I'm so so so happy with how it came out!!! Please admire closely that left leaf and pretend the right one isn't there. The filling isn't super pretty but a vast improvement to the leadworks I've done so far. Some of the ones toward the right side are even sort of held their shape and are almost even! It took me a while to figure out how to end them so that they stayed square and didn't distort going into the next stitches.
There was lots to learn doing this pattern again. One, it was the first project on my new pillow so had to get used to the new shape and stuff. I also got some Honiton bobbins now which I did end up really liking!! And of course, the new thread. At first it was a huge pain, I kept breaking the runners off and wanted to cry, but once I got used to how much tension to use ( basically none. since the pillow is so round and domed, the way the bobbins hang off the edge really provides all the tension needed) I really got going! The coarse thread is also now a better size compared to the main thread and I can see how it is adding better stability to the piece (and looks nicer, especially for the petals)! For size comparison, here it is next to the other sunflower I did:
What an awesome find, a survey of the town of Honiton and its slightly northern and north-western environs from 1765.
What particularly intrigues me is that the one closer to the left has been labelled Cockenhays or Hembury Fort House.
Samuel Graves, upon acquiring the estate in the early 1750s, enlarged and improved the manor house locally known as Cockenhays and was quick to re-name it Hembury Fort House after the local landmark, an Iron Age hill fort.
His reasons for doing so are unclear, though I would presume that, albeit a sailor and somewhat notorious for being "rough in his manner", Cockenhays just didn't suit the kind of genteel air an officer and a gentleman would have wanted to cultivate.
The locals, it seems, did not take to Graves's re-branding scheme; it may have been out of habit, out of a sense of preserving local tradition against a newcomer, or simply for reasons of speech economy; Cockenhays, after all, is one word, whereas Hembury Fort House (known among the Graves-family as The Fort) amounts to three.
Another instance of people defying Samuel Graves's new estate name can be found in the London Gazette, in which he, dated 10 February 1764, published two blackmail letters he had received, in which an unnamed person or group of people threatened that he would have his "House bloed abouet Your Years derickly [house blown about your ears directly]" if he would not agree to depositing the sum of fifty guineas "behain ye Gate Poss that goth into Cockney Street [behind the gate post that goes into Cockenhays Street]." These two letters were each time addressed to "Admardel [or in the second letter, Adrelmel] Graues at Cockney", indicating that the perpetrator(s) were locals-- people Graves knew who weren't local to the area would refer to his residence by Graves's preferred names of Hembury Fort House or more casually, The Fort.
These published letters reveal another potential issue why the name Hembury Fort House did never fully replace Cockenhays; in the context given describes "ye Gate Poss" where the blackmail letter was found, and where Graves was supposed to leave the fifty guineas as "the Falling-Gate Post [...] that leads into the Honiton Road, commonly called Cockenhay Street."
What is Cockenhay Street? Comparing the 1765 map with footage from Google Maps, the street going towards Honiton in the 18th century map has almost the exact same course as today's A373.
While time has since favoured Graves's choice of Hembury Fort House over Cockenhays, presumably connected to the the Honiton road, also known as Cockenhays Street, being renamed over time.
Another, less controversial discovery on this map is that it lists the Wolford church estate, which would some two decades later would be purchased from the owner, a Mr. Genest, by Graves' niece and godson Elizabeth and John Graves Simcoe, who tore down the old house, built a much bigger one on the site and dubbed it Wolford Lodge. The distinction became necessary because they also renovated the medieval church ruin and made it a place of family worship, now known as Wolford Chapel.
While Wolford Chapel and the (new) Wolford Lodge have fairly unmistakable names as the geographical indicator "Wolford" remained the same throughout the centuries, I wonder if there are still people local to the area who would know Cockenhays and Hembury Fort House are the same building, or if the old name has, as Samuel Graves wished for some 270 years ago, faded into obscurity.
A small white silk hexagon forms the central piece of this patchwork wedding quilt top which was donated to the Collection in 2005. It is printed with the words “SAMUEL MILTON MARRIED TO SARAH SAGE ON JANUARY, 30TH 1868”. Very typical of the printed silk inserts used in greetings cards of the time, it may be from one of their wedding invitations. According to the Accession Register entry, the quilt was bought in the Devon/Cornwall area in 1993.
The quilt top is large and virtually square at 268cm by 261cm. The patches are cut predominantly from multi-coloured silks with some cottons. The concentric rings around the central hexagon consist of flower-like groups joined together.
Having the names of both the bride, groom and a wedding date, it was quite easy to find them in the public records. Sarah Sage, aged 37yrs, married Samuel Milton, 40, on 30th January 1868, at the Parish Church in the small village of Colaton Raleigh, Devon.
The marriage register entry shows that Samuel was the son of John Milton, labourer and Sarah the daughter of Thomas Sage, farmer. Samuel’s occupation is listed as a servant and he is resident in Bovey Tracey. Sarah is listed as a lace maker, resident in Colaton Raleigh.
Looking back into the census returns in 1841 aged 10, Sarah is listed as the eldest of 5 children of Thomas and Mira Sage at Blackberry Farm, Colaton Raleigh.
By 1851, the family had moved to Springles Farm. Her father now the farmer of 10 acres, assisted by his sons, Mark, 16, and Mathew, 14. Sarah, unmarried and aged 20, is listed as a Farmer’s Daughter, and she would have helped her mother on the farm.
By the 1861 census, Sarah appears on the returns for the Divett family at Bystock House, Colaton Raleigh. She is employed there as an under housemaid, with Samuel Milton the coachman – so this is where they presumably met and where their romance began.
The Divett household was large with a total of nine servants including a butler, housekeeper, cook, governess and nurse, plus a gardener living in Bystock Cottage. The Divetts were an important local family. Samuel and Sarah’s employer, Edward Divett (1797-1864) was the Liberal MP for Exeter from 1832-1864. He was a magistrate and Deputy Lieutenant for Devon and the Chairman of the South Australian Banking and Land Company. He had married Ann Ross in 1836 and they had six children.
Edward had inherited Bystock and its large estate on the death of his father in 1819. In 1838, Bystock was described as “one of the prettiest seats in the south-east of Devon” with “a well wooded park and beautiful gardens”. It had beautiful views of the coast from Torbay to Exmouth. 1
Ann Divett died in 1856, and Edward died in 1864, aged 67yrs, at which time Samuel and Sarah would likely have lost their jobs. The marriage register entry indicates that whereas Samuel was living and working as a servant in the Bovey Tracey area, Sarah appeared to have returned to the family home in Colaton Raleigh, turning her hand to lacemaking to provide herself with an income. The village is to the west of Sidmouth, and the well-known lacemaking centre of Honiton is less than ten miles to the north.
We have many pieces of Honiton lace in the Collection. It is characterised by floral motifs (especially roses) with leaves and sprays and…
“...the almost invariable use of ornamental fillings consisting of a network of tiny squares or rectangles. These easily recognised fillings are frequently found in the centres of flowers which remained the favourite motifs for Honiton lace throughout the century. The flowers are generally executed in a simple, rather naïve style...” (Wardle, P137) 2
A Honiton lace cuff, showing the floral motifs and fillings
When Queen Victoria married Prince Albert in 1840, she had insisted on using British made goods for the occasion. She commissioned Honiton lace for her wedding dress and veil and her patronage made the lace very fashionable and in demand. The wedding dress can be seen in the Royal Collection here:
Throughout the 1850s, Honiton lace remained popular for wedding and bonnet veils, borders, berthas, collars, cuffs and lappets. However by the 1860s, the quality and design of the lace had started to deteriorate:
“On the one hand there were a small number of very skilled workers, capable of producing the finest types of lace, and these pieces were expressly for royal orders; on the other were the majority of workers who were content to turn out lace of moderate or poor quality for which there was a steady market…
(Wardle P.149)
Unfortunately, we have no examples of the lace that Sarah made to know how skilled she was.
Continuing Sarah and Samuel’s story after their marriage, in 1871 they are living in John Street, St Sidwell, Exeter and Samuel is once again listed as a servant. Then we find the birth of a son, John Thomas Milton in 1872.
In 1881, now living at Little Clifton Street in Exeter, Samuel is an agricultural labourer and John Thomas aged 9, a scholar. By 1891 in Clifton Street, St Sidwell, Exeter, Samuel is a coach builder’s labourer and John Thomas, 19, is a baker.
Sarah died in 1894 aged 64yrs and Samuel two years later in 1896, aged 68; both deaths were registered in the Exeter district. I have been unable to trace their son, John Thomas.
But once again, a small piece of fabric has unlocked a fascinating real-life story behind an item in the Collection.
Jane H
REFERENCES:-
1. Devon Gardens Trust website
https://devongardenstrust.org.uk/gardens/bystock-court
Includes a print of Bystock House, which (judging by the costume) may be about the same time that Sarah and Samuel were working there.
~'What can we be' by Nigel Rose-Walton~ Today, I went down to the Thelma Hulbert Gallery in Honiton, to see my work displayed one last time before it was taken down. Whilst I was there I spotted this absolutely amazing piece. I had to share it on my tumblr as I fell in love with it. I love the texture, colour, shape, highlights, tones, emotion and everything!
Newest finished piece!! Pretty happy with this! The leaves look a bit funky, I think I'm still using too much tension and maybe not enough bobbins for them. Super happy with the stems and the petals! And hey look! My square lead works are becoming more square! The new technique learned in this one was crossing over a braid. So for example the two bottom leaves use the same bobbins and are not sewn on separately.
Pattern 7 in the Technique of Honiton Lace by Elsie Luxton
What a workout 😴😴😴 so many days of cloth stitch, so many flowers, so much sewing. This was a lot of fun to make. Definitely improved on some skills I've been working on. I think one of the biggest improvements from this piece just came from the actual approach. I found myself making decisions on how to approach different elements, when to hang in and cut out pairs for different spots, and stuff like that that was no longer written into the instructions in the book. Speaking of the book, by finishing this piece, I officially graduate from the beginner patterns chapter 🥳🥳🥳 My plan next i think is to go work on some torchon pieces again because I need a break from sewing while I work on ordering some finer thread. I want to repeat the sunflower pattern at the actual size, and then move on to the next chapter!
The Technique of Honiton Lace by Elsie Luxton- Pattern 6: Horseshoe
