There's a book about the machine lace industry in the Lace Guild's library which I'm sure I wrote something about on Arachne some years ago. It is something like the "History of the Nottingham Lace Industry" but I'm going on memory and may be wrong. There was a company in Long Eaton, GH Hurt & Co (about 15 years ago) who produced frame knitted items for sale to the various shops and museums, whether they are still in business I don't know. Also a Leavers machine was displayed at the museum in Rufford Country Park, Nottinghamshire, and frame knitting demonstrated at Ruddington Museum. I doubt much will be available to visit until after lockdown ends, but most museums have websites. I think there may be machines displayed at Wollaton Hall (Nottingham, near to Queens Medical Centre) but haven't been there for years. Most of the Nottingham industry has gone, the changes in fashion took their toll as much on the machine industry as they did the hand made, plus they had competitio! n from cheaper sources abroad. It might be worth contacting Nottingham Trent University (unless she's already studying there) as they have a large lace resource. Most of the lace from the old Nottingham Museum of Costume and Lace went to the Nottingham Castle Museum, so will be in their reserve collection. There used to be sock/stocking machines in the museum at Snibston near Coalville in Leicestershire, Coalville Council might know what happened to them after the museum closed.
As Maureen says, there's a lot of information in the Lacemakers of Calais book (produced for an exhibition in Loughborough which I went to) based on John Heathcoate's (Leavers) machines. I haven't seen much of the history of the Barmen and Raschelle machines, other than seeing them in the old Nottingham Lace Centre, sadly long closed. I would be interested to know which country the 1590 machine Nancy referred to was in, as England at the time had a Queen, not a King. Jane Partridge - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
