A pause in our journey for various appointments and a family visit for Jan. On the Sunday we went to the Framework Knitters Museum in South Wigston, a master hosier's house and workshop dating from the late seventeenth century and left largely intact after the last inhabitants died in the 1950s. The volunteer guides were very informative and made this well worth the visit.
The parlour
View from the parlour
The larder
Child's bedroom
A framework knitting machine, with a length of knitted fabric in situ. We'd never seen one of these before and the volunteer who demonstrated it working showed how much energy went into each row, with both hands/arms and feet operating the various mechanisms - at high speed and for long hours each day.
A dummy showing how close the machines were to each other - his back resting on the frame behind him. The noise must have been deafening, as the machines were packed into small spaces to maximise profits. Around 28 people would have worked in this small workshop complex, some on the machines and others, mainly women and children doing the finishing.
Several machines, still as they were when the workshop was operating
Meadowsweet
Crocodile infested waters
Good night!
No comments:
Post a Comment