By contrast, the 'fancy branch' of the industry, producing lace, fine shawls and silk gloves, was a highly skilled profession and training was provided through an apprenticeship scheme. Boys were apprenticed to a master framework knitter for a period of usually three years between the ages of 18 and 21, but it was not uncommon for the training period to be much longer and apprentices start at a much younger age.
A newly qualified framework knitter, known as a 'journeyman', could potentially earn considerably more than counterparts working in the common branch. At the top of the career ladder, to where an apprentice could aspire, was the 'master framework knitter'.
The majority of skilled knitters worked in the Nottingham lace industry, whereas in surrounding towns and villages most of the hoisery produced, certainly in the first half of the 19th century, would fall into the common branch category.
In evidence given to the 1845 Royal Commission into the conditions of Framework Knitters, it was estimated that in Hucknall, 500 frames were making wrought and 150 fancy branch hose.
The length of the apprenticeship was not fixed and the younger the boy the longer the term, suggesting the main purpose of the scheme was to reduce the workhouse population.
The contraction of the framework knitting industry in the second half of the 19th century resulted in fewer opportunities for apprenticeships and in Hucknall there were no pauper apprentices after 1854.
An Apprenticeship in Framework Knitting
The basic skills required to operate a knitting frame were not difficult to acquire, and the 'common or wrought branch' of the hoisery industry, producing items such as plain cotton stockings, was a semi-skilled occupation. Once a boy was tall enough to reach the pedals he could learn to operate a frame in three months and become competent in six.
Pauper children apprenticed to Hucknall hosiers in the 1850's
James Thompson (17) of Linby to Arthur Hadnam for 7 years.
Stephen (15) and William (13) Smith of Hucknall Torkard to Robert Jacklin for 6 and 8 years respectively.
George Cutts (10) of Hucknall Torkard to Levi Saxton for 8 years.
(Source: Nottingham Archives)Pauper Apprentices
It was a common practice to apprentice workhouse children to skilled tradesmen such as master framework knitters. This arrangement benefited all parties concerned; the child was given the opportunity to learn a trade, the framework knitter acquired a low cost worker, and the parish cut the cost of its poor relief.
Sources:
Richard Gurnham; 200 years: The Hosiery Unions 1776-1976 (1976). Church Gate Press, Leicester. Co.
Eric Horriben; Hucknall 'of lowly birth and iron fortune' (1999)
Next page: William Cartledge: A Hucknall Apprentice
Home page