Bedfordshire Lace
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Bedfordshire lace is a style of
bobbin lace Bobbin lace is a lace textile made by braiding and twisting lengths of thread, which are wound on bobbins to manage them. As the work progresses, the weaving is held in place with pins set in a lace pillow, the placement of the pins usually de ...
originating from Bedfordshire in the 19th century, and made in the English Midlands lacemaking area. It was worked as a continuous width on a bolster pillow. It is a guipure style of lace.


History of lacemaking in Bedfordshire

In the early years of the 16th century
Catherine of Aragon Catherine of Aragon (also spelt as Katherine, ; 16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536) was Queen of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 11 June 1509 until their annulment on 23 May 1533. She was previously ...
was imprisoned in Ampthill, Bedfordshire for a short time whilst divorce proceedings were being taken against her by Henry VIII. Local tradition says that she taught the villagers lacemaking. From the 16th century there are frequent references to the working of 'bone lace' being taught to the children of poor people in workhouses in order that they might earn something towards the cost of their keep. Lace-makers from Flanders settled in Bedfordshire as early as the 16th century. By the mid-18th century,
Newport Pagnell Newport Pagnell is a town and civil parish in the City of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The Office for National Statistics records Newport Pagnell as part of the Milton Keynes urban area. It is separated from the rest of the urban ...
was a centre of Bedfordshire lace production. The highpoint of lacemaking was from the late 17th century through the 18th century. However, the invention of the bobbinet machine in nearby Nottingham meant that machine-made lace could be made far cheaper. The patterns of the hand-made lace changed to simpler styles to compete, and this became the modern Bedfordshire lace.


Style of Bedfordshire lace

Lace was made throughout Bedfordshire,
Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...
, Northamptonshire and beyond. The styles of the lace made would have varied at different periods, reflecting what was fashionable at the time. In the 19th century, English lacemakers started to copy Maltese lace which became popular after it was exhibited in The Great Exhibition, but adapted it to produce their own style. This style, now described as Bedfordshire or Beds lace, often has a plaited headside known as nine pin. Plaits, sometimes with picots, and tallies are common. There are flowing lines, called cloth trails. The forms created are often organic and naturalistic, representing flowers, plants and other forms from the natural world., possibly influenced by the Honiton style. Bedfordshire lace can be viewed at the Higgins Art Gallery & Museum in Bedford and at the Cowper and Newton Museum in Olney.


References


External links


Examples of Bedfordshire lace
at the Cowper and Newton Museum {{lace_types Bobbin lace History of Bedfordshire Economy of Bedfordshire Textile arts of England