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antique textiles Huddersfield

“With His Head All Dyed A Brilliant Magenta Colour”

Well, I finally got round to making a tiny Etsy shop, to sell our mudags and some of my naturally dyed fibres: https://hemingwayandhunt.etsy.com So now the mudags will be available to folk who can’t get to wool shows in Yorkshire, this year! And also, talking of dyeing, one of my (possible) Dawson relatives found this […]

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foundlings Genealogy Halifax Huddersfield Leeds West Riding

The Faux Foundling

One for the genealogists today so you might want to look away now if you’re not into this stuff! This is a blog post I have tried to start, many times. And given up on. Due to its complexity. So here it is – finally –  the  lengthy (sorry) story of how we finally broke […]

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antique textiles Halifax Huddersfield Leeds

“Upto My Saddle In Luddite Blood”

202 years ago this month, the show trial of a handful of Luddites ended, and men were hung at York Castle after a ‘Special Commission’ at York Assizes. They built the scaffold unusually high, so the crowd of thousands could see the men die, like a farmer hangs a few crows pour encourager les autres. […]

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antique textiles Hand spinning History Huddersfield

Beyond the Spin Count

Huddersfield, yesterday. And having an hour to kill, I found the Local History section of the Library.  I didn’t have time to look for my Huddersfield ancestors, wool weavers and dyers the Smiths, Dawsons and Listers ~ but did find this info I wanted to share, in a fascinating book, ‘The Water-Spinners’, by Chris Aspin, […]

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antique textiles Halifax Hand spinning History Huddersfield local history Minor's Head

“You’re Doing It (Even More) Wrong!” or How The Great Wheel Survived

I’ve hesitated about writing this post. In the same way I hesitate about commenting on YouTube videos that claim to be showing a certain spinning technique – and aren’t. But great wheels are one of my ‘things’. And I couldn’t bear to see inaccuracies stand as ‘facts’. So in the spirit of preserving this craft […]

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History Huddersfield

(Laughter). The Story of David Dawson “the Milnsbridge Poet”, & Incendiarism By An Insane Woman

This week, I went in search of my relative David Dawson, father of Dan Dawson. I had spotted David’s name cropping up frequently on Dan’s various patents, for improved dyeing processes and machinery,  as”David Dawson, gentleman”. It turns out David credited himself with the development of magenta as a synthetic dye, and the 21 year […]

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antique textiles Halifax handspinning History Huddersfield Textile Arts West Riding

Magenta Divine

They say “blood will out”, and so it seems to have proved. We broke the last brick wall in my family tree a few months back. Names included:  Lister, Smith, Dawson and Crabtree;  a long line of wool weavers, clothiers, and mill-owners in Longwood, near Huddersfield, and in Halifax.  My surname should have been the […]

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Genealogy Halifax Hand spinning History Huddersfield Leeds local history

White Cloth, Mixed Cloth, and High Horses

Writing of Leeds’ White and Mixed Cloth Halls, in 1814, Seacroft man George Walker said: “They are both open every Tuesday and Saturday morning for one hour; in which very limited time all the business is transacted. The cloth is arranged on low wooden stands; the manufacturer behind it, and the merchant or buyer passes […]

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Hand spinning handspinning History Huddersfield

Timbertops Lonsdale Spinning Wheel

This past few days I’ve been playing with my “new” spinning wheel; a Timbertops Lonsdale in oak, bought from a fellow Raveller at the weekend. Timbertops are renowed as the Rolls Royces of spinning wheels. That is so true.  They are now made by Woodland Turnery in Wales, who have just gone into production with […]

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Halifax handspinning History Huddersfield Leeds local history Textile Arts West Riding

“Those infatuated creatures calling themselves Luddites”

“A tribute to the merit of Captain Raynes, of the Stirlingshire militia,  was paid on the 4th … as an acknowledgement of … his indefatigable and unabated zeal in bringing to justice a number of those infatuated creatures calling themselves Luddites.” [Caledonian Mercury, Monday, November 30th, 1812]. In 1812, Yorkshire became the fulcrum of a […]