Nottingham lace: stories of industrial decline and textile heritage

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Briggs-Goode, A. ORCID: 0000-0002-5194-1009, Baxter, G. ORCID: 0000-0002-1607-099X, Outtram, T. ORCID: 0000-0002-0163-3390 and Childs, J., 2024. Nottingham lace: stories of industrial decline and textile heritage. In: J. Cirklová, ed., Prague - heritages: past and present - built and social. AMPS Proceedings Series (35.3). AMPS (Architecture, Media, Politics, Society), pp. 516-524.

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Abstract

Nottingham’s relationship with technological innovation in textile manufacturing began in the sixteenth century with the invention of the Stocking Frame by Rev Lee. It was this technology which paved the way for the production of machine-made lace by the beginning of the nineteenth century in the region. It is both the manufacturing technology and the fabric which elevated the city of Nottingham to have global influence as the manufacturing capital of lace. The technological innovation to manufacture lace was driven by the demand for the consumption of handmade lace which was, until the early-nineteenth century, limited to the wealthy and considered a luxury product. In the eighteenth century the technology was adapted to create lace-like structures, using a knitted net, and later patterned lace, but the fabric was unstable and unraveled if a thread was broken. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, John Heathcoat invented a different way of making net by replicating the actions of bobbin lace makers and twisting threads together. This resulted in the ‘twist-net machine’ which created a more stable net fabric which could be hand embroidered to make lace. Shortly afterwards John Lever developed the ‘Leavers lace machine’ which integrated lace patterns to be constructed directly on the machine.

Item Type:

Chapter in book

Description:

Paper presented at Prague - heritages: past and present - built and social, Prague, 28-30 June 2023.

Creators:

Briggs-Goode, A., Baxter, G., Outtram, T. and Childs, J.

Publisher:

AMPS (Architecture, Media, Politics, Society)

Date:

9 April 2024

Number:

35.3