Flutterby Patch

Remembering Lacemakers

On 25th November we remember St Catherine of Alexandria who was martyred for her Christian beliefs in 310 AD. She is the Patron Saint of spinners, weavers and lacemakers.

Since Tudor times English lacemakers have laid aside their bobbins for a while and celebrated St Catherine's Day with Cattern cakes. It is a simple recipe and I recently made a batch to share with you. I enjoyed one with a cup of coffee and have written the recipe at the end of this post.

No one is sure when people started making lace in England. It is thought that Henry VIII's first wife Queen Catherine of Aragon (above), while awaiting her divorce from the king in 1533, taught lacemaking to some of the ladies living in Ampthill in Bedfordshire. At the time she was living in Ampthill Castle and a lace pattern named after her is still being used in that area today. The story goes that she felt such sympathy for the impoverished lacemakers that she burnt all her own fine lace so that more could be ordered from the local women thus providing them with a much needed income.

My great grandmother and her sisters were lacemakers in Buckinghamshire in Victorian times. The lace they produced was very intricate and it would have taken hours to complete a short length.

My granny kept a box in her dresser drawer which contained her mother's lace bobbins and when I was little I was sometimes allowed to look at them. I'm sorry to say this box was lost over the years and the bobbins in the picture sadly aren't my granny's. I bought these at a sale in Bedfordshire five years ago and promised myself that I would learn the craft but I'm afraid I haven't yet got round to it. These bobbins once belonged to an elderly lady and are all attached to her unfinished work. I don't like to remove them.

Children in the main lacemaking counties of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire were taught lacemaking at a very young age. Lace schools were set up specifically to teach them the craft and from this photograph you can see how young some of them were. Finding employment in these agricultural counties wasn't easy and lacemaking provided a small amount of much needed income. Every female in the family would be expected make lace. They would work from dawn until dusk weaving the fine threads often by the light of a single candle. In the late 1700s William Cowper became a great friend to the lacemakers in his town of Olney in Buckinghamshire and he fought for their welfare. I visited his home (now a small museum) a few years ago and found it fascinating. You will find a link to it in my sidebar.

There are many lace pattern books available. The one on the left by Pamela Nottingham is very popular and gives you lots of patterns and tips for making a variety of lace styles. It wasn't until I bought my bobbins that I discovered what fascinating little works of art they are and how much can be learnt from them. The book on the right by Christine and David Springett is a must for all antique bobbin collectors as it not only illustrates hundreds of different bobbins but also gives information about the men who made them.

Antique bobbins are made from either bone (not ivory) or wood. The bone ones were often beautifully decorated and would have cost more than the wooden ones which were plainer. No two bobbins are ever identical. Here are some Victorian from my own collection.
1). The one at the top is well used and the name on it is quite rubbed. It reads John Bunyan. He lived in the heart of lacemaking country (Bedford) whilst writing 'Pilgrim's Progress' and many lacemakers owned a Bunyan bobbin. 
2). The second bobbin has a more ornate shape and is wrapped with fine brass wire.
3). I love this third example. It has been engraved with the wishes of its owner and reads 'Elizabeth Pickering would love to live happy with Robert Pain'. Many lacemakers had the names of their sweethearts and family members engraved on their bobbins. I wonder Elizabeth and Robert ever married.
4). The plainer wooden bobbin at the bottom has three pewter 'jingles' on it.

The book on the left by T L Huetson contains a history of lacemaking as well as lots of interesting facts about bobbins. The small paperback on the right by C and D Springett includes fascinating information about the vintage glass beads (called spangles) that are found on old bobbins. 

This is a fabulous book about British festivals and celebrations with accompanying recipes and old customs. It was written by Julia Jones and Barbara Deer in 1987 but is still readily available from second-hand booksellers on line.

On page 8 is the entry for St Catherine's Day. Each page is illustrated in a scrap book style.

Here as promised is the recipe for lacemakers' Cattern cakes.

9 oz/275 g self-raising flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 oz/25 g currants
2 oz/50 g ground almonds
2 teaspoons caraway seeds
7 oz/200 g caster sugar
4 oz/100 g melted butter
1 medium egg, beaten
A little extra cinnamon and sugar for sprinkling

Oven temperature 
200 degrees C.
400 degrees F.
Gas 6

Sift flour and cinnamon into a bowl. Stir in currants, almonds, caraway seeds and sugar. Add the melted butter and beaten egg. Mix to a soft dough. On a floured board roll out to a rectangle 12 ins x 10 ins (30 cm x 25 cm). Brush the dough with water and sprinkle with a little extra sugar and cinnamon. Roll up like a Swiss roll and cut into 2 cm (3/4 ins) slices. Place (spaced well apart) on a greased tray and bake for 10 minutes. Cool on wire rack then enjoy! (Makes approx 12).

Plain sailing on a fine day, outdoors and in.

There's nothing better than a day of sunshine to lift spirits and put a spring in your step. You will be pleased to hear that it put me in just the right mood to place my bits and pieces of freshly washed china and glass back into the cupboards that have remained empty for so long whilst we made alterations to the study.

First to go back was the glass ship that I showed you last week. With its sparkling clean dome I positioned it centre stage and alongside placed its companion, a little Victorian boy wearing a sailor suit and sitting on a large cockle shell.

On another shelf a hand painted Victorian cup and saucer, my granny's cut glass biscuit barrel and a 1920's child's mug that I found discarded on a bonfire. What sort of silly person disposes of china on a bonfire I wonder?

This little boy in his pony cart was one of my mother's favourites. It came to me when she passed away in 2006 and I will always treasure it.

Also a favourite, his little sister who has her own pony cart and sits alongside her brother. Both children will live safely in the cupboard until Christmas when they will come out and trot along the mantle, their little carts loaded with greenery for the festive season. My mother did this for many years and I like to carry on the tradition.

When I'd at last finished refilling my shelves with china I had time to make a swift visit to Holehird, a nearby Lakeland garden that I have taken you to before. What fun it would have been to travel there in a little horse drawn carriage on such a fine November day. Imagine pulling up in style outside this big country house that forms part of the estate.

The house enjoys magnificent views over the gardens and surrounding countryside.  

Sadly I didn't have time to explore the wonderful walled garden

and I stopped only briefly to admire the way the autumn sunshine filtered through the ornamental grasses

and then I reached the area I had come to visit....the holly garden. I love holly and would like to plant more in our garden but there are so many varieties to choose from these days that I decided the best idea would be to make a note of the types the experts had planted at Holehird (I will use any excuse to visit this garden!) With their variegated leaves in all shades of green and gold and berries of red, black and vibrant yellow I made hasty notes of the hollies I liked best and (returning to my make-believe pony cart) made the journey home.

On the return journey I noticed a few people were on the lake in their sailing craft enjoying the fine weather but concluded a pony and cart would remain my choice of transport!

In this area I'm surrounded by wonderfully large expanses of water but I'm afraid I wouldn't make a good sailor. The nearest I have come to steering my own craft was as a child when playing a similar game to this pair on the stairs in Robert Louis Stevenson's poem 'A Good Play'.

 
We built a ship upon the stairs
All made of the back-bedroom chairs,
And filled it full of soft pillows
To go a-sailing on the billows.

We took a saw and several nails,
And water in the nursery pails;
And Tom said, "Let us also take
An apple and a slice of cake;"--
Which was enough for Tom and me
To go a-sailing on, till tea.

We sailed along for days and days,
And had the very best of plays;
But Tom fell out and hurt his knee,
So there was no one left but me.

.....I had great fun playing 'make believe' games with chairs and pillows when I was young.... Happy days!....Do today's children still play these sorts of games I wonder?

Have a good weekend.

Books, boxes and even more books

On 19th October I showed you pictures of our study and the work that was being done. After several months of upheaval I had hoped to have all the furniture, books and other bits and bobs back in there by now. Frustratingly chaos continues to reign and our dining room is still a very untidy storeroom piled high with the entire contents of the study.

Heaps of cushions...

 
...and a new cushion nearing completion.

Boxes containing china and glass that I will hopefully return undamaged to...

the the newly painted cupboards.

Here is a sample of the other items that are waiting patiently for their return to the study. Books! Everywhere books!

On window sills...

...on shelves...

...and on more shelves....

...and in more heaps. I adore books and have been buying old and new ones since I was in my teens. Above is a selection of my oldest. All leather bound and all well thumbed by previous owners.

This enormous bible, seen at the bottom of the pile, was printed in 1715

The paper is thick with a texture resembling blotting paper. There are sets of illustrations accompanying each chapter.

Many books from the 17th and 18th centuries concentrated on religious and moral subjects. This is my oldest. It dates from 1689 and is written for 'The Holy, Serious, Diligent Believer'. The owner in 1791 was R Baxter and by time he wrote his name in the book it would have been 102 years old. I wonder if the books printed today will still be in use 102 years from now or will books be obsolete by then? I can't imagine a world without them.

I wonder how many people have owned it over the centuries?

This book is entitled 'The Essays, or Councels, Civil and Moral of Sir Francis Bacon with a Table of Colours of Good and Evil' (what a title!). Date of printing 1691. I particularly like the bookplate which dates from the 1700s and reads 

This book belongs to
JH Hogarth

If though art borrowed by a Friend
Right welcome will he be
To read, to study, not to lend,
But to return to me.

Not that imparted Knowledge doth
Diminish learning's store,
But Books I find, if often lent,
Return to me no more.

Read slowly, Pause frequently,
Think seriously,
Keep cleanly, Return duly
with the corners of the leaves not turned down.

The inscription under the bookplate is written in red and reads
Percy Smith
July 25th 1914
Bought Bradford Market

'The Spectator', which is part of a set that I have, is dated 1767 and like the others in this group has a charming illustration facing the title page.

For fear of boring you with my shabby old books I will make this my last.  'Punch Vol. X' contains bound volumes of Punch magazine January to June 1846.

There are hundreds of satirical illustrations relating to topical subjects of the time, many of them political. Perhaps not surprisingly some of the topics under discussion are still being debated today 162 years later. The following made me smile.


This picture entitled 'Designs for Dwarf Houses' accompanies an article written in 1846 regarding Sir Robert Peel's suggestion to Parliament that England should seriously consider offering asylum to the world's smallest people, namely dwarfs. He had the wonderful idea that a series of tiny homes could be purpose built for these 'shorter than average' people and the dwellings could bear the name 'The Royal Lilliput Quadrangle'. Punch magazine reported this and the article was accompanied by this amusing illustration. Judging by some of the subjects that get debated by today's Parliament I think this ridiculous idea could easily be debated again. I wonder what the result would be!