In February 2011, thanks to Janet Phillips I was offered a pile of firewood which could possible be a loom with no guarantees that it would work. After borrowing a big truck and strong arms the pile of pieces arrived and I painstakingly tried to work out which end was which. Worse for me as there was no plan and I had no idea what type of loom it was. It now stands some 6 feet by 6 feet and can weave cloth up to 130cm width and endless length. With Janet's help, the loom has now been restored and is in working order.
The reason why this loom is so significant to the area is because it was especially made for Miss Norah Biddulph by Gunnar Anderson in about 1933, in Sweden and imported to England by her. She and Miss Emily Dickenson formed the Quantock Weavers and lived in Over Stowey. The Quantock Weavers were at the forefront of the resurrection of handweaving in Britain in the 1950’s, as I understand it, and instrumental in the establishment of the National Association of Guilds for Weavers,Dyers and Spinners in the UK. Some of Miss Biddulph’s weaving can be seen in the shape of an altar frontal at Wells Cathedral.
After some research I found out that the loom was created to Mr Anderson’s design and as little has changed I was able to order some specific spare parts from the Glimakra Vavstolfabric in the small town of Glimakra in the south of Sweden.
The loom has its provenance stenciled indelibly upon it as it was labeled with the address when it was transported on the Great Western Railway. So you can see that this loom is a piece, albeit a very small piece and a specialized one of local history and it is nice to be able to give it a home in Stogumber.
Loom number 8 has been lovingly called ‘ Norah’ in Miss Biddulph’s memory and was probably one of a series of looms in her workshop. This loom seems to have been destined to weave all types of twill fabric in all its variations. It may take me a long time to follow in Miss Biddulphs footsteps while loom number 8 teaches me but it is a loom to be respected and I am glad I am its custodian.
I had a similar experience with a loom I bought on eBay. It was listed at an Ashford Jack loom so I downloaded the instructions for this from the Ashford website only to find when it arrived (as a pile of random bits of wood and string) that the loom was actually a Frank Herring Countermarche loom - much more complicated and with no instructions available anywhere! My daughter and I spent a long time with the jigsaw puzzle of bits, putting it together, taking it apart again, standing back and looking to see if it looked right, putting it back together again again,... Finally I had a loom that works and I know all about how it works and how it fits together now, that's for sure. Looking forward to reading your experiences in weaving.
ReplyDeleteHello Ann, My name is Jane Caldwell and I live in Dublin. Norah Biddulph was my great aunt, my grandmother was Kathleen Biddulph who was disowned by her family when she married my grandfather!. I was clearing out a room the other day when i found a little booklet called, Woven From A Stone by Hubert Fox, it is signed by Gladys dickinson and Norah Biddulph,I am sure you have a copy of it. I googled quantock weavers and was delighted to see that you have restored her loom. I thought you might be interested. I tried to contact you through your web site but it doesn't seem to work.
ReplyDeleteHello Jane, lovely to make a connection this way to your great aunt. I am currently not able to weave post stroke but am hoping to get back to it asap. I know of the existence of the book although do not have a copy as it is out of print. Managed to get some local info via the history society but am sure there will be more to find out. I bought a postcard with both ladies on which I keep with the loom. You can contact me on journey dot bc at mac dot com
ReplyDeleteHi Ann, my name is Nicola Jennings and I also live in Dublin. Norah Biddulph was a cousin of my grandmother's [Amy Biddulph]. I remember visiting Kathleen as a child in Killyon Manor. I have known about the Quantock Weavers for a long time and was delighted to read about the restoration of the loom, and more of Norah's story.
ReplyDeleteGosh!! I own and weave on a loom that belonged to Miss Biddulph too! I know it is hers because it has her name and GWR (Great Western Railways) stencilled on the side. It is a 4-shaft, top-slung Swedish floor loom of 32" weaving width, and I love and treasure it. I bought it in 2002 from a lovely couple near Honiton in Devon, and it had been languishing in their shed/barn for several years, still fully assembled. At the time I was living in Cornwall, and it came home with me, still fully assembled, towed on a trailer behind the car!
ReplyDeleteI am so pleased to have come across this blog entry and its comments, as you can imagine, and I dearly hope that you'll read this reply and we can get in touch. (I'm DitzyPilchard on Instagram.) As to hearing from Miss Biddulph's relations -- that's just wonderful! I would so love to know more about The Quantock Weavers and sustain, maintain and increase the memories and knowledge about them and their works, as they were significant people in handweaving in 20th century England/Britain. My email, which I do hope you'll use, is katilinum at Gmail dot com. It's very exciting to find another user of Miss Biddulph's looms, especially as I didn't know there was more than one loom!
Very best wishes,
Katherine from Kent (UK)
Hello Ann I am the person you collected the 'pile of wood' from in about 2009. I had collected it from a friend of a friend's barn in the Quantocks and hoped to restore it to full working order. Having cleaned of the years of barn dust and treated it for wood worm it lay in the garage waiting for me to find a suitable space to put it. Unfortunately due to other things going on in my life at the time I had to find another home for it and through Janet Phillips, I heard that Ann was looking for a loom. Ann, you collected it and did a great job of putting it together and getting it into full working order. Sadly, due to health reasons a few years later you had to part it and kindly contacted me to say it was once again looking for a new home. By this time I had a 'workshop' so was thrilled to have the opportunity own the loom once again. So along with a trailer and the help of a friend we collected it from Stogumber and 'Nora' is now in my weaving shed in Churchstanton, Somerset. 'Nora' is my pride and joy and I am so pleased to be using one of the looms used by the Quantock Weavers.
ReplyDeleteI have pictures of ladies who I assume are Nora and Gladys spinning and weaving and a copy of the Woven from a Stone all of which will stay with the loom.
If anyone would like to contact me my email is sarahcdowner@hotmail.co.uk
I was delighted to learn of the history of the loom.In the 50's my family had a holiday cottage in Bincombe. As a teenager I would often cycle over to Plainsfield to see Miss Dickinson and Miss Biddulph who would give me a generous tea, and send me home with lots of back numbers of the Edinburgh Review. I well remember Miss Dickinson sitting at the loom, improvising round the colours of some stone she had been given. I'm not sure how we came to know them, though Miss Dickinson had been at school with my grandmother. I also used to call on her brother who ran the Holford Weavers. His workroom was infinitely more cluttered than Plainsfield, with every surface covered in spools and tools.
ReplyDeleteI was recently in touch with the writer Diane Crighton who is preparing a book on Somerset, and is including some mention of the weavers.