Weavers of Coventry

I hope that our friend Heritage comes on to this thread. I am sure that I saw an identical loom at an exhibition that he was totally involved with, at the Almshouses in Bedworth a year or so ago. I bumped into Normk whilst I was there.

Hello all, We do have a similar loom at Bedworth Heritage Centre. However ours is a modern reproduction of the small hand loom that is at the Herbert. Ours was made for a weaving project in the town and formed the centrepiece for a play at the Bedworth Arts Centre. It just happened that the Herbert loom was at the Toye, Kenning and Spencer factory in the town for some TLC so was measured up, suitable oak procured and the loom was made in someones shed. We are hoping that Toye Kenning and Spencer, who still make very high quality ribbons for medal such as OBEs, MBE etc.will set ours up so weaving can begin. I will sort a photo out over the weekend. Next exhibition in two weeks time will be about Exhall.

The flyer for 'Only a Weaver' which featured the loom at the heritage centre

My sister in law sings with the Bedworth Choral Society. A couple of years ago they sang a new piece that was all about the weavers who emigrated and what their life was like. I can't remember many of the historical details now, but it was very moving.

Was there not another weaving firm in Foleshill, Lairds of St Lawrences Rd/Mason Rd. I believe they also were making name tapes and clothing labels. This would be in the late 40's.

I had to search my files but here is an image of the reproduction loom in its place at the Bedworth Heritage Centre. There is also a photo of the cast iron range which stands opposite the loom. This is in a building called the Nurses House which was built in 1840 as part of the almshouses - it was built around an even older timber framed building. The small loom is not local but is a Victorian period loom.

Hi Heritage & thank you for that. Weaving is a complicated business & follows what we see in the natural world. Courtaulds, who I worked for, spent vast sums & time trying to develop "Non-Woven Goods" so as to eliminate this weaving process. The nearest that I have ever seen to this is where non-woven sheets of fabric are laminated in layers, but their strength does not match that of the woven materials. So our spiders can carry on weaving.

The 1939 GPO Directory lists : Laird B & Co Ltd, Smallwr, St Lawrence's Works, Carlton Road, Coventry 8302 I can see the same back in 1922, and for the final time in 1960 PS I looked at the 1912-13 Coventry Directory and Carlton Road is listed as "proposed new street near city boundary" PPS I've now looked at the 1908 Kelly's Directory for Warwickshire and the company appears at Carlton Works, Lockhurst Lane! PPPS So, back to the 1912-13 Directory, and sure enough they are on Lockhurst Lane, listed between no.250 and The Railway Inn - so, this will have been the site of that factory :

Has anyone any information about Botterill and Landells, ribbon weavers from 1920s early 1930s? I have a reference in which they talk about 'our' factory. Because I have drawn a blank I wonder if the term means they worked together in Stevens, Cash's or similar?

The Jacquard handloom was introduced into Coventry about 1820 by a Mr Sawbridge of Gosford Street, improved by a Mr Goddard of Bailey Lane and used for fancy ribbon weaving. Handlooms could be rented or bought from a manufacturer. About 1831 the first application of steam power to the driving of looms was brought about by Josiah Beck and in 1833 a larger steam driven loom was invented. It was said that Josiah Beck employed cheap female labour to run these looms, though actually another manufacturer, John Day, was more responsible for this. The effect on handloom weavers was disastrous. A loom which cost £40-£100, when a weaver's annual income was no more than £40-£50, had to be sold for £10 or less, or broken up for scrap. My own silk weaver ancestors were ruined, and in 1847 John, head of the family, was provided a minimal income by being appointed 'pinner' to the parish of Attleborough, Nuneaton (responsible for penning stray animals). A bad situation became steadily worse, and by the 1860 depression mass meetings were being held in Coventry. A procession of workers proceeded to Mr Beck's factory, Beck was caught trying to escape and made to ride tailward through the town on a donkey. His house was ransacked, the warps cut from the looms and thrown into the Smithfield dam, and the factory burned down. The riot act was read, the cavalry brought in and many arrests were made. Three young men whose names were Toogood, Burbery and Sparkes were condemned to be hung; but the sentence was commuted to transportation for life. Cheap French goods were much blamed for the 1860's depression, but Joseph Gutteridge, whose grandfather, a Coventry weaver, went to France as an artisan delegate for the Society of Arts in 1867, found the silk trade in Lyon "in a most distressed condition with two thirds of the looms standing idle and hundreds starving". Silkworm disease had decimated the industry, prices had risen and fashions had changed and "France suffered as much as England". Actually the most important cause of the 1860's depression was probably the revised American tariff which put a 50% duty on English manufactured goods. You can read all about it in Valerie Chancellor's 'Master and Artisan in Victorian England'.

Last weekend we visited the Framework Knitters Museum in Nottinghamshire. The knitters worked in a similar way to the weavers in Coventry. Some in their actual homes, and some in small workshops attached to a group of cottages, with about 20 knitting frames grouped together in a "top shop". As with the Coventry ribbon weavers, trade slowly declined with the advent of mechanization and cheap imports. It would be nice if there was a similar museum in Coventry illustrating the work of the weavers, especially, as in the knitting museum, there were live demonstrations of how the machinery worked and how noisy it was.

Just a long shot. In the directory of Coventry Manufacturers first published 1936 reprinted 1950 there's a W H Grant & Co Ltd of Livingstone Mills, Lockhurst Lane, listed as amongst other things manufacturer of Printed garment labels and woven and embroidered badges. There are also some documents listed in Coventry Archives to do with arms and shields for new municipal buildings which he was involved in. W H Grant was a councillor and Alderman who had worked for Stephengraphs, he died in 1931. Maybe Botterill and Landells were something to do with this company.

Link on weaver George Whitmore Rogers

Thanks to everyone for the help and suggestions. I had tried all the usual avenues including some of the lesser known weavers. I thought that a route might be via the actual names and family history but that has drawn a blank also. As an aside, the factory in Livingstone Road still used by N.P. Aerospace, were weaving sheds for Grants, I think it was (or Franklin's?). For those interested in weaving, some subjects such as Peeping Tom (the 20s Grant calender and the earlier Stevens bookmark), occur as identical images in size and colour produced by different companies so presumably it was the designer who held the copyright if that sort of thing existed at that time, and not the manufacturer??????