A LITTLE doll, wearing a lacy knitted
dress, is on display at the Ruskin
Museum in Coniston, Cumbria. It was
originally owned by a Mrs Elizabeth
Pepper, and was donated to the museum
by her daughter, Abigail Reed. Abigail
was one of the last of the hand spinners
working in the famous Langdale linen
industry in the Lake District, which had
been established by the writer, art critic
and social reformer John Ruskin in 1883.
The card displayed with this exhibit
at the museum reads:“... dressed by H.R.H Princess of Wales
(later Queen Alexandra), as a present for
Mrs Elizabeth Pepper, who had visited
Sandringham in order to teach her and
her ladies-in-waiting how to spin flax...”After viewing the dress at the Ruskin
Museum, I wanted to find out more about
Elizabeth Pepper, and why she came to
own such an exquisite item handmade
by a princess. Elizabeth Pepper was born
in 1854, in Borrowdale, Cumbria. Hermother was to be one of the earliest and
most skilled spinners for the Ruskin
Linen Industry, Eleanor Heskett. Eleanor,
a blacksmith’s wife, can be found in the
1851 census listed as “Pauper”. She was
destined to spin the linen that made up
the pall for John Ruskin’s funeral cortege,
and she taught her daughter, Elizabeth,
to spin. Elizabeth, in her turn, was to
teach a future queen to spin.
Elizabeth married a farmer, Robert
Pepper, and they farmed near Coniston
in the Lake District. By 1891, she was
listed in the census at “Manageress of the
Langdale Linen Industry” and in 1911,
she self-described her occupation as:
“Hand-spinning and weaving flax and
wool and silk”.Cottage industry
Spinning and weaving by hand were
extinct by the 1880s. The Langdale Linen
Industry, founded in 1883, revived the
hand spinning and weaving of linen in
the Lake District, as well as embroidery.
It gave employment to working-classwomen in the valley of Langdale, and the
business was seen as creative, fulfilling
and non-exploitative, as well as
environmentally sound. John Ruskin had
bought a cottage to found the revived
linen industry in Elterwater, which was
named St. Martin’s Home. It was filled
with old and new spinning wheels, and
local women were taught to spin linen.
When proficient, the women could
borrow the wheels and take them home.
Eleanor Heskett may well have been
one of the two locals who remembered,
from their youth, how to spin and then
taught the others, or maybe she was in
the earliest group of local women who
learned to spin at Elterwater. The linen
thread was handwoven in an outbuilding
of St. Martin’s by a man who, in his
distant youth, had trained as a handloom
weaver.
Elizabeth Pepper taught herself to dye
embroidery silks with natural dyes,
and embroidered flowers and animals
in the tradition of Ruskin and the other
pre-Raphaelite artists, finding inspiration
in the nature all around her. Her undyed,
natural handspun, handwoven linen
backgrounds were canvasses for her art.
She was a skilled spinner, weaver,
natural dyer and embroiderer. She must
also have knitted, as her needles are
now on display at the Ruskin Museum
in Coniston, along with examples of
her work, and the doll given to her by
Queen Alexandra.
The fame of the Langdale Linen
Industry grew as the work of the
Lakeland craftswomen travelled the
country, in exhibitions and displays. By
1889 there was an office for Home Arts
and Industries, which included spinning
and knitting, on the top floor of London’s
Albert Hall. One newspaper report
remarked that on display there, as well as
the linen, was knitting done by LakelandPrincess Alexandra’s
Doll Dress
Penelope Hemingway delves into the story behind a
dainty doll dress, knitted by Princess Alexandra and
held in the collection of the Ruskin Museum in Cumbria
HISTORIC KNITTING ARTEFACTS – PART 3
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1912Queen Alexandra
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hand spinnerThe Knitter Issue 149 Subscribe now at http://www.gathered.how/theknitter