The Washington times., 1901-10-27
FACTORIES IN COTTAGES.
Little Industries in England That
Make Big Profits.

Four shillings a week for ten hours
work a day is pretty poor pay. 1t is
about the average earnings of the straw
| plaiters in the little villages of Northall
| and Edlesborough. two of the few places
| in Buckirghamshfre where this work still
goes on 1t is only half as much as the
straw-worl1ers made twenty years ago.
Luckily. all the little home industries
| which help English -cottagers through
hard times and long winters are not quite
so badly paid as this although in most
| cases competition of big factories in big
towns weighs heavily upon them. Cot
tenham, in Cambridgeshire, has a very
| curious industry all to itself. This is the
| making of swansdown stuff. a pound of
swansdown in the rough costs three shill-
ings. The women buy calico on which to
work 1t at ninepence yard. and for the
result get seven and sixpence Unlike
| straw-plaiting, this swansdown industry
Is on the increase.
Cumberland cottagers are among the
most enterprising The clatter OF the
loom sounds in many little homes where
fine handmade linen is produced Some
of the men do brass and silver work, and
beat out lovely plates and other orua-
ments. Others make baskets at home, an
occupation known as ''swilling."
the queer trades which the dweIlers in
the Derbyshire dales make their living
out of The big stocking factories supply
bundles OF stockings in the rough. un-
dyed: and the women take them home and
sew them into shape. This is called
scanning. In some of the cottages at
Swanwick and Heanor the quaint old
stocking looms -stockingers" as they are
calied-are still at work and making
stockings which will outlast half a dozen
pairs OF factory stockings. ''Cheyening''
Is the local term for embroidering stock
ings with colored silks-a very paying
employment for clever fingers during win
ter evenings.
Lots OF the gloves that come from Dor
setshtre have been sewn together by Dor
setshirc village women at their own q. e
sides. Gillingham is a great place for
home glove making, and around Cerne
Aboas the women bring home great bun
dies OF gloves In the rough from the fac
tories at Yeovil. and sew them together
with sewing oachines.
Skewer-mah'ng is the peculiar trade of
some families near Amberley in Glouces-
tershiTe. The rate at which these slips
OF white wood are turned out with only
the simplest tools must be seen TO be be-
lieved. Gloucestershire village people are
famous for the number of different trades
they can turn their hands to- Bitton
makes pins. not in factories. but in the
cottages. Boots, shoes. hats. and waist
coats are few other examples of
Worcestershire products. Many of the
men purchase permission to cut brush
wood in the coppices. and the pick of this
wood they turn into walltinG-sticks and
umbrella-handles. Some will make as
many as ten dozen in the spare time of a
winter. and if they can carve their heads
they get shilling or more apiece for
them. They dry them in big bundles In
the wide chimneys of their old-fa shioned
cottages.
Northampton boots are famous all the
world over. In all the villages near,
shoes used to be made at home until
about seven years ago. the trades unions
suddenly declared that all the work must
be done in the factories But in some
parts of Northamptonshire the cottages
are still regular little workshops. Rushes
are plated TO cover church hassocks, pill
low lace and gloves are made. and one in
dustry peculiar to the county is the MAX
ing Of parchment from calf or lamb skin.
The skins are stretched on a wooden
frame called a horse" and scraped and
pumiced- Your banjo-head was very like
fy manufactured by a Northampton rus
tic
queer example Of an ancient industry
which modern invention has failed to kill
exists at Brandon. in Suffolk All the
villagers make flint for iintlock guns.
Most of these go TO Central Africa where
fiints are also used in place of matches