Donkey Lane Community Orchard - Lace Making

 Lace making in Chinnor and the Donkey Lane Community Orchard.

Chinnor was historically an agricultural area, but by 1851 things began to change. Compared to 1841 almost as many men were now engaged in trade as in agricultural work. This was a direct result of the many resources available to use in the area created by the geographical location and the local soil. The wood on the hills was particularly useful for making furniture and the proximity to High Wycombe, an important location for furniture production, meant that there was a local market for lathe turned chair legs in particular. There was an abundance of flint stone that could be used for building and the chalk provided more opportunities, one being lime wash and latterly cement production.

Lace making was a very popular skill, often providing enough extra income to keep families fed and widows or spinsters out of the workhouse. The skills came to this area from about 1560 when French and Flemish refugees fleeing religious persecution settled in the East Midlands, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire. Chinnor was part of the Buckinghamshire lace production area, sending most of the lace produced to High Wycombe. These Counties were close enough to the fashion scene in London where lace was a popular commodity used to enhance and add luxury to outfits. In Chinnor as in most of the neighbouring villages, it was a very popular way for the women and girls of all ages to supplement the household income. Poverty statistics are well documented in the history of Chinnor, where agricultural work was poorly paid, seasonal and weather dependent.

The photograph on the left is a local lace maker, Jane Oxlade born Jane Tibbles in about 1849. She married George Oxlade, a woodsman in 1878. It is thought she lived at the top of the High Street just after WW1. She died in 1934 aged 85. The photograph shows very clearly the bobbins on her pillow with a support stick below to help take the weight. She would have had a paper pattern on the pillow which looked like a stencil punched with holes which guided the lace maker to locate her pins into the pillow on which to make her lace. This was often called Bucks Pillow Lace.

Lace making was convenient because it allowed women to earn extra money whilst carrying out all of their fairly heavy, domestic duties and bring up the children. Often lace making earned more money than the agricultural pay and was consistent throughout the year with a slight difference in hours between Summer and Winter because of the daylight hours. Families with a lot of daughters would have multiple lace wages which was very helpful especially if the main breadwinner was an agricultural labourer.

The 1841 census told us that there were 268 lace makers in Chinnor, which was approximately a quarter of the recorded population. At this point 21 of them were recorded as living in the cottages in the Orchard. By the time of the 1851 census the number had reduced to 11.  Read more...