Framework knitters in Leicester, England - History

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Hosiery Factories / Population of Leicester

Framework Knitters

The first knitting machine or stocking frame was invented in 1589 by William Lee, a Nottinghamshire clergyman. The use of the frame spread very slowly, there were less than one hundred machines in use at the start of the Civil War in 1642. Nicholas Allsop, who lived in Northgate Street, Leicester, in about 1680 is believed to have been the first framework knitter to set up in the town.

By 1727 the borough of Leicester contained between 500 and 700 frames. By 1771 there appear to have been more than 70 hosiers in Leicester. The hosiers employed not only men who lived and worked in the town, but also great numbers in surrounding villages. By 1790 there were 3,000 frames in Leicester.

Working the stocking frame required considerable physical effort, and was normally operated by a man. Good eye-sight was also needed as the machine required frequent adjustment. It could only produce a flat piece of material, which was taken off of the frame and seamed up, forming a fully fashioned stocking. Women usually did the seaming, usually the wife and /or the elder daughters. Children or women wound the thread from hanks on to bobbins. Framework knitting, as it came to be called, was therefore an occupation in which all the family participated, and one which could be carried out at home.

A company of Framework Knitters was formed in London and incorporated by charter in 1657, and again in 1663. This enabled trade to be regulated by Master Framework knitters, who took on apprentices and trained them for seven years to become journeymen. Attempts were made to limit entry into the trade by registering apprentices. Some manufacturers objected and began to leave London and set up trade in the East Midlands, the original home of the stocking frame. Worsted spinning, using long-staple wool, was already a well established industry in Leicestershire. By 1782 nearly 90% of the 20,000 stocking frames in use in Great Britain were located in the East Midlands. The percentage remained very much the same throughout the nineteenth century although the number of machines increased. Generally, Nottinghamshire specialised in cotton goods, Derbyshire in silk and Leicestershire in worsted.

By the middle of the nineteenth century, knitting frames were being worked in over 220 parishes in the three East Midland counties. One hundred in Leicestershire, and at least sixty in each of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. In 1828 the hosiery industry was estimated to give employment to between fifteen and twenty thousand persons in and around Leicester.