Honiton bobbin Lace

The Girls Own Paper ran an essay competition for girls who work with their hands
From the

GIRLS OWN PAPER, 1897
"I have been thinking since I read your last Daily Round competition letters that I should like to let you see a lace worker's daily round, which work I have to earn my living by. The summer is my busy time and I rise very early and get my little oil stove ready and make a cup of tea ready to sit down to work by 5 o'clock sometimes earlier than that. I live quite alone in a little cottage facing the sea and cliffs, and as the days are so hot I like to have the early morning as I have to keep my work very clean so that it does not have to be washed before I sell it. I am today doing point lace cuffs, and I work for the village shop people who give out work ready tacked to the pattern they require, which first I draw around with needle and fine cotton on every pinhole of the braid the pattern is covered with; then if we require a new pattern to work on again I have a piece of paper over the work drawn and with a piece of heelbore, as it is called, rub and  the black marks come on the clean paper, and then we have a new pattern to begin another time, then I do a lot of buttonhole bars and pretty stitches which we have learned, then the last stitch is called purling ; which is done with a coarser cotton, on the outside edge we rip off the paper; and take it to the shop where I get things to make use of as we are not paid money there. I sit to work until 8 o'clock then I get my breakfast and put my house tidy and if I have any dinner to cook I get all ready. I sit down to work again by half past nine or ten sometimes then work until 12 o'clock and if very busy for post as we call it, that is the work that we are asked to do by a certain time; I do not stop only for a bread and cheese dinner and a cup of tea or an egg for we cannot afford meat every day, I get fish and things very cheap in our village so it helps one a lot where we have not much money to spare, so after having my bit of dinner if not busy I take my book and sit down in the fields or indoors in the hour we have for dinner. Sometimes there are two of us having a piece of work between us so then I take my piece to a friends house to work alike or they come to mine and it is nice to have company at times so I get to work again until 4 o'clock and then put on my kettle on my stove which saves coal in summer; and get my tea and then sit to work until 8 o'clock then I leave off and if I have not finished my piece; I then take my can to fetch my water and do any jobs I find to do; take my little can to a neighbour for her little girl to fetch my milk at a farm in the morning then I fetch other things I may want for my use and if I have time I go to see a dear old woman, who I call Granny and who loves to talk to me, and then I go to see how much work my girl friend has done and then go home to my supper and book for living alone I love books they are my friends now I have lost my mother. Then I go to bed and before retiring I thank Heavenly Father for his mercies which I enjoy which are many I am  glad to say then if I am spared I begin my daily round each day but often get weary but glad to be able to get work to do. The lace work is very trying to the sight and I am often glad of an order from ladies who pay money and get a better price that what the shop people do after working all day as I have said I earn but a bare 7d. (approx 3p)and then only taken out in the shop. Ladies often send their Honiton lace to be cleaned and put on new net; which is called transferring and then it will look like new lace; and that is real pillow lace which I have learned; but it went down in price years ago and now if wanted they dont pay the full price for it so the point lace is done quicker and then we get really more for it. We used in the village to have schools for teaching children the work but it does not do now they have to keep to the daily school and then they go to service. I have learnt all the different sorts and find it most useful now as I cannot live in service my knee gives out so glad to come home to the lace work. A pair of cuffs takes 2days and we get 1s 2d. (7p) for  them or the worth of it in goods, so I hope if ever my daily round should be in print it will help to show the readers how hard some have to earn a shilling before they can spend it. If we want clothes we have to book at the shop and they buy us what we want and we work on until we have paid for it. All these statements I declare to be perfectly true."
"Primrose" Branscombe Nr. Axminster, Devon

Branscombe lace cuffs and jabot

Detail of the Branscombe lace (shown above)