Honiton lace achieved a national reputation for quality in the late eighteenth century and became a fashion item with mass appeal, in the nineteenth. But not all of it was made in Honiton, or even most of it. It was called Honiton lace because it arrived in London, the main market, by the Honiton coach, later the Honiton train. In fact, it was made in a wide area around Honiton, including Branscombe and Beer.
It was a cottage industry, allowing the members of rural households who were
not directly employed in farming or fishing, to contribute to the family income.
This tended to be women and girls, but there were men lace-makers, and boys
were taught the skills alongside their sisters. In fact, the only
form of education for Branscombe's children, up to the late 1800s, was the lace
school, which was trade-based, but whose teacher, the lace dame, might
also pass on a few rudimentary skills in reading, writing and arithmetic. Children
went to lace schools at 5-7 years old, working 12 hours a day in summer. Men worked
at lace-making as a sideline, in the evenings, especially sailors back from long
voyages.
The three families most associated with developing the lace trade in Branscombe
are the Fords, Tuckers and Chicks. At its hight, it was one of Branscombe's
staple industries. The lace was used for confirmation veils, baby's bonnets,
collars and cuffs, bedspreads, doilies, handkerchiefs, napkins, placemats, runners,
tablecloths, and edging for window-blinds.
The theory that lace-making was brought to the area by Huguenot and Flemish
refugees in the late sixteenth century has been increasingly discredited, in
recent years. Experts now argue there may already have been a flourishing cottage
industry in east Devon by the time Branscombe's parish register notes names
like Raffel, Guppy, Raymont and French appearing, in the mid-to-late 1500s.
Each area developed a distinctive style and an expert eye could tell the difference
between Branscombe lace and a sample from Beer, just two and a half miles away.
Traditionally, the outer edge of Branscombe articles had a very attractive handmade
buttonhole stitch purl edging, each purl consisting of five button-hole stitches,
with an insertion of nibs filling. Bone lace was so-called because of
the fishbones that were used to hold it in place on a square of parchment pierced
with holes, which was the pattern. Small legbones of sheep served as bobbins,
or lace-sticks. Some were handed down as heirlooms, inlaid with silver and carved.
The lace was finished over hard, hay-stuffed pillows. The small sprigs
which were later joined together to form the finished product being made individually
by village workers in their own homes.
In the early nineteenth century, Abigail Chick set up a shop in Dean (now called
Street) where she would collect the sprigs, supervise their making-up into finished
items and finally market the lace in Sidmouth and elsewhere. In those days,
before the introduction of employment laws, it was usual for workers in many
trades to receive at least part of their wages in the form of goods. In that
way the employer could make a double profit. The practice continued more or
less unofficially for most of the century and many local lace dealers kept a
small general shop as a lucrative sideline.
There was a good market for English lace at this time, as supplies from the
Continent had been disrupted by the Napoleonic Wars. At the hight of the trade
it is said that the Tuckers employed 500 people, most of them in Branscombe,
Beer, and the surrounding villages. It reached its peak in 1852, when there
were 284 lace-makers in Branscombe, out of a total population of about 1000.
The crowning achievement for local lace-makers came in 1839, when the lace
flounce for Queen Victoria's wedding dress was ordered from Tuckers of Branscombe.
The dress was an exhibit at the Great London Exhibition of 1851, along with
the arms of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert made out of Branscombe Point. Another
royal order came in 1863, when Princess Alexandra married Edward, the Prince
of Wales. This time, the wedding lace consisted of four tiers of flounces to
be worn around the bridal dress, with matching lace for trail, a veil and pocket
handkerchief.
The remuneration of all lace workers seems pitiable by modern standards. It
was said that by hard work - often in cramped conditions in primitive cottages,
they could earn a shilling (5p) a day. This was just below the wage of a farm
labourer.
In the 1850s, Sir Walter and Lady Trevelyan began regular visits to Seaton.
John Tucker was by then the largest employer in the region. Lady Trevelyan was
shocked by the low pay and the truck system of part-payment with goods,
and campaigned against it by commissioning work herself, at a higher price.
The Education Act of 1870 eventually killed off most of the lace schools. At
about the same time, there was a drop in demand for hand-made lace, due to the
arrival of mass-produced lace from Nottinghamshire. According to the 1871 census,
there were 941 men, women and children living in Branscombe, including 2 millers,
4 shoemakers, 3 blacksmiths, two tailors, 3 carpenters and 4 shopkeepers. There
were 204 houses. The main occupations were farming and lace-making.
By 1887, two out of three local lace-makers were unemployed. A Parliamentary
Committee reported that at Beer, there were 60-70 left, out of 400 a generation
before.
But the extinction of the trade was not all bad. The lace-workers who toiled
at this close work in small, unwholesome rooms for ten or twelve hours a day,
were said to be recognisable by their sallow complexions, their rickety frames
and their generally exhausted appearance.
Lace-making is still practised in the village today, and Royal orders have
continued to trickle in. One was for the marriage of the late Princess Diana
and Prince Charles, another for the christening of their son, Prince William.
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