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Plaiting might be branded as an abuse of child labour but for many years “the Plait” was probably the difference between poverty and a tolerable standard of living for many households.
The decline in straw plaiting due to the importing of cheaper straw is vividly shown by the number of plaiters in Preston. From 97 in 1851, fifty years later there were only thirteen plaiters (including my financially impoverished great grandmother, Mary Currell). The straw that broke the camel’s back was the Education Act of 1870 which ordered the compulsory school attendance of children.
There were other social spin-
When areas of England were embroiled in discontent at low rural wages (such as the
Swing Riots in southern England of the 1830s), Hertfordshire was relatively peaceful.
John Izzard Pryor (who lived at nearby Baldock and who was an ancestor of the Pryors
who lived at Preston) wrote a diary at this time. He commented on a “state of dismay
and terror” in December 1830 when several farms had been “set fire to by wicked incendiaries
very near”. He added that, “Fires continue to be seen in the distance most night”.
However, in Hertfordshire only one serious case was dealt with arising from the Farm
Labourers’ Revolt. (John Pryor himself was a member of the Grand Jury which heard
the case). The lid was kept on the boiling pot of rebellion in Hertfordshire -
The children learnt how to hold a bunch of splint straw under their left arm. A couple
of stalks were passed through their lips to moisten them and then they were worked
forward using the tongue to start weaving them together. There were patterns of varying
complexity -
Many parents wanted the children to plait because this contributed to the family’s income. They could earn up to 6d (2p) a day when the father was earning about 10 shillings a week (50p). If parents felt that children were spending too long at their studies, they might be withdrawn from school.
To offset the accusation of the exploitation of child labour, it has to be said that “the Plait” meant that widows and physically incapacitated people could support themselves through plaiting rather than throwing themselves upon parish relief. In Preston the censuses of 1851 and 1861 record only two people as receiving relief.
But the main benefit was that family could have a higher standard of living than in other rural parts because of women and children’s earnings as plaiters. Their farm labouring men folk might bring home 10 shillings a week. while the rest of the family could earn another five shillings which was a substantial increase.
These “schools” were really workshops employing child labour from the age of five. They were later controlled by the Workshops Regulation Act of 1867 which stated that children under eight could not be employed in a plait school; that children of under 13 should not work in them for more than 6 ½ hours a day and that they should be properly educated for 10 hours a week. But illegal work continued; if an inspector was spotted in a village (and they would stand out like the biblical tares in a field of wheat), the children could be smuggled through a back door.
In 1843, these comments were made by a woman who had attended a plaiting school:
“Been at the trade all my life. Children commence learning about seven years old.
Parents pay 3d a week for each child and for this they are taught the trade and how
to read. The mistress employs 15-
Another wrote in 1864, “I go to Scott’s plait school three times a day; 8-
Plaiting is a difficult skill to master. Plaiting schools for nimble fingered youngsters were set up in most Hertfordshire villages. At Preston, the 1861 census notes a plaiting school between Poynders End and Kiln Wood House to the west of the village. A sketch map of the hamlet dated about 1884 shows two more centrally located plaiting schools around Preston Green which were run by Mrs Stratton and Mrs Peters.
Why did Hertfordshire become a centre of straw plaiting? Firstly, it specialised in arable farming and produced excellent quality straw. In 1850, a superior variety of wheat called “Red Lammas” was introduced from Cambridgeshire.
The other factor was the availability of manure. It was accepted good husbandry to plough straw into the fields to maintain their fertility. This was considered to be so important that landowners stipulated that their tenant farmers could not sell off their straw. However, manure was an alternative fertiliser and there was a constant supply of this from thousands of stables in London to Hertfordshire which was only twenty or so miles away. It was laid down that a ton of straw could be sold to the plaiters for every two cart loads of muck brought in by farmers (immortalised by the song “Dung Cart” which my father insisted on singing in polite company).
The huge demand for straw plait was fuelled by the fashion change from the cotton mob hats of the eighteenth century to the straw bonnets of the 1800s. Even when the English straw plaiting industry had been eroded by cheaper imports from France and the Orient, the straw boater was still essential summer wear. Watch the grainy film of the announcement of the end of The Great War in 1919, and wonder at the number of straw hats being launched into the air like so many frisbies.
According to the census of 1851, there were 97 straw plaiters in Preston ranging in age from a boy and a girl of three to my widowed great x2 grandmother, Jane Fairey who was 73. Ten years later, in 1901 there were only thirteen plaiters. What was straw plaiting? Why did it flourish and then decline?
Straw plaiting was a cottage industry. Wheat straw was interwoven into intricate
patterns -
The plaiters (who were mainly women) then made the three mile trek from Preston to Hitchin market to sell their work. Or perhaps it was bought by one of a network of travelling plait dealers such as John Day and Edward Willmott (of Sootfield Green) who lived in Preston in 1841. In turn, the dealers sold the plait to the factories in Luton where it was formed or “blocked” into hats. Luton was known as “Strawopolis” and later its football team were called “The Hatters”.
Sources: “Labouring Life in the Victorian Countryside” -
A Hertfordshire plaiter born 1770c
Hitchin plait market circa 1890
The end of plaiting
THE NEW PLAIT MARKET
This institution which is situate in Bank Street, Hitchin and was opened on the 5th
of August last is already doing flourishing business......The primary object is to
enable poor plaiters to dispose of their plait at a fair market price and to receive
cash payment without delay instead of by the usual mode of changing the plait for
goods at the shops of the general dealers or of selling it in the market on Tuesdays
and having to wait until mid-
....Hertfordshire, in 1861, employed in the straw trade (plaiter, sewers etc.) 11,222.....The
straw trade became centered in Herts and Beds from the peculiar finess of it’s wheat
straw....... one hundred weight of straw is worth 3 shillings. This...is capable
of producing about 40 pounds of plaiting straws worth between 8s -
