Lophams. p. 151.
  3. ibid. p. 139.
  4. See my blog From Lopham With Love
  5. From newspaper cutting in the Crafts Study Centre ref. RBP 2/1/3: “Coleby Cobb wove for the Buckenhams, and it must be remembered that almost every cottager in those days wove as a part-timer when not engaged in his ordinary occupation, eventually in many cases giving up the latter.”

Huckaback / Piggyback

Like most old words it has been spelled in various ways, including huccaback, hukkaback, hukaback,  hugaback, hag-a-bag, hagabag, huggaback and huck-a-back, before becoming standardised as huckaback, sometimes shortened to just huck. Usually singular, occasionally plural, as in the weavers’ draft for ‘hukabacks’ in the Thomas Jackson manuscript from the mid 1700’s.1

 

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The Oxford English Dictionary defines huckaback as: “A stout linen fabric, with the weft threads thrown alternately up so as to form a rough surface, used for towelling and the like” and “a noted product of the North of England.”2 The name is sometimes used by weavers to designate the weave structure regardless of the yarn type, but huckaback was historically a linen cloth made from the fibres of either flax or hemp.3 Weft threads are thrown up on one side and warp threads on the other, making the front and back slightly different. The long warp and weft ‘floats’ give huckaback its characteristic texture.

 

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The earliest dictionary listing I have found is in Nathaniel Bailey’s Universal Etymological English Dictionary of 1731 where it is defined as “a sort of linen cloth that is woven so as to lie partly raised.” The earliest printed use of the word huckaback listed in the OED is in The Merchant’s Ware-house Laid Open: or, the Plain Dealing Linnen-draper from 1696, where Huckaback appears amongst a dazzling array of textiles described alphabetically from Alcomore, Bore-lap and Cambrick to Sleasie, Ticklenburs and Vehemounty.

There is some evidence to support the OED’s claim about huckaback being made in the North of England. During his ‘Tour’ of 1724-7 Daniel Defoe found it manufactured in Darlington, which “particularly excels in Huggabags of Ten Quarters wide, which are made nowhere else in England”; and in Warrington, which held a weekly linen market specialising in “a sort of Table linen, called Huck-a-back.” 4 There is also evidence that huckaback was being made in East Anglia in the early 18th century,5 and in Shropshire.6 It is likely that such a useful textile, neither fancy nor difficult to weave, was made across Britain in those areas where linen weaving was practiced.

The etymology of huckaback is uncertain, but there is a striking resemblance to the German huckepack, equivalent to the English piggyback, historically pickaback, pick-a-pack, pickapack etc. The OED refers to speculations by Walter William Skeat in An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1888: “The word bears so remarkable a resemblance to Low G. hukkebak, G. huckeback, pick-a-back, that it seems reasonable to suppose that it at first meant ‘peddler’s ware;’ see Huckster.”7

Huckaback is followed in Skeat’s dictionary by Huckle-bone, and then Huckster (peddler). He discusses their shared origins: “The etymology is much disputed; but it is solved by Hexham’s Du(tch) Dict(ionary) which gives us hucken, to stoop or bow… Nothing could be more fitting than to describe the peddler of olden times as a croucher, creeper or slinker about; his bent back being due to the bundle upon it… So also G. hucke is properly the bent back, whence G. huckepack, pick-a-back.”

The resemblance between huckaback and huckepack is compelling, but I think Skeat’s conclusion – that huckaback is so called because it was once hawked by peddlers – is wrong. Why should this cloth be singled out amongst the many that peddlers must have carried? I believe a more plausible explanation concerns the form of the huckaback weave structure, which Skeat and other etymologists may have been unaware of.

 

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The huckaback structure involves an alternation between tightly woven and loosely woven areas with long ‘floats’. There are a number of variations but the common form has five ends (warp threads) and five picks (weft threads) in each unit, and is characterised by pairs of floats lying on the surface. On the loom, the top face of the cloth has pairs of picks (shown on the left in black in the diagram above) which float crosswise over five ends, while the underside has pairs of ends (shown on the right in white) which float lengthwise over five picks. These floats have an arched or bowed form, and might be descibed as riding piggyback on a tabby-weave ground.

A piggyback rider typically wraps two arms horizontally round the carrier’s neck, legs dangling in front. Isn’t there a resemblance between the pairs of arched floats in the huckaback weave structure and the bent arms and legs of the piggybacker? Could that be why it became known as huckaback, the piggyback cloth?

 

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Notes

  1. See my post: Weavers’ Thesis Book: the Thomas Jackson Record
  2. Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “huckaback (n.), sense c,” July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/9603441389.
  3. In England the term linen was historically used to designate fabric made from either flax or hemp.
  4. Daniel Defoe. A Tour Through The Whole Isaland of Great Britain. Volume 3. Fifth Edition (1753). p.155 & 241
  5. Nesta Evans (1985) The East Anglian Linen Indutry: Rural Industry and Local Economy 1500-1850.
  6. Hilary Green (1981) The Linen Industry of Shropshire (article), in Industrial Archaelogy Review, Volume V, Number 2, Spring 1981.
  7. Walter William Skeat (1888). An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. See also: Nodal & Milner (1875) A Glossary of the Lancashire Dialect where the verb ‘huckle‘ is defined as “to stoop, to bend from weakness or age.”

Hand Loom Weaving (1894)

‘Truly an old craft standing by itself, alone in this England of ours.‘

This post contains a transcript of a newspaper article about the linen industry of North & South Lopham, Norfolk, first published in the East Anglian Daily Times on 23rd January 1894. A version of the article is preserved in the Rita & Percy Beales archive at the Crafts Study Centre, University of the Creative Arts, Farnham.

Newspaper article from the Rita & Percy Beales Archive at the Crafts Study Centre, University for the Creative Arts, Farnham. (RPB 2/1/8)
 

The handloom linen industry of North & South Lopham has been a fruitful source of research and inspiration in recent years. It represents a bridge to the past, to “the old-style looms and the old-style systems” once maintained by linen weavers up and down the country. This article makes it clear that even in 1894 the Lopham industry was seen as an anachronism – “a link with the far-away past, and a connection savouring of antiquity.” It was even more of a historical curiosity when the old looms finally ceased working in the 1920’s, which is why an effort was made to preserve some of the evidence. This article was collected by Percy & Rita Beales, who moved to North Lopham in 1926, and is now among the collection of papers and woven textiles bequeathed by Rita Beales to the Crafts Study Centre.

The article’s nostalgic and flowery tone is noteworthy, but it also conveys some practical information about methods and materials. We learn, for example, that the yarn used was largely from Ireland. The use of hemp, locally grown and processed, had disappeared by about 1850. Webs were typically 100 yards long. Warps were made on a warping mill at a central village location while looms were often sited in weavers’ homes. Fly-shuttles were used. The linen cloth produced included: “Diaper table-linen, huckaback, birdseye, diamond and dot, and pretty patterned damasks; glass, tea, and, kitchen-cloths, shirtings of rare durability”. Lopham linen was apparently held in very high esteem (“goods of such quality as cannot be obtained anywhere else”) and orders were dispatched in the manufacturers’ own delivery vans to patrons including the City Clubs and Companies and the Royal Household.

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Here is my transcript of the whole article, whose author is unknown:

Transcript:

“Hiding away its worth from the world, and far removed from the busy practices of commercial life, blushing almost unseen, is the hand-weaving industry of North and South Lopham. Extremely quiet and unpretentious are these two Norfolk villages, and a stranger could pass through them and fail to learn anything of the native manufacture. Yet here is a link with the far-away past, and a connection savouring of antiquity –

“Adam delved and Eve span”

– and, as the plough employed the kings, so the queenly dames would engage the hours in spinning and weaving the softest fabrics – peace offerings to Pallas, the goddess of wisdom. A right royal employment, which brings us in touch with the Flemish Craftsmen of the 12th century, with their ancient looms and time-honoured plans. And the old-style looms and the old-style systems are maintained by the weavers of Lopham today; the yarns are as honest as of yore, the texture of material and beauty of pattern leave nothing to be desired. Truly an old craft standing by itself, alone in this England of ours. The country has progressed by leaps and bounds, the innumerable inventions in weaving have moved forward with giant strides and while the great northern towns are still striving with one another in the maddest competition, here, away from the worry and quietly marking time, these Norfolk villages are holding their own and making a record blameless and unique. A guileless industry, bearing itself nobly in the battle for existence and altogether regardless of steam appliances and the many arts and crafts of modern manufacture. Even the present day system of supplying the wholesale houses has never entered into the calculations of these old-world weavers; theirs is still a retail trade; they know their customers as acquaintances and the middleman has neither part nor lot in this business. Living in a world entirely their own, these manufacturers have ever refused to don the seven league boots of modern commercialism, though frequently the trade warranted a forward movement, a radical development to save itself. Their ancestors would not pull down their old barns and build greater, so those who came after them walked in the well trodden way. Right through their history they have comfortably jogged along, even while the outside world was wearing and tearing its heart out and failing to reap a satisfied rest.

The old story of the waiter who remembered the beef-steak when it was nothing but a calf, has its counterpart here, for some of the housewives living in the district can call to mind when their huckaback tablecloths grew in the fields by the church. Forty or more years ago hemp was largely cultivated in the neighbourhood, and this, after an amount of preparation, was spun into yarn by the native female population. Hemp-growing, for reasons best known to local farmers, is now a lost art, and the Lopham weavers, seeking the best yarn obtainable, have recourse to Irish enterprise, which supplies the better qualities. The well-known firm of R. & S. Beales has a fairly large and well selected stock of these yarns in the natural or grey state, and half bleached yarns as used in the manufacture of sheetings, towellings, &c. Boiled yarns, too, of all sizes – these for the making of diapers and sheetings, ranging in widths from one to three yards, and in lengths to 50 yards or to a full web of 100 yards. And while examining these stocks, which would perhaps be inconsiderable with a Cottonopolis manufacturer, Mr Steven Beales frequently reminds us that we are treating with a primitive trade and with people who delight in the old order of things. The real and ancient relics of our grandmothers’ days are before us, wheels and frames which are admitted to be almost obsolete. The cobwebs are gathering now where the busy fingers played, for the cottage dames of a hundred years ago used these machines to wind the spools and bobbins, the first step in the actual manufacture. The spools are then taken to the warping mill in order to get the web into one continuous chain, are fixed in a frame, and the many threads, after passing through a slide, are wound round the mill, which can be adjusted to any length web. This process forms the warp, and this is looped up into chains and taken to the looms either on or off the premises, for some of the cottages have looms of their own, and are supplied by the manufacturers with the materials for weaving at their own firesides. To harness the threads in a loom is a tiresome business, but quickly each one is fixed into position, the bobbin upon which the weft is wound is fixed in the shuttle, and then the clatter begins. Seated at his work, the weaver uses his hands and his feet and the sharpest of eyes. Half the warp moves from the other half, and by a simple mechanism held in the hand of the worker the shuttle passes through the fabric and leaves but one solitary thread. Stretching across the loom is the “lathe”, armed with a steel reed and teeth separating the warp – the length threads, and this is pulled sharply onto the weft or cross thread and drives it tightly into its proper place and close to its own kin. And then the “lathe” moves away, the warp opens again, the shuttle passes back and through, and another thread is lumped into position. And in walking through the villages this lumping noise is heard everywhere, recalling the merry music of the flail and threshing-floor.

Most people will imagine that such an industry can hardly supply the finer fabrics which one expects from the perfected machinery of Lancashire, but this is where a mistake is made. The weavers of Lopham manufacture for the greatest houses in the land goods of such quality as cannot be obtained anywhere else. Here are looms weaving sheetings for charity purposes, other looms weaving wider and finer qualities. Diaper table-linen, huckaback, birdseye, diamond and dot, and pretty patterned damasks; glass, tea, and, kitchen-cloths, shirtings of rare durability. Mr Stephen Beales is extremely proud of his varied stocks, but is as solicitous for the welfare of his competitors in the village whose stocks are as good and as general as his own. Broadly speaking these manufacturers belonged to the old times; they have not yet entered the land of shoddy, but are still striving in a friendly rivalry to excel in honest productions. The firm of T. W. and J. Buckenham, of North and South Lopham, is trading under the hall-mark of a Royal appointment. In the district are looms where table necessaries of elegant pattern and finish, damask cloths of superb design and with nearly 10,000 threads in the width are being woven. Her Majesty the Queen, the City Clubs and Companies with lords and dames of high degrees, are regularly patrons of the Lopham weavers.

All too hurriedly the visit is made, all too brief the chats with the skilled artizans. Men whose ancestors worked at the trade are using almost the same tools, nearly the same methods common to their great-great-grandsires. Throwing the shuttle with the hands has most certainly disappeared, but it is not so long ago that one of the men died who never would work in any other way. New-fangled inventions brought no pleasure to him, so to the end of his days he laboured diligently and with a dexterity all his own – so they keep his memory green. They all remember the halcyon days when their numbers were larger – before steam and merciless competition thinned their ranks and exploited their industry. The sixth of December was their “Catherine” day, an annual feast to commemorate the good Queen Catherine, who, it is fondly believed, “spun the first thread”. Masters and men would meet together at the full board, and song and toast would gladden the dull hours of winter. Silently they drank to their patron saint, and boisterously quaffed to the health and prosperity of their own happy selves. But all this is a thing of the past, and the hand-weaving craftsmen are growing painfully less. The ambition which influenced the gentlewomen of a past generation to require large quantities of first-class bed and table linen, and to divide it off into marriage portions for their daughters, is nearly, if not quite extinct, a loss which has materially affected the volume of trade. It may be the Lopham weavers, trusting implicitly to their excellent productions to recommend themselves, have not sufficiently advertised their fame to the world. All too few know anything of the industry, though sometimes in the summer visitors will call at the weaving sheds – wealthy and curious London folk, and will ask all manner of questions, promising all the while not to use the information to the detriment of the trade. After watching the shuttles dodging through the myriad threads, they often leave an order, and, departing, will laughingly renew the vow of secrecy – a promise sacredly kept.

All the fabrics are sent away to be bleached, and coming back are finished ready for use, the sewing and marking partly employing the women of the village, the modern sewing machine having no place in the business. Then the orders are taken out, and each parcel is left at the customer’s own door. Through Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambs., Herts, Essex, Surrey, Middlesex, and Kent the delivery vans of Messrs. Beales, T. W. and J. Buckenham and of Mrs Murton, whose business is conducted by her son, John Murton, all these pay their periodical visits to supporters in towns and country common to the manufacturers of both villages, those mentioned by name and others in South Lopham. As the industry exists to-day it deserves the bold advertisement, is worthy of support, and should not disappear for lack of patronage. A native trade deserves a native care.”

(Author unkown)