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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