BY ALLISON LEE
Colne Valley Museum – a Grade II listed building – is housed in four cottages built in the 1840s by the Pearsons, a family of independent cloth manufacturers whose relatives still live in Golcar today. These weavers’ cottages, named ‘Spring Rock’ by James and Sally Pearson, were built into the steep hillside, with the traditional entrance for the lower rooms (like our modern front doors) and a rear entrance to the top floor.
Following James Pearson’s death, Spring Rock remained a family home until 1910, when the end cottage was taken over by the Golcar Socialist Club. When the club moved to larger premises in the 1960s, the building stood empty until 1970, when it was generously offered for use as a museum. This led to the formation of the Colne Valley Museum, and the two adjacent cottages were acquired – one of which was kindly donated by the Yeadon family.
The three cottages housed the museum for many years. The top cottage and adjoining shop were purchased in 2008. The ground floors of these two buildings were incorporated into the main museum, creating a new entrance, a museum shop, and the Spring Rock Tea Rooms. In 2014, the museum’s ‘Realising the Dream’ project began – funded mostly by the Heritage Lottery Fund – and enabled the museum to recreate a complete weaver’s cottage where James and Sally Pearson may have lived, with a living kitchen, a period bedroom, and the loom chamber above where the family earned a living.
As you walk around the museum, you will enter various rooms, each with its own purpose:
The Spinning Room
This room is the first stage of the cloth-making process. The fleece is cut from the sheep with shears, then sorted and cleaned of vegetation and other debris. Children used a pair of cards (originally packed with teazle heads, later with steel hooks) to comb out the wool. The fibres were aligned to form a rolag, which was then released from the cards and ready for spinning.
From the earliest times, spinning was done using a drop spindle, in which the weight pulled the thread and a quick spin imparted the twist that gave the yarn its strength. There are several spinning wheels in the museum: the Saxony Wheel (invented in the 1450s) and the Great Wheel (dating to about AD 600). Six or seven spinners were needed to supply one weaver.
- The Great Wheel was introduced into England around 1340. It was operated by a woman (a spinster) standing, moving the wheel with one hand and pulling the yarn with the other. The wheel did the twisting; this type was used in the Colne Valley.
- The Saxony Wheel was developed in the 18th century. It used a treadle to turn the wheel and drive the twisting, leaving both hands free to spin. This is the wheel used today by handicraft spinners and demonstrators.
The wheels were superseded in 1765 by Hargreaves’ Spinning Jenny – a machine in which a row of spindles is turned by a large wheel. A full-size machine would run the length of the cottage, and with 120 spindles could produce half a mile of yarn in one minute. One Jenny could supply several weavers – an important addition to the Industrial Revolution.
Various items are on display, including a bobbin winder, a “niddy noddy” (used for hanking the yarn), and a “Lazy Kate” (used to wind several bobbins). You may also see a “wuzzing basket”, used to dry washed wool. The basket was threaded onto a pole, the pole inserted into a hole outside the door, and then twirled quickly – excess moisture was flung out.
The Loom Chamber
Weaving was always done on the top floor; the room’s height was needed for the looms to fit. Plenty of light came from the row of mullioned windows. On the other side of the chamber are more windows and the wide opening for wool to come in and cloth to come out.
There are two parts to a piece of cloth: the warp and the weft. The warp is the set of threads that run from the back of the loom to the front. It is made using a warping creel and frame. The creel holds cones of yarn. The threads are fed through hooks and eyes, and the warper then winds them around the pegs of the warping frame (set against the wall). The length of a warp is 22 yards (about 20 metres).
The two looms were made by Stansfield of Almondbury in 1900. The “witch” or “dobbie” mechanism (used from the 1820s) determines the weave of the cloth by a series of pegs on a rotating cylinder. The weaver uses a treadle to separate two sets of threads (to make a shed), through which he sends a shuttle carrying the weft. He then treadles again to change the shed and sends the shuttle back. The process is repeated.
The “flying shuttle” was invented by Kaye in 1728; it enabled the weaving of wider fabrics and accelerated production. Drop boxes at each side of the loom house four shuttles, which can carry different colours, offering greater design possibilities.
Cloth woven in the museum, and items made from it, are available for purchase.
The Clog Shop
This workshop was originally in Carr Lane, Slaithwaite, the next township up the valley (a photograph of the shop is in the display case). In 1910, the shop was owned by Allen Parkin. Allen died in 1913; his son Albert, aged just 19, took over the running of the shop, making clogs and repairing boots and shoes. Albert died in 1970, just as Colne Valley Museum was starting up as a community museum. In 1972, the workshop was moved to the museum.
The clogger played an important part in village life: he provided durable, low-cost footwear, and the shop served as a meeting place for village chat, often a hotbed of gossip.
Yorkshire and Lancashire clogs are made with wooden soles and leather uppers (as are other English, Scottish and Welsh clogs). Unlike continental sabots (or Dutch clogs), which are made entirely from wood, these have a history dating back to Roman times. Clogs evolved all over the world, and it is said that clogs as we know them in Yorkshire first appeared with Flemish weavers in the 13th century (though some dispute this). Clogs with leather uppers were known in Italy in the 10th century; the earliest firm records of them in England date from the early 1600s, although wooden-soled patens and goloshes (overshoes) predate them by at least 200 years.
The wooden soles are carved from blocks or logs of wood; alder was commonly used in this area. The bench and large knives were used to fashion the soles long before machines were used. There are three knives: the flat-bladed Stock knife, the scoop-shaped Hollower, and the small V-shaped Gripper. This smallest knife was used to create the groove around the sole, known as the grip, which held the leather to the sole. The curve on the sole is called the Spring or Cast – this helps when walking uphill; the steeper the slope, the more spring is needed.
The earliest wooden clogs had strips of leather nailed to the soles to prevent them from wearing away. Later, blacksmiths produced flat C-shaped irons to nail under the soles (like horseshoes). Clog-iron machines evolved during the Industrial Revolution; the now-familiar “iron” shape emerged. The irons are nailed to the sole with a nailing hammer to drive in specially shaped nails, and a Goose Neck Stithy (or steady) supports the sole while the clog maker nails the irons on.
The upper (or top) of the clog is best made from leather tanned in oak bark and stuffed with wax (a secret recipe). In the past, this was called “Black Waxed Kip” and was used for the best-quality clogs. Cheaper leather was used for working clogs – often second-hand, greasy leather from the mill, known as carding leather. The clogger selects a metal pattern to suit the clog size and shape for the upper. The leather is laid on the Clicking Bench. The clogger cuts around the pattern with a sharp knife. The process is known as clicking and comes from the noise the knife makes as it passes over the blocks used to form the bench. Three pieces of leather form the upper; they are stitched (closed) with a curved awl and strong black cord (with a wax end). The clogger holds the leather in place with a leather loop strap that goes under the foot, leaving both hands free to “close the upper”.
Once the upper is formed, the clogger shapes it by placing it over a wooden last and stretching it using a large pair of “lasting pincers”. Heat is applied to the leather with a double-handled lasting iron heated over a gas flame. Rubbing or burnishing the leather with a hot iron softens the leather’s wax and shapes it to the last.
The final step is to attach the upper to the sole. The clogger trims excess leather and cuts the upper to the exact “grip” of the sole. The upper is then nailed to the sole with welt tacks (the joint between sole and upper is the welt), and often a narrow strip of leather is nailed around the welt to provide extra waterproofing. Today, many clogs are fastened with laces or buckles; our clogs are usually fastened with a clasp – two pieces of steel or brass that clip together.
More information about the museum and events on offer can be found on their website:
https://www.colnevalleymuseum.org.uk/
Allison Lee is a smallholder from North Yorkshire who has written for the Yorkshire Times and other publications. Her website can be accessed here.