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New article Housing for Master Weavers, Journeyman Weavers and their looms by Thelma and Alan Morris, 2007
Since the Norwich Textile Industry’s website was launched a year ago many questions have been asked about the type of houses the weavers occupied and details of the equipment weavers used in them.
In order to be able to give more comprehensive answers to some of these questions we decided, with the kind permission of the family of the late Mr. George Plunkett, to delve into his invaluable photographic archive of Norwich to search for building examples, and to construct a carefully researched model in 1/6th scale of one of the types of loom to be found in a Norwich weaver’s house.
A production system known as ‘outworker’ was used in Norwich and this should not be confused with another system known as ‘cottage’. In Norwich a master weaver employed journeymen weavers who collected chains of warp with sufficient weft yarn from the master’s workshop to weave on looms housed in their own homes.
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The first photograph (right) , taken in the 1930’s, shows an example of the type of property occupied by an 18th century master weaver. At the left of the building can be seen the door to the house occupied by the master weaver and his family.
The small door in the centre of the building gave access to a yard with twenty or more poles upon which wet hanks of yarn were hung to dry. A small scouring house would have been situated somewhere at the rear of the building.
On the third storey was the workshop containing a warping mill, bobbin racks, bobbins of yarn, silk horns and other items used in the preparation of warps. Probably a few looms would have been housed here on which cloth structures, colour combinations and yarn sizes would have been sampled. It was to this workshop that the journeyman weavers came to collect warp chains and to return their finished cloth.
Entrance to the warehouse was through the door on the right. Here cloth after weaving, having first been sent to the dyers if dyed in the piece and then to the finishers, would have been stored. Merchants or their agents visited this and similar warehouses in the city to view displayed cloth and hopefully to give the master weaver an order.
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Housing purpose built for journeyman weavers invariably provided living accommodation on the ground floor, with bedrooms and workspace on the second and third floors respectfully.
Some master weavers provided this type of accommodation which was let at an inclusive rent per week for house and loom. It was a way of retaining a small dependable workforce in times of full production which always meant a scarcity of skilled artisans.
The two photographs show examples of housing built in mid 18th and early 19th centuries.
Journeyman weavers also occupied small one up one down type of houses which meant that a loom had to be situated somewhere in the living accommodation of the family. Some evidence has been found of looms housed in small buildings in back yards.
All the buildings portrayed have since been demolished.
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Several types of loom were used by the Norwich weavers, but all had the ‘four poster’ main frame. They differed in the type of mechanism used to raise and lower the shafts, the number of shafts and sets of shafts needed for different types of cloth to be made.
Our model is of the type most commonly used. It had a counterbalanced action which allowed an equal number of shafts to be raised and an equal number of shafts to be lowered to provide the parting of the warp, known as making the ‘shed’, for the insertion of the shuttle. A heavy counterbalanced weight tensioned the warp threads. The reed on the model is made of metal, the type used in the 18th century. Prior to this date reed was split and set into lengths of wood separated by cord of suitable thickness to form the spaces between the reed, see photograph of old weaving reeds.
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There were several advantages of this type of loom
• Less strain was placed on the warp ends by the shedding mechanism
• All parts were easily accessible for tying the loom up
• Shafts could be quickly changed
• A light treadle action
• Easily broken down for transportation
• Overall height suitable for use in upper floors of houses
Many of the cloths made in the Norwich area over several centuries would have been woven on this type of loom, including all plain weave structures and harness controlled structures requiring an equal number of shafts to be raised and lowered. A loom of this type would have been able to produce thousands of yards of camlet etc. during its period of use. The only maintenance needed would be replacement of cords, ropes and worn heddles.
Most counterbalanced looms had two or four shafts, although it was possible to equip them with eight shafts.
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