A linen sheet, well over a hundred years old, donated to the museum is believed to have been hand woven in Caldecott, Rutland and the last sheet to have been bleached on the village ‘bleaching ground.’ This was said to be located on ‘the little plot of grass adjoining the ford between the Eye Brook and the small stream, where villagers would bleach their own hand spun and woven linen. (1)
Made up of two lengths sewn together, it is a sort of dull ecru colour (French for unbleached linen) with odd patches of darker colouring probably due to incomplete bleaching. It is heavy but surprisingly soft and smooth and roughly double bed size with the two lengths, very neatly and almost invisibly, hand sewn together by tiny oversewing stitches along the centre join and tiny hemming stitches across the two ends. Its two widths and join tell us that it was woven on a hand loom.
Hand weaving looms were built wide enough for the person working it to throw the shuttle through with one hand and catch it at the other side with the other hand, so arms width, approx 75cms. Looms were valuable pieces of family equipment with the men usually doing the weaving and the womenfolk spinning the thread. Looms were passed on to the next generation giving us the word ‘heirloom.’
John Ridgley, weaver of Lyddington, died in November 1728 leaving three looms and warping bars in his will, so that weaving was still a Ridgley family occupation twenty-five years later when James Ridgley inherited the business in 1753. (2)
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries linen used in large households would be marked or numbered, using small black or red cross or back stitches, so that after laundering the correct piece went back to the correct owner.
This sheet has 1OV or A or maybe jOV or A embroidered in red cross stitches in one corner. Perhaps it had been in use in one of the big houses in Caldecott or nearby?
Linen was a strong and durable fabric and had many uses eg to package and protect goods during tranport and as shrouds for burying the dead. When the Burying in Woollen Act of March 1667 was passed to promote the English wool trade only woollen shrouds were now to be used and an oath had to be sworn that this had been done or risk a £5 fine. Unlike wool or silk, linen could be washed, hence it was also used as undergarments, bedding, household and table linen. Widow Sarah Williamson of Langham, Rutland wrote her will in July 1786 and included in the bequests to her son were ‘one Good Feather Bed one Bolster two Pillows two Blankets and the Linen Curtains, two pairs of Hempen Sheets, two pair Flaxen Sheets and one Holland Sheet.’ (3)
Hempen sheet – made from the hemp plant, more difficult to bleach it produced a coarser but durable fabric.
Flaxen sheet – a linen sheet, most likely produced by the Sewell family who were known weavers of Langham.
Holland sheet – fine, high quality linen imported from Europe but mainly Holland which produced the the finest and the whitest linen.
Flax, maturing in 100 days, was sown in April and harvested in late July or early August. A series of processes, Retting, Scutching and Hackling, then followed with the resulting fibres ready for spinning and weaving from October.
Retting – the whole plant was pulled from the soil, left in the field or in a pond to allow the weather, soil and organisms to break down the pectin in the flax to loosen the fibres.
Scutching – beating or ‘dressing’ the stems to separate the woody fibres from the flax.
Hackling – this separated and straightened the fibres by pulling them through a hackle (board with nails protruding from one side to act like a comb).
Farmers frequently grew flax as an extra crop, its growth and production into linen fitted in nicely with the agricultural year, with the gap from August to October leaving time for harvesting necessary food crops. Spinning thread and weaving linen could then be done by the farmer’s wife and children over the winter or ‘put-out’ to other village families. After the winter the resulting lengths of linen were ready for bleaching in the spring sunshine. This involved laying out the lengths of fabric on the ground in a communal open area near to water, to be whitened by the sun and maybe with washing and soaking in lye (ashes and urine) as well. Charles Tennant, a Scottish chemist, patented a faster chemical bleach in 1798 and along with the mechanisation of spinning and weaving and the growing preference for cotton the cottage industry of linen production gradually ceased during the 1800’s.
Little flax appears to have been grown in Leicestershire and Rutland but it was a popular crop in neighbouring Lincolnshire. Flax seed or the dressed flax fibres ready for spinning and weaving were being sold in local markets and shops or available for purchase from a visiting chapman with pack horses (travelling salesman).
In May 1736 the Stamford Mercury advertised the Monday markets at Gosberton, Lincs as ‘the greatest Horse, Flax, Hemp Fair etc, that ever was thereabouts; for Flax and Hemp it is certainly one of the most commodious that Side of the Country.’
Until around 1830 Caldecott weavers could also purchase their supplies of flax from Henry Christian of North Street, Uppingham who was advertised in Pigot’s Directory of Leicestershire and Rutland 1828/29 as a hemp and flax dresser.
Flax seed was not always home grown but sometimes imported from Europe. Seed from Latvia was advertised in the Stamford Mercury in March 1741 ’A parcel of fine Barrel Flaxseed, just arrived from Riga, being the best growth of that country. Enquire of Mr William Tew of Wisbeach [sic] or Mr Joseph Alcock at the White Lion in Spalding, where the said Seed may be seen.’
Until the mid to late eighteen hundreds most Rutland villages would have had resident weavers and often flax dressers, depending on the size of the population. Caldecott was no exception with the Parish Records showing the burials of John Vines, weaver, in December 1785 and weaver Thomas Winsell in February 1789. While earlier in 1767 William Hill, weaver, of Main Street left his messuage in Caldecott and his Close in Snelston to his wife Ann. (3)
Flax fibres, have been extensively used for millenia but went out of use as cotton took its place and ships no longer used sails, however, linen is now making a come back as industry and fashion demand more natural and locally grown fibres. Trials are now being conducted to produce the old long stemmed varieties of flax with their longer fibres and to design modern machinery for harvesting, spinning and weaving.
References used in this blog:
Rutland County Museum – Parish Records, Trade Directories
The Villages of Rutland, Rutland Local History Society Vol 1 Part 1 Mills, Caldecott (1)
http://www.rutlandhistory.org/pdf/bprm.pdf The Buildings and Peoples of a Rutland
Manor – Pub. Lyddington Manor History Society 2015 – p 55, p 279 (2) & p 239 (3)
www.langhaminrutland.org – Wills (3)
https://uhra.herts.ac.uk – Alice Dolan, The Fabric of Life
https://www.janelark.blog/2013/07/05/spinning-and-weaving-in-the-early-1700s/
http://www.oldandinteresting.com – History of laundry
https://www.ikfoundation.org – 18th & 19th century The Marking of Linen
https://www.en.m.wikipedia.org – Textile Manufacture During the Industrial Revolution
https://www.tickhillhistorysociety.org.uk – Industry, Flax Growing and Processing