Cowper & Newton Museum visit September 2019

We were so happy to see all our members and their friends at the first meeting we held after the summer break. The museum brought along a variety of things to sell from their shop to compliment the wonderful talk they gave on the history of the museum. We heard about the flax used to make the lace from Marion Swindells and how disease had wiped out the finer strains of the plant. Marion told of lace tokens and why they were minted and the lace tells the lacemakers would chant to pass the time. We learnt that an Ell was not the same measurement in Scotland as it was in England or France and that William Cowley made parchment for the lacemakers back in the 1860s and that they are still producing parchment in Olney today for various of uses.  All of this while Marion showed us slides, telling us many things about the social history of the lacemaker in Buckinghamshire. Chairman Paul Collins followed by giving us a quick jaunt through some photos of staff in period costume and of the A list celebrities visiting the museum. It was a very popular talk and went down well with our members.