THE KEEPS AND LACE MAKING

Although the origin of lace-making is unknown, specimens discovered in ancient Egyptian tombs suggest that the craft was being practised for several centuries BC. There are references to lace in the Bible, and from the beginning of the Catholic Church it has always formed part of the ceremonial vestments worn by its clergy.  In respect of England, lace making became an established cottage industry during the seventeenth century.  There were only two distinct areas of any importance: Honiton in Devon, and the East Midlands--namely Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire.

In respect of the East Midlands, legend has it that the craft was introduced in the early 16th century by Catherine of Aragon.  During her imprisonment at Ampthill awaiting her divorce from Henry VIII, it is said that she taught the villagers the craft of lace making. Whilst this is a delightful story, it is more probable that it was introduced by lace workers from France and The Netherlands fleeing religious persecution.  From 1563 to 1568 Flemish Protestants arrived in England to escape the Inquisition in the Low Countries imposed by Philip II.  In 1572 following The Massacre of the Feast of Saint Bartholomew, which saw the mass murder of thousands of French Huguenots across the country, more lace makers, many from Lille, arrived.  When Louis XIV rescinded the Edict of Nantes in 1685, there was another mass exodus, with approximately 10,000 religious refugees from Burgundy and Normandy.  The lace makers made their way to the established lace villages in the East Midlands.

East Midland laces, known as Point Ground, are based upon a grid, and are small, light, and delicate. They were popular with the middle classes, whereas Honiton lace was renowned as a luxury lace, on par with the best quality imported laces.  Queen Victoria decided on Honiton lace for her wedding veil, which promoted its popularity.  The Queen also wore East Midlands lace, and Mary Ann Barker, the granddaughter of Mary Alice Virgin (nee Keep), was honoured by being asked to make lace sleeves for one of her dresses.  She like many of the female Keeps living in Bedfordshire during the eighteenth and nineteenth century was involved in lace making, as the following extract from the 1841 Census for Kempston demonstrates:

The craft was popular because it supplemented the meagre incomes of the poor families.  A good lace maker could earn up to one shilling and three pence a day, about 6p in today’s money, which was more than an agricultural labourer’s pay.  The lace makers worked at their craft for up to twelve hours a day, and would start at six a.m. through to seven or eight p.m.  During the summer months they could work by natural light outside the cottage, but during the night or in winter they relied upon candle light.  They used a flash-stool, or candle-block, which was a large candle stick surrounded by glass refracting flasks filled with water that acted as a concentrated lens for the candle light. The lace makers were positioned around the flash-stool, allowing up to five to work by the light of a single candle.  Also to keep them warm they would use "fire-pots", earthenware, brass, or iron pots with holes in them that were filled with hot ashes or charcoal and placed near the feet of the lace maker. This was to ensure the lace being worked was not discoloured and dirtied by smoke from the open fire in the cottage.

The local lace industry was dependant upon child labour, especially from lace schools.  Originally the Overseers of the Poor would pay an experienced lace maker to teach the children in workhouses so they would be able to part fund their upkeep. Lace making was at the expense of the poor children’s general education, and merely child exploitation.  The children worked long hours for minimal wages to meet unreasonable demands from their Overseers who employed brutal punishment regimes to ensure that both output quotas and quality were met.  No consideration was given to health problems due to poorly ventilated overcrowded working conditions. The 1851 Census shows Joel Keep, born 3 April 1836 at Kempston, Bedfordshire, living with step mother Ann, his brother James, and half sister Rebecca in the Bedford Union Workhouse:

The wooden objects are the bobbins that carry the thread and keep it taut.  The East Midlands bobbins have the spangle, the loop of coloured glass beads on the base, which makes them unique.  They are collectible objects, especially the commemorative bobbins that were sold at special events, such a public executions.  Also they could be used as love tokens, a young man could present his sweetheart with a bobbin with a message of his love for he marked on it.  From the black and white photograph of the pillow and lace making in progress you will see all of the bobbins and thread hanging from the pins on the pillow that show the design of the lace.  A lot of people think that the coloured beads were there to assist with the intricate design, which is wrong. They provided the weight to the bobbin.

The lace was made on either a square pillow that sat on a three-legged bowed horse, or a bolster pillow, which rested on a trestle horse.  George Simms Keep, born in 1866 in Eastcotts, Bedfordshire, was a shoe maker by trade, who also made pillows for lace making.  His wife Emma was a lace maker.  The lace design was copied onto parchment, which was known as the pricking.  It was then attached to the pillow with brass pins ready for the weaving, plaiting, and twisting of threads to produce the lace.   The thread was wound onto the long neck of the bobbin and secured with a hitch to the short neck. The bobbin also ensured that the thread remained taut whilst being worked by nimble quick fingers.