I have just
returned to London after almost 3 weeks at home in Northern Ireland, and I
spent time with some fascinating people still involved with the linen trade.
It was the end of July and the flax was
in bloom. The pretty blue flowers just about visible here outside
the Irish Linen Museum in Lisburn.
I almost feel like a bundle of flax that
has been immersed in a retting dam and has emerged after the 2 to 3 weeks of
soaking, ready to be dried in the sun and then moved on to the next phase of
linen production!
In my case I have been submerged in a wealth of information
and anecdotes about linen, and have now surfaced to let the vast quantity of
facts settle in my head. After 2 weeks of almost constant rain I could
certainly do with some sun to assist the process!
I was reminded of how precious linen was
to the producers. In the days when linen was laid out on linen greens for
bleaching, it was not uncommon for the linen to be stolen. Watchtowers were
built so that the greens and their valuable contents could be guarded at all
hours. I visited one such tower near Banbridge, which has been restored by the
Follies Trust.
This small
stone hut was one of 2 guarding the Uprichard Bleaching Green at Tullylish. The
second one has been removed and rebuilt at the Ulster Folk and Transport
Museum in Cultra, near Belfast.
I saw beautiful damask cloths and napkins
being woven at Thos Ferguson in Banbridge, the only remaining damask
weavers in Ireland.
I took a trip to Co. Londonderry too and
had the opportunity to visit Upperlands, the village which is home to William
Clark & Sons Ltd. The village owes its existence to the linen trade, a mill
was founded there in 1736. Remarkably the mill is still in the hands of the
same family after all this time and I was privileged to be shown around by
Bruce Clark, a direct descendant of William Clark.
As we drove into the car park I could hear
the throbbing sound of the beetling engines.We enjoyed a coffee in the
community run coffee shop housed in one of the former mill buildings and then
Bruce took me across the yard to the beetling shed. Quite an experience! I met
Sam Anderson, the beetler and he explained to me the process of pounding the
cloth with huge wooden mallets to flatten it and give it the distintive sheen.
Sam is the last commercial beetler in Ireland.
Click on the image below for a snippet of
film of the huge beetling engine pounding the cloth on the roller.
Clark's process is known as wet beetling
and gives the cloth a finish not dissimilar to patent leather. Damask used to
be finished by dry beetling, giving it that wonderful lustrous sheen which set
it apart from unbeetled cloth.
I have lots more to share from my trip,
but I will finish here for now.
