The
History of Bedfordshire Lace Blog Part 1: The Arrival of Lacemaking in
Bedfordshire
The story that Queen Catherine of Aragon encouraged
lace making in Bedfordshire first appeared in print in Mrs Palliser’s History
of Lace (1865). Mrs Palliser, writing of traditions handed down in the county
villages said that a ‘good queen who protected their craft, the annual festival
of workers combined with Queen Catherine’s imprisonment at Ampthill and the
teaching of lacemaking to the peasantry for subsistence’. The folk tradition
cannot be ruled out, but it seems unlikely it refers to pillow lace-making, as
this style of lace only really began in Europe in the latter half of the 16th
Century. It is also possible the ‘good queen’ referred to was a later queen,
possibly Queen Adelaide, wife of William IV, who did make a point of wearing
English lace.
Map from https://cowperandnewtonmuseum.org.uk/lace-making/
It seems most likely that lace came across
the sea with people settling in Britain from Europe, particularly refugees forced
to flee their homelands due to unrest or conflict. Between 1563 and 1568 many lace-makers
arrived from the continent, seeking refuge from religious persecution in the
Netherlands and France. Thomas Wright attributes the uptake of lacemaking in
Bedfordshire to Flemish immigrants from Mechlin settling at Bourne End in
Cranfield in 1568.
The Huguenot by Sir John Millais painted
c.1852 depicts the St. Bartholomew Massacre of 24 August 1572 ordered by King
Charles IX of France. Over 100,000 Protestants were killed and many fled to
England as refugees. When the clock of the Palais de Justice shall sound upon
the great bell, at day-break, (on St Bartholomew's day) then each good Catholic
must bind a strip of white linen round his arm, and place a fair white cross in
his cap.
The Huguenot by Sir John Millais © The
Higgins Bedford, P.260
Here, a young Catholic woman is entreating
her Protestant lover to wear the white linen sash, but he is gently resisting
and refusing to deny his faith to save his skin. At his feet nasturtiums grow,
a token of sorrow, while ivy, the emblem of constancy, clings to the wall
behind the lovers.
Many
of the lacemakers who escaped were from Lille and found their way to Bucks and
Northants where they joined the Mechlin workers from Flanders. We can now find
a combination of the two laces of Mechlin and Lille designs and net grounds
across those three counties.
Late 18th Century border lace in Lille style Buckinghamshire Point-ground lace with Pineapple motif, Lester Lace, ©The Higgins Bedford BML.162
The Lille
Buckinghamshire Point-ground style above is typical of the type of lace made
across the Three Counties of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire
for much of the 17th to 19th Centuries.
17th century lace
buyers are recorded at Cranfield, Kempston, Harrold, Marston Moretaine,
Stevington and Turvey. The structure of the lace-making industry made the
lacemakers reliant on dealers who employed the makers, keeping 2 to 300 at work
at any one time. The dealers supplied the threads, but also the patterns in
most cases. Most of the dealers travelled to London once a week to sell their
lace to retailers and buy supplies. Weekly turnover of dealers in 17th century
ranged from £20 to £50.
Mrs Eliza Evans, Born 1862, lacemaker,
Cardington/ Marston © The Higgins Bedford BEDFM 127
Conditions were not easy, with limited light
in the cottages provided by a single candle and flash bulb with water inside to
reflect the light from the flame. Men, women and children (boys and girls) in
rural villages in Bedfordshire would make lace in throughout the year, but
particularly in the quiet winter period to help bring in additional money and put
food on the table.
Mary and William Linger, Spring Lane,
Stagsden © Bedfordshire Archives ref: Z50-142-86
Lace Schools were set up to teach children
how to make lace and give a basic education, although often not a great deal of
reading and writing went on and this was left to the Sunday Schools to teach.
As early as 1596 Eaton Socon parish records
document that Goodwife Clarke paid 2d a week for teaching lace to each child
and children received what they earned. Children were also taught in the work
houses. Jane Harris, an inmate, was paid 1s a week for teaching children at
Eaton Socon in 1719.
Lace School at Bletsoe, Bedfordshire, August
1914, BEDFM 2000.341
Thomas Batchelor’s book from 1808 tells us
that ‘Children are taught to make lace at about six or seven years old; and
they occupy so much of their attention of their school mistress , that the
expense of teaching them amounts to 3s per week, for a month or six weeks,
according to their capacity. After they have learned the rudiments of their art
their ordinary schooling is 6d a week. By age of 10 earnings were around a
third of an adults which ranged from 5 to 9s.’
Schools rapidly increased in the early part
of the 19th Century, Marston Moretaine (population in 1801 of 792 residents)
had 9 schools in 1819 where 80 to 90 girls and boys made lace. The youngest
worked 4 or 5 hours a day, older children 6 to 8 hours and young women 12 or 15
hours (numbers from The Commission on the employment of children). Numbers in
the schools ranged between twelve and twenty-five for most schools.
Thomazin Lester, who was born in Cambridgshire
in 1791, was one of seven lace dealers listed in Bedford in 1831 (Pigots
directory) and had been building up his business for some years. The first we
find of him in Bedford records is when he marries Elizabeth Fox at St. Pauls
Church in 1818. Elizabeth was born in St. Cuthbert’s parish in 1796 and it is
possible that she may have been a lacemaker. In 1817 there are records of
Elizabeth having been ‘received into full communion of the Bunyan Meeting’, and
a year after their marriage Thomazin joined his wife in this connection with
the church. Later in 1836 he became a deacon at Bunyan Meeting Church, Mill
Street.
Thomazin Lester, © The Higgins Bedford,
CHAG.PN475.3
Elizabeth and Thomas had two daughters,
Sarah and Elizabeth and 2 sons, Charles and Thomas. Two other daughters sadly
died from illness. Thomas was joined in his business by his sons Charles Fox –
the eldest who mainly focussed on the Berlin Wool side of the business and
Thomas James (1834 – 1909) who joined the firm at the age of 28. Thomas Lester
Lace refers to the family firm rather than the individual.
Charles Fox Lester, © The Higgins Bedford,
CHAG.PN475.4
Charles Fox Lester was the eldest brother
and partner, who started working for the firm in the 1950s. Charles was in
charge of the Berlin Wool side of the business.
The 1830 petition of lace manufacturers
listed 150,000 lacemakers in the three counties, the 1851 census shows a
dramatic decline with 26,670. This was caused by the impact of competition from
Nottingham machine-made lace in the 1840s. It imitated hand crafted designs and
sold at lower prices than the hand-made lace. Many lacemakers left the industry
for the straw plait industry which was paying around 5 to 6s in 1837, compared
to lace which was only 3s a week.
Thomas James Lester, © The Higgins Bedford, CHAG.PN475.2
Thomas James Lester (1834 – 1909) was the
youngest son of Thomazin Lester and started working for the firm from
1862. The success for the lace
competitions at the Chicago Exhibition of 1862 and Paris exhibition of 1867 may
be the result of his son’s input into the business.
C. & T. Lester, Lace Manufacturers, 115
High Street, Bedford, From 1877, © The Higgins Bedford CHAGPN475.5
The Peters rate books show us that Thomazin
lived in Harpur Street in the early 1930s. By 1839 he was living in Tavistock
Street, owned land in Offa Street and houses in Dame Alice Street and the High
Street. In 1840 he moved to 99 The High Street (currently the location of the
Oxfam charity shop) and ran his business from here.
Sample book connected with Thomazin Lester, © The
Higgins Bedford BML.1
This sample book was originally an account book of the
surveyors of the highways at Olney from 1783 – 90 and has been re-used by
Thomazin Lester as an album for small samples of lace mounted on dark blue,
blue or grey card and pinned to the written pages. All samples are the earlier
Buckinghamshire point-ground lace; most are worked with Lille style ground, ranging
from around 1800 – 1850. It is possible Lester acquired it from an Olney
merchant.
At the Great Exhibition, held at Crystal
Palace in 1851 by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, Thomas Lester was awarded a
prize medal at the Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations for ‘Specimens
of Bedfordshire pillow lace, being an improved arrangement of an infants lace
dress; improvd lace fall piece to avoid joining at corners; lace fall complete;
length of wide white lace for falls; length of white and black trimming lace;
length of flouncing lace.’ His main production of lace ranged from narrow
borders to wider laces and the award was given for his wide white and black
laces.
Maltese Lace Mat made from cream silk in
three pieces, late 19th/ early 20th Century, Lester Lace Collection, BML.400 ©
The Higgins Bedford
The above example of Maltese Lace in cream
silk is similar to that seen on display at the Great Exhibition in 1851by
Thomas James Lester. It inspired him to create his own new style of Bedfordshire
Maltese Pillow Lace. His new type of lace was worked in cotton or linen thread
rather than silk as his workers were used to this thread and the lace was easier
to work more finely with the tension of the less slippery materials.
Thomas Lester Business Advertising card, ©
The Higgins Bedford BEDFM 2000.730
Thomazin Lester died in 1867 and his death
is recorded in the minute book of Bunyan Meeting Church: ‘Mr Lester one of the
Deacons died in faith on 29 December 1867. He was chosen to diaconate in June
1836 and had faithfully served the church till the end of life … He was a man
of deeply prayerful spirit and had almost Christ-like love for little children …Just
before retiring he sat reading the Pilgrims Progress … before daybreak he passed
himself through the gates.’
Thomas James Lester, following the pressure
from the machine-made lace being produced in Nottingham from the 1840s onwards,
started to design and commission his lacemakers to produce the new style of
Bedfordshire Maltese Pillow lace from the 1850s and this helped to preserve
some of the handcrafted trade for a few further decades.
Bedfordshire Maltese Lace was an ingenious
innovation on Lester’s part as this type of openwork lace could not be created
by the net-based machine-made lace that mimicked the Buckinghamshire point-ground
work. He was ever the entrepreneur and systematically introduced this new style
into popular designs, particularly for the upper to middle classes of society.
This innovation probably extended the survival of the handmade lace industry in
Bedfordshire by around 30 years before it inevitably declined as the machines
began to be able to make this type of lace.
Eagle design Bedfordshire Maltese Pillow
Lace Cuffs, Lester Lace, ©The Higgins Bedford BML.126
This lace cuff with pair of Eagles is the
motif for Bedford Borough Crest, it has a matching collar designed to be worn
together.
Stag table centre in Bedfordshire Maltese
Pillow Lace © The Higgins Bedford BML.20
This table centre piece of a Stag in
woodland made in Bedfordshire Maltese Pillow Lace from the Thomas Lester
collection may well have been inspired by artists such as Edwin Landseer, known
for his painting of animals, especially horses, but also stags – including
famous and popular works at the time ‘the Stag at Bay’ and ‘Monarch of the
Glen’.
BML.4a
Bedfordshire Maltese Pillow Lace, scalloped
design edging, Lester Lace design (with pattern above) BML.4 and 4a ©The
Higgins Bedford
The success for the lace competitions at the
Chicago Exhibition of 1862 and 1893, as well as Paris exhibition of 1867 is
likely the result of Thomas James Lester’s input into the business in later
years.
Bedfordshire Maltese Lace collar, a competition
winning piece, exhibited in the Chicago exhibition 1893, BML.339 ©The Higgins
Bedford
In 1891 the total number of lacemakers had
dwindled in the three counties to just 3,376. The Lace Association was set up
this year and an exhibition was held at Northampton to try to reawaken interest
and increase sales in lace. From this the Midland Lace Association was formed as
a permanent organisation for collecting and selling lace for lacemakers at a
better price than they could get from the dealers. In 1897 the North Buckinghamshire
Association was formed. It later became Buckinghamshire Association, but
included Bedfordshire.
By 1898 Thomas Lester had left Holly Lodge
at 43 The Grove (designed for him by architect John Usher in 1869). He went to
live at Kimbrook House, Stonely, Kimbolton where he died on 22 November 1909, age
75. Thomas Lester had retired from the business in 1903 when Miss Elizabeth
Driver joined him as Lester and Driver until 1913 when it was taken over by Miss
Haines who mainly sold materials and equipment for needlework and knitting.
Ostrich design cap, Lester Lace, © The
Higgins Bedford BML.42
The Beds Times reported on Thomas Lester’s
death:
‘He took a keen interest in the manufacture
of real lace and by constantly producing new designs did more than anyone else
had done or could do to keep the industry alive. In earlier years he was very
successful in gaining medals and certificates of merit at all the principal
exhibitions both at home and abroad, for beauty of design and excellence of
manufacture.’
In 1947 Amy Lester bequeathed a collection
of her grandfather’s lace to Bedford Borough council. It was displayed in 1949
as part of the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery Collection and today forms the Lester
Lace collection at The Higgins Bedford.
