Lambley and the stocking-making industry

Painting (housed at Leicester Polytechnic) commemorating the 300th centenary of the invention of the 'Stocking Frame' machine. 

The rehearsals for this year's 'Cowslip Sunday' play - 'Lambley Jack and the Golden Stockings' are continuing to take place. I filmed about an hour or so of yesterday's rehearsal. 

The plays themselves are a kind of 'spring pantomime' and this year's weaves together some local history with the fairy tale 'Tom Tit Tot' (which is itself an English retelling of 'Rumpelstiltskin' by the Brothers Grimm').

The historical link that the play makes use of is the fact that the 'stocking frame machine' was invented in Calverton, a village only a mile or so away from Lambley.

A stocking frame was a mechanical knitting machine used in the textiles industry. It was invented by William Lee of Calverton near Nottingham in 1589. Its use, known traditionally as Framework knitting, was the first major stage in the mechanisation of the textile industry, and played an important part in the early history of the Industrial Revolution.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stocking_frame

The play gleefully romps through this historical connection - William Lee is shown (as he did in real life) demonstrating the operation of the device to Queen Elizabeth I, hoping to obtain a patent. When he was refused (the Queen apparently fearing the effects on hand-knitting industries) he transported his machines and workers to France. Although he initially received support from the Hugenot Henry IV - who granted him a patent - his fortunes faltered after the King was assassinated (in the 'Wars of Religion' in 1610) and Lee eventually died destitute, in Paris in the year 1614.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_IV_of_France

Historically, Lambley is 'intimately connected with the hosiery trade' (http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/Brown1896/calverton.htm) and at the time when the original Cowslip Sunday would have been at its peak, stocking making would have been a major part of the Lambley economy:

In the year 1844, 381 stocking machines frames were being operated in the village. Many of the cottages and house's still bear the marks of the specially designed windows that were needed to allow the right light to enter the room where stocking frames were located.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/g1htl.johnfoster/lambley/lambley.html

Obviously the play is intended as light-hearted family entertainment - but at the same time it makes a very deliberate point of depicting a Lambley family who are involved - no doubt for low pay and long hours - in the 'stocking-making' industry at the height of its popularity during the 19th century. They would have been the kind of people for whom the arrival of Spring - as well as the chance to join in a spontaneous and unique local folk festival such as 'Cowslip Sunday' - would have been a very welcome relief from what seems likely to have been a hard existence.

I was hoping to include some footage of a very short experimental edit of some of yesterday's filming on this post - but vimeo has currently got some gremlins; hopefully I'll upload some film tomorrow. Below is a photograph of yesterday's events.