Shawls and Falls

Shortly after the turn of the nineteenth century things began to go seriously wrong for the once thriving domestic stocking-making industry in Nottinghamshire due to loss of markets and changes in fashion (the history of the stocking-making in Hucknall will be covered in later articles on this site).

The prospects for the industry and the lives of those who worked in it remained bleak throughout the early decades of the century, but worse was to follow, when in the 1840's an industry in steady decline became one in immediate crisis following the introduction of the first highly efficient steam powered knitting machines.

Framework knitting was at first surprisingly resilient to the competition and survived mainly by shifting from narrow to more productive wide frames, and it was not until the 1860's that the numbers employed began to fall steeply. In 1844 there were 973 frames in Hucknall (Felkin, 1867), but by 1864 the total had crashed to about 100 (White's Directory).

This scaled down version of the industry survived, and at times prospered, until the beginning of the twentieth century by producing quality products that could be sold at a premium and exploiting niche markets uneconomical to the larger operators.

About the year 1840 glove making was introduced in Hucknall, which at one point gave employment to around 200 people, but a change in the method of production coupled with a strike had destroyed this industry by 1865.

The manufacture and export of copies of Russian Orenburg shawls was one of the success stories of the Hucknall hoisery trade towards the end of the19th century. A shawl measuring 1.5 square metres could contain 1,300,000 loops and be fine enough to pull through a wedding ring.
Photo: russian-crafts.com

A more significant diversification was the production of Shetland shawls and falls, which was begun in Hucknall by William and Thomas Farrands in 1862.

There are two conflicting stories of how this industry started. In an account given by Felkin (1867), the idea of manufacturing shawls on a stocking frame was suggested to William Farrands by Thomas Hill, who in 1854 was the first person in Nottingham to weave Shetland wool on a frame. In the alternative version given by Beardsmore (1909), a James Wood of Nottingham brought back a shawl after a visit to the Shetland Islands and asked Robert Widdowson, a Hucknall stocking manufacturer, if he could produce something similar on a frame. Widdowson asked the Farrands' and another framework knitter called Ben Woollatt if they could adapt a frame for this purpose and so was born an industry.

The shawls and falls produced had patterned borders and were brightly coloured using newly developed wool dyes. They were a great success and exported initially to France and later to Spain, South America and the USA. The growth of the industry encouraged other hosiery manufacturers in Hucknall, and elsewhere in Nottinghamshire, to switch from stockings and gloves, and by the mid 1860's most of the frames in Hucknall were producing shawls and falls.

Some framework knitters expanded their business and became manufacturers in their own right, but towards the end of the century this trade also went into recession and the number of workers employed fell.

An Antimacassar is a protective lace cover for the backs of sofas and chairs. The name is derived from Macassar, a messy sweet-smelling hair oil, which though popular at the time, was the scourge of Victorian upholstery.

The shawl workers even formed their own trade union under the name of the United Wool, Shawl, Fall and Antimacassar Trades Union. The Union's main claim to fame was that throughout its history it never called a strike.