Flutterby Patch

At home with wood

Wood is in my blood so to speak; let me explain...

I come from a long line of Buckinghamshire farming folk and the leafy lanes and beech woods in that county have for centuries molded each and every one of us. If they weren't working the land then several of my ancestors would have been working with wood. Some of them would have set up home amongst the trees in little wooden shacks like this one.

Everything was done by hand in those far off days and work continued from dawn until dusk.

Branches were cut from trees and stripped of their bark and as a result mountains of wood chips lay everywhere.

The men who worked in this way were known as bodgers and their pole lathes would have been spinning and whirring all day long. After many hours of turning, shaping and piecing together the results of their labours would have been Windsor chairs not unlike like this one. What amazing craftsmanship.

I treasure several old Windsor chairs that were made by my great uncle as a wedding gift for my grandparents but for this post I have used this miniature version which is an exact replica of rather splendid chairs that were made with arms. (Teddy is 7 inches tall ).

I now live in the Lake District which is many miles from my home amid the beech woods of Buckinghamshire but for centuries bodgers would have been busy working in the Lakeland woods also. They didn't make chairs but turned wooden bobbins and their livelihoods relied entirely on the success of the neighbouring Lancashire cotton mills. Bobbins were required in their millions and the process was soon mechanised. Stott Park Bobbin Mill is the last remaining Victorian mill with its machinery still in working order. It is open to visitors and demonstrations take place each day.

Vintage bobbins that were once used in cotton mills are now being made into decorative items for the tourist industry. Visitors to this area love to take home little 'bobbin built' keepsakes like this little model of a steam traction engine (my Mum couldn't resist this when she saw it!)

The wooden objects on display around my home come in all shapes, sizes and colours. For this post I have chosen a few turned pieces to show you.  My granny used the items above in her farm kitchen. The butter mold in the centre has a very elaborate crest.

I'd love to know its origin.

This Victorian inkwell and drinking vessel are turned from one of the heaviest wood of all known as lignum vitae

How fortunate I am to have met and married a sweet man who loves wood as much as I do. He occasionally buys me little wooden pieces like these. The plate is oak, the cup and saucer ash and the tea canister and scoop are made from sycamore. I love them all.

So you see, wood is in my blood... My dad taught woodwork in his school and was a master cabinet maker. From an early age I was taught not only how to recognise different trees but how to recognise different woods also. And so I'll end this post with a little poem by H E Palmer. The message, I think, is a very poignant one.

Woodworker's Ballad 

All that is molded of iron
Has lent to destruction and blood;
But the things that are honour’d of Zion
Are most of them made from wood.

Stone can be chisell’d to Beauty,
And iron shines bright for Defence;
But when Mother Earth ponder’d her duty
She brought forth the forest, from whence

Come tables, and chairs, and crosses,
Little things that a hot fire warps,
Old ships that the blue wave tosses,
And fiddles for music, and harps;

Oak boards where the carved ferns mingle,
Monks’ shrines in the wilderness,
Snug little huts in the dingle,
All things that the sad poets bless.

King Arthur had a wood table;
And Our Lord blessed wood; for, you see,
He was born in a wooden stable,
And He died on a wooden tree;

And He sailed in a wooden vessel
On the waters of Galilee,
And He work’d at a wooden trestle
At His wonderful carpentry.

Oh, all that is molded of iron
Has lent to destruction and blood;
But the things that are honour’d of Zion
Are most of them made from wood.

Herbert Edward Palmer (1880 - 1961)

It always snows on Christmas cards (mostly)

A friend of mine phoned me at the end of October and told me that 2 inches of snow had fallen overnight. "It looks just like Christmas" she said. This amused me a lot because we very rarely have snow at Christmas here in England. What she meant was that it looked just like Christmas when it is depicted on 90% of Christmas cards.

I have a confession... I never throw away Christmas cards. They are so pretty and packed with so many memories it would feel like throwing away Christmas itself. My mother kept all her cards as well and so now I have many thousands (hers and mine) all sitting in bags and all labelled with the appropriate date. Most of them depict snow.

Apparently our fixation for snow at Christmas can be blamed on Charles Dickens. His Pickwick Papers describing jolly rosy-cheeked gentlemen sitting atop stage coaches that bumped along the icy lanes of Victorian England have become engraved on our memories. Above is a small example of 1970s cards that illustrate the point!

We've seen the film and (maybe) read the book by Dickens' about miserly Mr Scrooge. He abhorred Christmas but after much ghostly persuasion relented and discovered the happiness a family Christmas can bring. Christmas Carol is a story that has left its mark on us all since the mid 1800s. The card above (now in the V & A Museum) dates from that time. A real Dickensian family Christmas!

I have a scrap book containing several dozen cards dating from the early 1900s and amazingly the style is very different. Pastel shades and pretty flowers predominate.

Pictures of pansies like this were enormously popular

Summer scenes with bluebirds bringing happy messages are popular as well. But by the 1920s the pastel pretties had disappeared and cheery seasonal scenes were back in fashion.

 
For me the only bird I like to see on a Christmas card is a robin (perched on a snowy twig of course). Dickensian sentiment and lots of red and green have always said 'Christmas' to me.

But I'm wondering if styles are beginning to change as well over half the cards I received last year were predominantly blue in colour (sample above). I'm not sure that blue has the same Christmasy feel as traditional red and green. But after all it's the thought that counts and as long as there's plenty of snow I'm happy!

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).