Thanks for these replies. The industry I am interested in is not the same as
the Suffolk one.
The hair cloth produced in Thurlstone seems to have been used for bags and
sacks in the chemical industry for holding powdered chemicals. It was also
used in oil presses. The industry seems to have existed from about 1790 to
1830, but may have continued after this until the 1840s.
Jon
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gill Cookson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, May 02, 2005 8:56 AM
Subject: Re: Hair Cloth Manufacturing
> There's a list of textile historians and their specialist interests on the
> Pasold site - see
>
> http://domino.lancs.ac.uk/public/pasold.nsf
>
> - though I can't see any sign of horsehair. But you may find someone who
can
> help, perhaps a regional textile historian.
>
> Gill
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Lyn Boothman <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, May 02, 2005 1:19 AM
> Subject: Re: Hair Cloth Manufacturing
>
>
> Jon
> I don't know anything about your Thurlstone example, but in the 19th
century
> horse hair weaving was a major industry in Long Melford in Suffolk - the
> horsehair cloth was used for a variety of things including crinolines,
dress
> shapers and seat covers for railway carriages. The shortest pieces of hair
> were curled and used as padding or stuffing. In 1851 around 1 in 6 of
those
> with an occupation (excluding pensioners, paupers etc) were involved in
the
> horse hair industry; I am part way through analysing the 1861 census and
for
> the parts of the parish I have done to date around the figure is nearer 1
in
> 4. I know that when Liz was looking for references to the industry in
> printed sources she couldn't find much, maybe someone else on this list
will
> know of some.
>
> According to Elizabeth Wigmore's article in 'Long Melford, the last 2000
> years' the raw hair was imported from South America. Liz quotes from an
> article from the Bury and Norwich Post of 13 March 1883 by a writer who
had
> visited all three horse hair factories in the town and reports the process
> in some detail. Some of the weaving was done as out work, some in the
> factories; weavers were mostly female and their servers were children (one
> as young as 4 according to the 1851 census, but he was probably working at
> home as server,with two siblings, to his older brother). A cloth was 52
feet
> long and 16 inches wide and took nine days to weave; the weaver was paid
16s
> for it; they averaged between 9s-11s a week.
>
> The last horsehair factory in Melford closed in 1960. There were factories
> in the surrounding villages, certainly Lavenham and Glemsford - Bury St
> Edmunds Record Office have a photo of a loom at Lavenham. I don't know if
> /where the industry continues. Contact me if you want more references.
>
> Lyn B
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