OXFORD GUILD of HANDLOOM WEAVERS:
1961 to 1966
Introduction
If you dig in the Oxford archives you will find that there was a Guild of Weavers as far back as 1120 with some sixty members. [1a] There was still a Weavers’ Company in Oxford in 1634. By 1652 it had joined up with the Fuller’s Guild of Osney Town to form the Company of Weavers and Fullers. This guild is mentioned several times in the Oxford City Council minute books of the period as the Company which controlled the trades of weaving and fulling within the City and, in 1659, after much dispute, it was allowed to build a weir and set up a fulling mill at Osney Mill. [5]
Members of these Guilds were craftsmen, and membership entitled them to work and trade within the city. The members of Oxford Guild of Handloom Weavers and its successor, the Oxford Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers are, for the most part, amateurs pursuing an interest not a trade.
Until the Second World War commercial craftsmen, potters, basket-makers, and weavers, were able to make a living despite competition from mass manufacturers. After the War there was a rapid decline in craftsmen producing everyday goods and many of those who survived moved into the luxury market or into design and prototype production for machine manufacture, continuing a trend which started much earlier.
The late 1950s and 1960s saw a renewed interest in handicrafts. It was probably the realisation that there was a danger of handicraft skills being lost that triggered a revived interest in the crafts and the growth in the numbers of amateur craftsmen.
This new-found interest was fostered by the post-war growth of the adult education movement. Night school classes in almost every subject became available and were cheap. Oxford followed the national lead with classes at the College of Technology, Arts and Crafts[a], and the larger secondary schools. Courses in print-making, pottery and weaving were among those on offer.
Several nationwide associations of craftsman were founded at this time and with them local branches or affiliated groups. The National Association of Guilds of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers was founded in 1955[c] and in 1961 a group of Oxford hand weavers, many of whom were students at the weaving class at the ‘Tech’, set about forming a guild.
The Start
It was towards the end of 1961 that a group of weavers got together to see if a Guild could be formed. On 29th November a meeting with Miss Blair, Hon. Secretary of the Association of Guilds of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers was held at St Michael’s House, 119 Banbury Road . She gave the group guidance on how to set up a Guild, its purpose and structure, and explained what other Guilds did. There were twelve people present at this first meeting. Phyl Wager, who is still a member of OGWSD was one of these. After Miss Blair’s talk a tentative committee structure, and annual fee and constitution were discussed. A further meeting arranged for 6th December.
Six weavers attended the second meeting [there were five apologies for absence] at which it was decided to go ahead with ‘The Oxford Guild of Handloom Weavers’, a committee was formed, an annual fee of one guinea fixed, and a ‘Store Chest’ set up. The first officers were Miss Hughes, Chairman, Mrs Peetz, Secretary, Mrs Haywood, Treasurer and Mrs Wager, Store Chest keeper. [b]
It was agreed to hold future meetings, monthly, on Mondays at 2.30pm. Members were obviously ladies of leisure or University wives. The first meeting proper was held on 22nd January 1962 at St Michael’s House when Mrs Peetz gave a talk and demonstration on ‘Weaving in Madagascar’. The meeting also included a lot of business. A subgroup was formed to draw-up a constitution, it was decided to join the AGWSD, to send some one to its AGM, and to send a report of the Guild’s activities to the quarterly Journal of AGWSD [the first one was published in September 1962], and a full programme of events for the rest of the year was produced. These activities have a familiar ring to them, very little has changed in forty odd years – not even the subjects of the talks! [see Appendix One: Activities]
The first newsletter seems to have been produced in January 1962. There is no copy of this or that for February in the Guild Archive. The first we have is No 3 for March.
Activities
By September 1962 membership had risen to twenty one and a pattern of meetings was established which has varied little over the following years. The Guild met once a month except for July and August and most meetings had a business session followed by a talk and, perhaps, a demonstration. There was also the occasional outing: to the wool-staplers, Pearces of Thame for instance. A monthly newsletter to keep members informed, was issued, carefully typed and cyclostyled, and a Library established. Later, to try to bring in more members, a PR Secretary was appointed, advertisements placed in local newspapers and a leaflet on the Guild published. [This cost five shillings [twenty five pence] for one hundred copies.] This seems to have brought in two more members.
Close contact was maintained with the national Association and with nearby Guilds. Members were sent to the AGSWD AGM, they sent their work to the national exhibitions and co-operated in exhibitions by neighbouring Guilds and craft groups. Among others, invitations were accepted to participate in the shows of the Anglo American Society of Arts and Crafts at Upper Heyford [US Air Base] and of the Gloucester and Berkshire Guilds.
The Guild ran on a shoe-string, the annual membership fee being a guinea [associate members half that] but it was able to use St Michael’s House for nothing thanks to Miss Barter Snow and in its first year made good use of the talents of its members to give talks and to demonstrate. Several members were professionally associated with weaving. Mrs Jessie Archer ran the weaving classes at the ‘Tech’ and Mrs Lotte Kuemmel taught weaving to occupational therapists at ‘Dorset House’.
Particularly in the first year, the speakers at most of the meetings were members of the Oxford Guild. They either gave talks and demonstrations on practical topics or described weaving practices in other countries as diverse as Madagascar and Finland.
Several well-known names in weaving also came: Enid Russ, Theo Moorman, Rita Beales and Lore Youngmark. Others were probably well known names at the time having just published a book, like Mrs Miles who had recently written the Dryad ‘Practical Four Shaft Weaving’ pamphlet. Some are still active, a young Ann Sutton came to talk about Wall Hangings.
The tone of the Guild seems to have been a professional one with emphasis on solid craftsmanship, utility and practical matters. It was, in fact, a quite high powered group in the age before craft became an art and the emphasis on craftsmanship became somewhat less.
Demise
Why the Guild disbanded is not recorded. The last minute of a meeting is for 1st November 1965. It is brief. The AGM was to be on 24th November. The Chairman and Secretary would not be available for election for office in 1966. And Theo Moorman was thanked for her talk.
The only record of this AGM is the attendance book. Six members were present. But there is a letter, dated 1st December 1965, to the Berkshire Guild which was in the same sort of predicament, suggesting that as numbers were falling and there were problems in getting officers, the guilds could join forces. There is no trace of a reply.
The Account Book records that the Guild was dissolved on 26th January 1966 and the assets sent to the AGWSD.[2]
Membership was never high. The peak attendance at meetings was nineteen, more often around the fifteen mark. Several members moved away from Oxford and in 1965 at least two stalwarts were facing acute family problems and unable to take on the responsibility of running the Guild. A group this small is very reliant on a small number of people and susceptible to their changes in circumstances. A larger group can ride out such problems, a smaller one folds.
David Nutt
December 2007
Sources:
- Minute Books; 1a. Miss Hughes 26th November 1962
- Account Books
- Newsletters
- Reports in AGWSD Journals
- Oxford City Council Minute Books
Notes:
- The College has had various names
- The purpose of the ‘Store Chest’ seems to have been to provide weaving materials, such as yarns, for members. Members were encouraged to put in unused yarns and other left-over material. But new materials were also bought for sale or specially ordered for members. This was clearly not a great success, not very much yarn being sold.
- The Quarterly Journal of the Guilds of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers, No 5 of March 1953 includes a note by Hester Viney, pp124-126, ‘The Foundation and Development of the County Guilds’. It recalls that there was a Guild before the Second World War. This did not survive the war and the first post-war guild, Dorset, was set up in 1947. Other Guilds followed and in 1951 a Council of the Guilds decided to produce a quarterly Journal. The first of these was published in March 1952. In 1952 the Council met again and discussed the formation of a Federation of Guilds. In 1955 the Association of Guilds of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers was set up, three years after the Journal was first published.
Phyl Wager, Jessie Archer, and Gertie Beesley with Kathleen Potter second from right, thirty years on
Appendix One:
activities
1962
January – Mrs Peetz* ‘Weaving in Madagascar’
February – Mrs Wager* ‘Counts of Threads and Reeds’
March – Mrs Archer* ‘Wool and Weaving in the Hebrides’
April – Competition May Miss Hughes* ‘Vegetable Dyeing’ at Mrs Wager’s Anglo-American Exhibition of Arts and Crafts
June – Mr Sandeman-Allen ‘Selvedges and Setting Up’ a tape record
September – Miss Lowth* ‘Textures’
October – Miss Snow* ‘Spinning and its Preparation’
November – AGM
1963
January – Mrs Kuemmel* ‘Weaving in the Training of Occupational Therapists’
February – Mrs Bruce ‘Spinning and Weaving in India’
March – Member’s Meeting Working on ‘Picture Frames’
April – Mr Dixon-Wright ‘On Setting Up a Loom’
May – Mrs Miles ‘Practical Four Shaft Weaving’
June – Miss Coleman ‘Colour and Texture’
July – Visit to H & C Pearce and Sons, wool staplers at Thame, with the Berkshire Guild
September – Miss Dugdale Bradley ‘Colour’
October – Mrs Lore Youngmark ‘War on Miss Cutch’
November – AGM
December – Berkshire Exhibition
1964
January – Mrs Davies and Miss Duthil on the Vardac factory, Old Marston and Tie-making
February – Mrs Kuemmel* Demonstration of Tablet Weaving [in place of booked speaker]
March – Mr Broadbent [Sketchley’s Dye Works] on fabrics from the dry cleaning point of view
April – Miss Wilkinson ‘Cloth Analysis and Pattern Drafting’
May – Mr Merheim ‘Cotton Dyeing’
June – Member’s Meeting Hand-spinning with Spindles and Dyeing with Mrs Archer*
July – Visit to the blanket mills of Charles Early and Marriott Ltd at Witney [with Technical College]
September – Mr Skotzen ‘Perfect Warp means Trouble-free Weaving’
October – Miss Ann Sutton ‘Wall Hangings’
November – AGM
1965
January – Member’s Meeting
February – Miss Enid Russ ‘Extensions of the Plain’
March – Lady Hart Dyke ‘Silk Farming’
April – Mrs Rita Beales ‘Flax Spinning’
May – Mrs Lore Youngmark ‘Basic Weaves’
June – Anne-Marie Lindman ‘Finnish Weaving’
September – Miss Barter Snow* Slides of the Shetlands
October – Miss Theo Moorman ‘Tapestry Weaving’
November – AGM
Note: * guild members
Appendix Two:
members
1961/2
Miss Jackson – teas
Mrs Haywood – treasurer
Mrs Wager – store chest
Miss Barter Snow
Mrs Peetz – secretary
K T Parkinson – newsletter secretary
Mrs Archer
Mrs Parker
Mrs Stein
1962
additional members
Miss Hinkins
Mrs Braun
Miss Hughes – chairman
Mrs Joyce
Mrs Avery
Miss Henney
Miss Lansell
Mrs Warren – store chest assistant
Mr John Davis
Miss Joyce [associate]
Miss Lowth [associate]
Miss Wanda Williams [associate]
1963
Mrs Haywood – treasurer & newsletter typing
Mrs Avery – newsletter sec [April]
Miss Barter Snow
Mrs Peetz – secretary
Mrs Parker
Mrs Wager – assist. store chest [April] store chest [Oct]
Mrs Warren – store chest [until Oct]
Mrs Stein – library and journals
Mrs Kuemmel – lib sec & newsletter [Oct]
Mrs Preece
Mrs Archer – vice chairman
Mrs Parry
Miss Hughes – chairman
Miss Henney
Miss Hinkins
Miss Landswell
Mrs Braun
Mr John David
Miss Lowth [associate]
1964
committee as before
Mrs Archer
Mrs Parker
Mrs Haywood
Mrs Wager
Mrs Babington-Smith
Mrs Peetz – resigned as sec in Feb
Mrs Kuemmel
Miss Barter Snow
Miss Jackson – store chest & teas
Mrs Davis
Miss Lansdell
Miss Henney
Mrs Avery – secretary from Feb?
Miss Hughes [associate]
Mrs Preece [associate]
Mrs Bogen [associate]
Miss Hinkins [associate]
1965
Mrs Haywood – treasurer
Mrs Parker
Miss Barter Snow – chairman
Mrs Wager
Mrs Archer – vice chairman
Miss Ashdown
Mrs Kuemmel – journal
Mrs Avery – newsletter
Mrs Bowdler
Mrs B Smith
Mrs Peetz – secretary
Mrs Jones [associate]
Miss Hinkins [associate]
Miss Beesley [associate]
Mrs Miller [associate]
Note: Parts of these lists have been compiled from attendance records
Appendix Three:
the first newsletter
page one
view original scan
Transcript:
|
OXFORD GUILD OF HAND LOOM WEAVERS The object of this ‘Newsletter’ is to give Members and The Guild welcomes these Associates and hopes they will f Contributions to this ‘Newsletter’ are invited. A Meeting of the above Guild was held on January 22nd, 1962 The question of Associate Members and Visitors was The next Meeting has been arranged for Monday February 26th, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. It was decided that the Oxford Guild should become a Member Some of these were brought by Mrs Wager, (Keeper of the Chest) |
With thanks to David Nutt for all his work compiling this information.