Hat - Wool & Knitting

Sirdar and The Shed present,
the original award winning woolly spectacular:

From the W.I. to the avant garde,
a performance of words, music and knitting..

Wool and Knitting

Here are a few short paragraphs about wool and knitting that shed some light on the social and economic importance of knitting throughout history. The most comprehensive account can be found in a little book 'The Old Hand-Knitters of the Dales'. Not only was knitting a source of much needed income for the poor (especially in rural communities) but also a craft that brought people together. Moving on rotation from house to house in the evening, knitters (both men and women) would sit in the dark (the candles snuffed out to preserve the wax) and exchange gossip and tell stories. Knitting songs, like sea shanties, were sung to pass the time and encourage the knitters to greater speed.
Wordsworth writes in 'Michael', (1800):

'.....while far into the night
The housewife plied her own peculiar work,
Making the cottage through the silent hours
Murmur as with the sound of summer flies.'

Knitting Schools | Knitted Caps | Refused Patent | Burials in Woollen

Knitting Schools

"...knitting schools were started up and down the country. At Lincoln, one begun in 1591 continued throughout the next century. In 1590 the York burgesses took a house in St. Saviourgate where poor children under three teachers were taught to knit. A clause in the municipal records reads: 'That such poore children at the Knitting Scole as stand in need of Coots - shall have coots of the cheapest graye that can be gotten.' (One wishes that the promoters of this charitable institution did not sound quite so niggardly). Four years later the head of the school was reprimanded for neglecting to take apprentices so that there was a danger of the trade dying out....The project did not survive in York where there was a choice of many trades."

The Old Hand Knitters Of The Dales by Marie Hartley & Joan Ingilby. 1951

Knitted Caps

"An Act of Parliament in 1488 stated that the price of knitted woollen caps was 2s. 8d., and in fact several Acts mentioned 'knitte cappes' in the ensuing years. Here then is the first record of knitted goods manufactured for sale in England. To encourage the trade, as well as knitting as an employment, and Act of 1571 reads, 'Every person not possessed of 20 marks rental should wear on Sundays and Holy Days when not on travell, a woolen knit cap, on pain of forfeiting 3s. 4d. a day.'"

The Old Hand Knitters Of The Dales by Marie Hartley & Joan Ingilby

Refused Patent in 1589

"In 1589 occurred and event which only reached its climax during the last century. It was the year after England had celebrated the defeat of the Armada, that an obscure curate, named William Lee, of Nottinghamshire invented the first stocking-loom. The Queen, herself, saw it work, but was disappointed to find that it produced only worsted hose. She refused Lee a patent monopoly, and said, 'I have too much love for my poor people who obtain their bread by the employment of knitting, to give my money to forward an invention that will tend to their ruin.'

(Source as above)

Burials in Woollen

"In 1666 an Act of Parliament was passed by which people were compelled to bury the dead in woollen. The purpose of the Act was to help the farmers and to encourage the manufacture of woollen goods. The new measure was very unpopular. From the very early times people had been accustomed to bury their dead in linen, and a great many people persisted in continuing the old practice.
To put a stop to disobedience the Government imposed a fine of £5 on the offender, whenever the act was broken.. Half of the £5 was given to the poor and half to the informer. An entry (in one of the Church registers) states that, on at least one occasion, this law was brought into operation against a Salton resident. The entry reads thus: 'Elizabeth Dowker, the wife of Robert Dowker, was interred July 15th., 1692, and her corpse was wrapped in linen, for which the penalty of £5 was imposed, according to the Act of Parliament, and one half was given to the informer and the other to the church wardens, to be distributed to the poor of the parish.'
The Act of Parliament which compelled people to bury the dead in woollen was finally repealed in 1814."

'A Brief History of Brawby and Salton' by Rev H.A Douglas 1937

HAT:

Conceived and produced by Simon Thackray.