Quest for Information on a Shoemaker’s Last

The fairytale ending to my brief time at Abbey House Museum

Holly Roberts, work placement student,
pictured at Leeds Discovery Centre

As a placement student I have had a chance to experience a brilliant range of aspects of heritage and curatorial work. But one thing which has consistently impressed me (and no, despite his wow-factor, it is not the striking juvenile Giant Squid, who hangs, impressively from the rafters of the Leeds Discovery Centre store) but it is simply the unfolding of the history of objects through research. 

I particularly like researching very mundane objects (yes, you can sigh) because often, paradoxically, they have the most intriguing and familiar stories to tell.

In line with the upcoming Fairytale exhibition (at Abbey House) I was to work on the Elves and the Shoemaker story, which involved getting hands on with a fairly enormous plethora of shoemaking tools and equipment. It was a fairly rusty, dirty iron shoe last buried amongst many other nondescript lasts and other shoemaking equipment which grabbed my attention. 

This Last, however was branded in enormous letters 'LION'. After a clean-up I thought to investigate, where did this giant hunk of rusty metal come from and what life had it had?

Lion Foundry shoe last
(Photograph by Holly Roberts for Leeds Museums and Galleries )

From Glasgow with love

To find anything at all from the word LION was of course going to be a struggle, but after a while, estimations of manufacturing dates and variation of the name I discovered THE LION IRON FOUNDRY. The Lion Iron Foundry was established in 1880 at Kirkintilloch, near Glasgow, by the firm of Jackson, Brown & Hudson. 

The foundry went from strength to strength, employing one twentieth of the population of the Burgh of Kirkintilloch by 1910 but its earlier works in the late 1800s were less impressive, manufacturing railings, gates and other largely mundane items, most likely when our unassuming last was created. Into the twentieth century The Lion Foundry began to take on more ambitious projects such as bandstands, tram and bus shelters. Developing a fine reputation from 1900-1914 the foundry was involved in large constructional ironwork projects in cities all over the UK.

The Surprise

County Arcade, Leeds, decorated for the Royal Visit 1908

On further investigation, quite poignantly on the final day of my placement, I discovered that the Lion Iron Foundry, with its humble beginnings in the wilds of Scotland had a very impressive Leeds link! What are the chances? The Lion Foundry supplied and erected the highly ornamental roof trusses, domes and balcony railings of the incredibly beautiful and ornate Leeds County Arcade. 

As reported in the Kirkintilloch Herald of 29 November 1899, ‘A BIG ORDER – We are gratified to learn that the Lion Foundry Company have been successful in securing a large English order that will ensure a briskness in certain departments for months to come. It is an arcade for Leeds, in which ornamental castings will play a large part.’ To my utter surprise, my rusty old shoe last had led me to uncover a hidden history!

So on the very last day of my exciting and fulfilling placement with Abbey House Museum the faith in my rusty old iron last had paid off. This hunk of Glaswegian metal, sat on the desk in front of me had a story! A fantastic and very surprising link to a significant part of Leeds heritage. 

Even the most unremarkable of items, lost in the sea of an extraordinary collection, are truly worth exploring.

More information on The Lion Iron Foundry can be found on the East Dunbartonshire Leisure & Culture Trust website 

By Holly Roberts, Work Placement student from Lincoln University 


(All photographs within this blog were taken for Leeds Museums and Galleries and are licensed under Creative Commons BY NC SA)

The Leeds tailors who dressed the 1966 England football team

Football fever has once again taken over the country (or so the media would have us believe anyway). Three of the home nations have been competing in Euro 2016 and next month we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of arguably one of the greatest moments in English football: winning the 1966 World Cup.

One of the key photo opportunities during any major football championship is the team photo with all the players in their team suits. For the 1966 tournament the team suit was made by the Leeds tailoring company Burtons, who promoted themselves as 'the tailor of taste'.

1966 was an exciting year for Burtons, as not only were Burtons suits worn by sporting royalty but actual royalty came to Leeds! Princess Margaret received a tour of the Burtons Hudson Road factory.

Burtons brown piece dyed Glen check two piece suit, 1966

Leeds has been known for its textile industry since before the Industrial Revolution and, although there was a gradual decrease in the second half of the last century, clothing manufactures still remain in the city today. Burtons began life in 1903 and was named after its founder Montague Burton. Although the company had offices in Sheffield the main hub of the company was its Hudson Road factory in the Burmantofts area of Leeds.

Burton Hudson Road Factory, Burmantofts, Leeds.
(Image: Yorkshire Post Newspaper Ltd.)

Brian Rayner spent 52 years working in the clothing industry. He began his career at Burtons Montague in 1960, when he was 15 years old. In 2012 he gave an oral history interview to Leeds Museums about his time in the textile industry. Brian's history offers an amazing insight into clothing manufacturing and the changes in fashion, manufacturing techniques and the gradual move from bespoke tailoring to more ready to wear suits over the years.

The Cutting Room at Hudson Road - 1960s
(Image: Yorkshire Post Newspaper Ltd.)

What really struck me when I listened to Brian speak was the picture he painted of the social aspects of working for Burtons and the sheer size of the Hudson Road factory. There were 10,000 people working at the factory and the site included a canteen which could seat half the workforce in one siting. 

Brian described how the tea ladies came round with tea and sandwiches at 10 o'clock in the morning and took your lunch order (for which there were 3 choices ranging from 11 pence to one shilling and 3 pence). When you took your meal ticket along at one o'clock your lunch would be waiting for you. 

Inside the huge canteen in a Burtons factory - 1960s
(Image: Yorkshire Post Newspaper Ltd.)

If you needed to burn off that lunch there were on site sporting facilities. Brian remembers two football pitches, a cricket pitch with athletics track round the outside, a rugby pitch, a bowling green, a putting green, tennis courts and snooker tables. Phew...it makes me feel tired writing the list let alone using the facilities!

Burtons workers enjoying the sports facilities at Hudson Road - 1960s
(Image: Yorkshire Post Newspaper Ltd.)

There were not only leisure and catering facilities on site but also free health care. As well as having a fully equipped nurses station, Burtons offered free dentistry, chiropody and free hairdressing for the ladies of the factory, of which there were many! Nearly all the sewing machinists were female compared to the predominantly male hand-tailoring and press room sections. Brian remembers the work force consisting of 1 man for every 10 women.

Burtons workers clocking out of work - 1960s
(Image: Yorkshire Post Newspaper Ltd.)

This was not the only gender imbalance at the factory, as there was also a disparity in the pay – although perhaps not what you might expect! Brian remembers being paid £3 and 15 shillings a week when he first started working as an apprentice. In comparison the women who were fully trained in the sewing room were being paid £8 per week. 

Nevertheless, Brian says, if you took a female colleague out to the pictures the man was expected to pay! Brian also had to hand his wages over to his mother. She would take out what she needed for board before giving the rest back to him. 

Burtons staff outing to Morecambe - 1960s
(Image: Yorkshire Post Newspaper Ltd.)

Walking into the huge Hudson Road factory with its 10,000 staff - 500 employed solely for cutting the fabric – 5000-seater canteen, social opportunities and sports facilities not forgetting a 10:1 female to male ratio must have been an amazing sight for a 15-year-old boy starting his first job.

Sources: Montague Burton: The Tailor of Taste (1990, Manchester University Press).

By Rebecca Fallas, Volunteer Blogger

Discover more:

You can see more on Burtons and the 1966 England suit, including an interview with Brain at the Leeds Discovery Centre on Living in '66 - Suits, Boots and Northern Roots. The programme is available on BBC IPlayer until 1st July 2016.

If you'd like to take a tour around the Discovery Centre store like Kay Mellor in Living in '66, our store tours take place every Thursday at 11am and 2pm. Visit the Leeds Museums and Galleries website for more details.

If you'd like to learn more about the textile industry in Leeds why not visit Leeds Industrial Museum or Thwaite Mills?

Treasures of the Leeds Industrial Museum Store

Model Hunslet Engine Company

The store at Leeds Industrial Museum is packed with intriguing artefacts. Our Industrial History curators are still investigating many of the stories behind them. Last week, I had a behind the scenes tour with Curator John McGoldrick.

Enclosed inside a secure cage, is a huge space filled with shelving, drawers and curious objects from a massive wooden early locomotive wheel pattern to cinema projectors through the ages. This eclectic collection encompasses the range of Leeds industries past and present.

Technical drawings from the
Leeds Industrial Museum Store

Tiny scale models are dotted around the store – from the Crown Point Bridge to a tiny re-imagined Armley Mills, as well as dozens of working machines. Among my favourite items was a tiny replica of an engine made in Hunslet. Did you know that steam locomotives are still made in Leeds? The Hunslet Engine Company was founded in 1864 and is still making new steam locomotives today, as part of the LH Group.

Wallpaper printing blocks

Inside rows of drawers are a wealth of plans, many of which tell the story of Armley Mills and reveal something of the people who once worked here. Alongside machine designs, we uncovered technical drawing tests used to try the skills of new employees.

A whole series of shelves are filled with large wooden wallpaper printing blocks. Each one is covered with a different pattern, which would once have adorned rooms all over the country.

The printing industry has been going in Leeds since John Hirst began printing the Leeds Mercury in 1718, and the Industrial Museum has a great deal of related paraphernalia. 

I was fascinated by a Monotype typesetting keyboard. This triple QWERTY keyboard has three layers, with lower case letters, capitals and heading letters. Typesetters used these machines to create tapes of text, feeding them into a caster which formed the individual metal letters into columns of text ready to print.

Monotype typesetting keyboard

With National Mills Weekend starting this Saturday, the curators have been selecting some special items to go on display at the event (see our website for more details).

John will be demonstrating steam power using some of the scale models in the collection.

You can watch a short demonstration of an 1/12th scale model of a beam engine, made by E J Szlumper via the You Tube video below.

Do you have a story to tell from Leeds' industrial past? We'd love to hear from you! Why not share a story in the comment facility below, via Facebook or email us?

Follow us on Instagram @leedsmuseumsandgalleries to see more behind the scenes images of Leeds Industrial Museum at Armley Mills!

By Jen Newby, Digital Media Assistant

Leeds Gas Riots

This photograph was taken for Leeds Museums and Galleries and is licensed under Creative Commons BY NC SA

This anonymous drawing is titled the “Leeds Gas Riots” and shows events around New Wortley Railway Bridge, Wellington Road, in July 1890.

This eruption of violence came in the wake of a bitter Gasworkers’ strike which started in June 1890. The Gas Committee of Leeds Corporation wanted to save rate-payers money by enforcing a reduction in the working hours of coke stokers during the summer months (when demand for gas was less) and a strike was inevitable.   The council tried to break the strike by bringing in expensive blackleg labour from Manchester and London, but this served to rally other trade unionists, led by Tom Maguire, to support the strikers and to physically prevent blackleg workers from entering the gasworks.  The Gas Committee called in armed Dragoons from York and riots broke out on 1^st July.

Sword (about 1850) used by Leeds Police during the Gas Riots 1890
This photograph was taken by Norman Taylor for Leeds Museums and Galleries
and is licensed under Creative Commons BY NC SA

Violence broke out as the imported workers were escorted by Dragoons and police from the city centre to the gas works (south of the river).  At the railway arch in Wellington Road several thousand angry workers hurled missiles (including boulders, timber, iron pipes and bottles) from the bridge and railway embankment. 

The drawing features in the 2016 exhibition “Crime and Punishment” at Abbey House Museum, and there turns out to be a direct connection to Abbey House. Among those injured was Thomas R. Harding, a magistrate and owner of Tower Works in Holbeck, whose son had just moved into Abbey House.  In his autobiography Colonel Thomas Walter Harding recalled that his first night at Abbey House coincided with the gas riots and that early next morning he was called to the scene.  He was vice-president of the Leeds Chamber of Commerce and so was appointed as mediator for the dispute.  Factory owners were beginning to put pressure on the council to restore a normal gas supply as soon as possible.  The strike was resolved in favour of the striking gas workers and the victory was regarded as Tom Maguire’s finest hour but Harding must also take some of the credit for the peaceful resolution.   His actions help explain his popularity with both employers and workers and helped his election as a city councillor for Headingley and subsequent election as Lord Mayor in 1898.

Colonel T. Walter Harding, Abbey House, Kirkstall in 1893
Photograph: Leeds Museums and Galleries, licensed under Creative Commons BY NC SA

Kitty Ross, Curator of Leeds History

Leeds, Locomotives and the Swedish Nightingale

The current popularity of all things Scandinavian in our cultural life, from IKEA to ‘Borgen’ and ‘The Bridge’, may seem like a relatively recent trend, but as early as 1848 the people of Leeds were in thrall to one particular Swedish talent. 

A news cutting from the Leeds Times of 9th December from our collections describes scenes of near hysteria surrounding the visit to the city of Swedish soprano Jenny Lind.   In July 1847, she starred in the world première of Verdi’s opera I masnadieri at Her Majesty’s Theatre. Lind, by now dubbed ‘The Swedish Nightingale’, then embarked on a tour of the English provinces, including Leeds. 

Cutting from the Leeds Times, 9th December 1848

The Leeds Times reported that following the concert: ‘So great was the multitude assembled in the street to catch a glimpse of Jenny Lind that a strong body of police was obliged to interfere, and it was some time ‘ere the street could be sufficiently cleared for the carriages to pass.’

But what, if anything, does all this have to do with Leeds industrial history?  

A key exhibit in the recently re-developed orientation space at Leeds Industrial Museum is the very fine model of locomotive number 287 of the ‘Jenny Lind’ class built from 1847 by E. B. Wilson & Company of Leeds for the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway. 

The ‘Jenny Lind’ locomotive model at Leeds Industrial Museum

The model was built by a Mr Thomas Dixon of Bramley and presented to Leeds City Museum by his granddaughter Mrs A. E. Sinclair.  It is thought to have been completed in around 1895.  According to the donor, Mr Dixon had ambitions to work for the railways, which were thwarted by pressure to work for his family’s wheel wrighting business. 

It is believed that Mr Dixon constructed the majority of the model’s components himself, with the exception of the wheels, dome and funnel.  Mr Dixon’s son Harry is recorded as remembering the locomotive running.  As far as can be ascertained, the model was accepted into the museum’s collection without a tender. 

E. B. Wilson & Company of Leeds:
The story of the Leeds company E.B. Wilson is highly significant in the history of early locomotive building.  Extracts from the diaries of Wilson’s Chief Draughtsman David Joy were published by the Railway Magazine in 1908.  These provide a fascinating insight into the development of the ‘Jenny Lind’ class of locomotive and its success with many contemporary railway companies. 

As much as possible, E.B. Wilson sought to standardise production of the ‘Jenny Lind’ class, charging railway companies a premium for alterations to designs.  Over 70 of the class of locomotives were built, with 24 being purchased by the Midland Railway.  There is, however, some debate about whether Joy, James Fenton or even E.B. Wilson were responsible for the design of the ‘Jenny Lind’ locomotive.  

Jenny Lind, soprano

Joy’s diaries were published by the Railway Magazine (1908, volumes 22 & 23).  These contain some fascinating snippets on the development of the Jenny Lind locomotives.  Here are a few extracts:

May 1847
‘First Brighton engine was called "Jenny Lind" after the famous singer, "Jenny Lind," who was making a great excitement in London. I made a very highly finished drawing 1 in. to 1 ft. of her (the engine, not Jenny), which was lithographed, and sent about’

May 1847
‘In these wild days there was one driver especially attached to Railway Foundry, one Jack Hemsworth, also called "Hell fire Dick," but he dare do anything, and was a splendid driver. He was one of the first contract men - in the days when real coke saving was begun. 

At this time the "Jenny" had become a very popular engine, and we were building for very many railways as well as the Brighton, especially for the Midland, and on this line it was decided to have a trial of a 6 ft. "Jenny" against an ordinary Midland engine . . .’

  

The ‘Jenny Lind’ model locomotive made by Charles Wilson

We have another model of a Jenny Lind class locomotive (see above), built by Mr Charles Wilson, a driver with the Leeds & Thirsk Railway.  This particular model is believed to have featured in the 1851 Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace.  Given the prototype ‘Jenny Lind’ was built in 1847, this is a remarkable near-contemporary model and one object which certainly deserves to emerge from its secret life!   

‘Jenny Lind’ model, National Railway Museum
(Photo: John Clarke)

Other museums where Jenny Linds crop up include the National Railway Museum, Dehli, where a full-sized replica is on display, and the National Railway Museum, York, who have several fine models.

With the ‘Swedish Nightingale’ visiting Leeds in December 1848, at the height of her powers, it would be fascinating to know how far the decision to name the locomotive after her was influenced by her forthcoming visit to Leeds. 


By Curator of Industrial History John McGoldrick

A Tale of 1,001 Fabrics - the Hepworths Collection

Gentlemen of a certain age (OK, then, over 50) are more than likely to have owned a suit which was made in Leeds, once the capital of the British clothing industry. Leeds boasted many clothing manufacturers, large and small, including the likes of Sumrie, Browns, Berwin & Berwin, John Collier, the Fifty Shilling Tailor, Burtons and Hepworths.

Burton’s factory in Harehills was the largest of its kind in the world, boasting the world’s largest sewing room, photographs of which are still awe inspiring. Hepworths, founded in Leeds in 1864 and now transformed into Next plc, was famous for many reasons, including its monstrous HQ building on Claypit Lane and the first association of a famous designer (in this case, Hardy Amies) with a High Street tailor/retailer.  In the battle of one-upmanship, Amies was a trump card.

Inside the Burton's Factory sewing room.

Hepworths is part of Leeds’ heritage and, not unnaturally, Leeds City Museums and the magnificent Discovery Centre have lots of Hepworth-based material. These include the in-house newspaper, the ‘Hepworth Mercury’, which printed news about employees and about the company itself. Did you know that Hepworths provided uniforms for all sorts of groups, including Olympic athletes and Leeds Rugby League football club?

Volunteering with the Textiles collection

Several of my relatives worked in the Leeds clothing industry, so textiles must be in my genes (and jeans).  It seemed natural that my working life should relate to the industry and I ended up as head of the Textile department at Huddersfield University. When I retired, I looked at doing some voluntary work in order to make use of whatever expertise I have. So, I arrived at Leeds Discovery Centre under the tender care of Natalie Raw, Curator of Textiles and Fashion, and have been involved in digitising parts of the clothing collection ever since, from 18th century women’s dresses to 20th century men’s waistcoats.

So when Natalie mentioned that there was a box of Hepworths menswear fabric swatches to look at, dating from the 1960s/70s, I jumped at the chance. These have been sent to Armley Mills Industrial Museum for visitors literally to get a feel for Leeds made fabrics. The rest are in my gentle hands being catalogued.


My textile design students at Huddersfield came up with weird and wonderful colour combinations, but even they would be amazed at what I have come across. There are fabrics the colours of which don’t so much shout at you but yell at the tops of their voices. Some are absolutely hideous (to a 2014 fashionista like me!) but must have had some sort of market then. Some are beautifully subtle (how did they sneak in?).

There are the top of the range fabrics (Golden Heritage, usually pure wool) and the ‘bog standard’ range, often containing polyester.  Some of the fabrics might even be in vogue today (although for men much younger than me): the bright red jacketing and bright yellow trousering would certainly appeal to some.  Overall, it provides a fascinating review of a bygone age and an endless source of inspiration for me.

Discover more about Leeds tailoring

If Leeds tailoring is your thing, do visit the magnificent tailoring gallery at Armley Mills, which is about the history of Leeds tailoring. And if you like delving, exploring and being amazed, join the army of volunteers at the Discovery Centre (Find out how to volunteer for Leeds Museums and Galleries)!

By John Pearson, Dress and Textiles Volunteer

The Memoria exhibition at Armley Mills

Jan delves into the history of Armley Mills

I was packing envelopes in the dining area at Armley Mills. The place was empty except for a family sitting 5 tables away, snacking and chatting. “You should tell them.” “Why would anyone be interested? I only lasted half a day. I couldn’t take the noise.” I started eavesdropping…

As a teacher, I’d learned to tune out low level conversation so it was pure chance I picked up on the very person I was looking for - my first success in locating the elusive former employees of Armley Mills. Sandra’s daughter was looking at one of our flyers: “Did you or someone you know work at Armley Mills?” I had to interrupt. “Excuse me, did you just say you worked here at the mills?” Success at last. I had a name and a phone number to pass on.

The Memoria Project

Memoria is an exciting, innovative project combining the arts with local history. We’re a team of 5 volunteers led by Hannah, Assistant Curator, with local artist David Bridges. We have the task of locating as many people as we can who were associated with Armley Mills and uncover their history. Unfortunately, somewhere between the mill's closure in the early Sixties and its acquisition by Leeds City Council a few years later, all employment records vanished. 

So, we have distributed leaflets, put up posters, trawled social media, cold-called local residential homes, tried to reach teachers in local schools, visited local organisations… all in the hope that we can locate more people with a story to tell. Stories David can translate into ethereal porcelain and light, ready for exhibition in September.

Memories of Armley Mills

We have 2 cardboard boxes of surviving documents – a fascinating assortment of photographs, accounts and correspondence covering the first half of the last century. Two of us sifted through with carefully gloved hands, looking at invoices, petty cash expenditure and photographs in the hope of tracking down any useful name. We learned of the flood. We read about spigots and valves and machine maintenance. We speculated about the shareholders and directors and their use of petty cash but we didn’t find any hint of anyone who might still survive to tell their tale, apart from the Tempest family, who David is already working with.

Laura and I sat in the dining area, warming our hands on our coffee mugs, surrounded by the buzz of excited children attending the Victorian School. Another idea! Why not ask the children if they have elderly relatives or neighbours who worked at the mill? I created a leaflet to give to the children from local schools who visit the mill. Several hundred have now been distributed. Surely one child will take it home and ask the right questions of the right people. Surely one great grandparent will come forward.

The search continues!

It’s such a shame people don’t recognise that their everyday lives are an important part of our social and industrial history and deserve to be recorded. 

For more information about the Memoria project, read David Bridges’ blog, or see the Past Exhibitions at Leeds Industrial Museum.

Could you share your memories of Armley Mills or Leeds' Industrial Past? Get in touch with the team at Armley Mills.

By Jan Brown, Volunteer, Leeds Industrial Museum at Armley Mills

Miss Bradley's tea set - a tale of factory work and marriage

Trawling through the industrial collection's accession registers this morning, I have managed to unearth the hidden story behind one of the many unprovenanced decorative Victorian tea services we have in our stores.

The story highlights the fact that although women and girls may have formed a good percentage of the workforce in many industrial mills and factories, they were not supposed to continue to work once they married.

Miss Emma Bradley (the donor's grandmother) worked for John Barran & Son Ltd. as a tailor and machinist until her marriage.  It was the practice of the firm to retire female workers when they married and this tea set was the firm's gift on this compulsory retirement.

John Barran was a pioneer in the manufacture of ready-to-wear clothing.  He started of as a traditional tailor in 1842 but soon expanded his business on an industrial scale, taking advantage of new technology such as the sewing machine.  In 1856 he had a factory with 20-30 sewing machine and in 1858 he introduced the use of a bandsaw to cut cloth.  By the 1870s he had 2,000 machines and by 1904 he employed 3,000 people.

Wool cuttling machine for folding cloth from John Barran & Sons Ltd,
on display at Leeds Industrial Museum (Armley Mills)

Female Learners Certificate of Employment
 issued by John Barran & Sons Limited, Leeds
to Amy Evelyn Brown in 1912. 
On display in The Leeds Story, Leeds City Museum

Make Do and Mend

Or make do on rations

In 1938, on the eve of the Second World War, fashion critics were returning from Paris with exclaims that ‘Paris has decreed a new women’ who would be ‘veiled and gloved and corseted’. It seemed that tight-lacing was about to return to the world of fashion, replacing the tubular and more practical styles of dress that had swept it away in the 1920s. But the outbreak of World War II in 1939 cut Britain off from Parisian Haute Couture and halted such transformations in fashion.

Shortages in materials made it necessary for strict regulations to be applied to all production. ‘The Utility Clothing Scheme’ was launched by the government in 1941, with the aim to save 15% of domestic fabric production. The use of zips was no longer allowed as the metal was needed for arms production – some cosmetics manufacturers even began re-filling lipstick cases because of metal shortages! Buttons were limited and skirt hems rose as the Scheme specified fabric widths and lengths. Turn-back cuffs, patch pockets and hoods were banned completely as a part of a ‘no fabric on fabric’ rule. An Order in 1942 even deemed it unpatriotic and illegal to spend time embellishing clothes for sale!

The Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers (ISLFD) - a group of designers and couturiers including House of Worth, Molyneaux, Hardy Amies and Lachasse - was established in 1942 to work with the Board of Trade. Under the war-time restrictions, the ISLFD created 32 clothing designs for mass-production. The garments had to be hard wearing and practical. The emerging tailored, slim silhouette, with square shoulders and a pronounced waist echoed the cut of military uniforms. The CC41 label was applied by manufacturers as a guarantee that the garment met the strict conditions for design and production.

All clothing – Utility Clothing included – fell under the coupon rationing system which was introduced in June 1941. People were given 66 coupons per year, but by 1945, this was reduced to as few as 36. To purchase a suit you needed 18 coupons, and a dress would need 12. With coupons limited and stockings in short supply, many women began to go bare legged, some even painting or drawing lines on the back of their legs to imitate a stocking seam!

Money was still needed to pay for goods alongside the coupons, and some people were simply too poor. This encouraged a ‘make do and mend’ attitude. Women were encouraged to follow the example of “Mrs Sew and Sew”, a character featured in advertisements and propaganda to promote the recycling of textiles. There were also other ways to express fashion; through brightly coloured headscarves, bold hairstyles and elaborate hats (which remained un-rationed).

Shortages continued even after the war ended in 1945, but fashion was already breaking away from war-time styles. In 1947, Christian Dior’s revolutionary first collection was hailed as the ‘New Look’, its signature silhouette characterized by a long, full skirt and a tiny waist. Dior purposefully broke away from war time restrictions, his creations famously using up to twenty yards of fabric. Rationing finally came to an end in 1949, paving the way for a very fashionable fifties! Utility Clothes, are now recognised for their high quality, and you can see examples of those that have stood the test of time at Leeds Museum Discovery Centre.



By Shauni Sanderson

The Full Monty

Less about taking your clothes off, as actually putting them on!

There are various origins of the famous phrase ‘The Full Monty’, but one version is that it came from the ‘demob suits’ given for free to all demobilised servicemen after WWII. These were full three-piece suits (a jacket, waistcoat and trousers) – in comparison to the standard two-piece suit, and they were provided by a Leeds based firm called Burtons. As an intern at Leeds Discovery Centre I have been privileged enough to work with their vast collection of suits, including those from Burtons own collection and I was particularly fascinated by the demob suits I came across.

Burtons was first established in 1903 by a Lithuanian immigrant Jew, ‘the tailor of taste’, Montague Burton (the name taken after the former Meshe David Osinsky spent a pleasant afternoon at Burton-on-Trent railway station). Hence why the demob suits obtained the nickname – ‘The Full Monty’!


Burtons was not only hugely important in the war effort, during and after, but estimates also suggest that at one point Burton was clothing a fifth of British men, with ready-made or made-to-measure suits. He was even knighted for his efforts. Burtons was also hugely important for Leeds itself and will forever be part of its history – many families in Leeds can still today recall at least one family member, if not more, who once worked for the Burtons corporation.

 

Demob suits were generally known for being of a high quality, made of good materials with such merits as turn-ups on the trousers and their owners were proud of them. For many of the owners it was their first ever suit and they were very pleased with them. However, due to issues like rationing from the early 1940s to the 1950s we saw the introduction of utility cloth which led to some demob suits being made in utility style. These suits were ill-fitting and shapeless, with none of the luxuries such as back pockets, shoulder padding or even turn-ups on the trouser legs.


The fact that on the conclusion of world wars, all fighting men were rewarded with a suit tells us that they had a special meaning in twentieth-century society. The now universal nature of suit-wearing of the nineteenth century was both a reflection of social and cultural change and an outcome of innovation in retailing. Therefore, demob suits were in fact, a clever marketing strategy as suits had become a powerful way of acquiring ones sense of place in modern society.



By Rebecca Jenkins

A tale of two cisterns

My colleagues at Temple Newsam may be rejoicing at the successful purchase of a splendid silver wine cistern once used by Lord Raby. However, in my humble opinion, the cistern acquired yesterday into the Leeds history collections is just as important in its own way.

Evidence that Leeds really was a city of "a thousand trades" and home to many very specialised manufacturing companies, we have just collected a wooden toilet cistern made by the Valveless Syphon Company based in Kirkstall, Leeds. This was collected from a house in West Park that was built around 1911. The cistern uses the company's "Waterfall patent" system which was patented in 1905. A link to the original patent can be found here: http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/originalDocument?CC=GB&NR=190503237A&KC=A&FT=D&date=19051102&DB=EPODOC&locale=en_EP

The company was still listed in Kelly's trade directory of 1947 as based at Wyther Lane.

Thanks to the Leeds Local History library and the Patents Information Service for help in researching this object.

The first UK telephone call

This mysterious looking polished wooden object (one of a pair) is actually part of the equipment through which the first ever telephone conversation passed in the United Kingdom. Its significance might have been lost for ever without the remains of an old museum label which stated that it was an "early telephone receiver" made and donated by James E. Bedford. Unlabelled this would have probably remained as an unregarded "mystery object" in the museum stores.

In 2010 we had an enquiry from a descendent of James's brother Charles S. Bedford asking to see what was reputed to be "the first telephone in made England" and were able to locate it and start to understand its significance, but the evidence was still just anecdotal. Earlier this month we received a letter from George Rudram, a volunteer at Amberley Museum in West Sussex which helps shed light on the claim and enclosing a copy of an article in "The Telegraph and Telephone Journal" from April 1933.

The article is based on an interview with Mr Charles S. Bedford, Managing Director of the Leeds firm of Wood & Bedford, manufacturing chemists:

"In 1876, he and his brother the late Mr James Edward Bedford, later to become the first Lord Mayor of Leeds in the Great War period, were two youths interested in all kinds of mechanical contrivances. To assist them in their hobby, they perused among others, the periodical "Scientific Americans". From it they were vastly intrigued by a description of Graham Bell's new invention, the telephone, and they immediately decided to make two replicas.

A suitable piece of beech was first obtained and by turning on a lathe the frames of two telephones were evolved. Mr. Charles Bedford has rather poignant memories of this lathe, for he states that he provided the necessary power, whilst the future Lord Mayor performed the more skilled operations. For the next stage a bar of steel 2 feet long and 5/8 inch diameter was obtained and cut to the desired lengths. The pieces were then bored and tapped for an adjusting screw, and magnetised.

The diaphragms were made of thin ferro-type plate and were very similar to the modern type. The coils were made of fine wire wound round bobbins, the latter being fixed to the bar magnet and the two ends of the wire coils led out to terminals at the other end of the magnet. A wooden cup, bevelled in the centre similar to the present receiver caps, was fitted by means of screws, and the combined receiver-transmitter was ready.

Bell wire was run on pot insulators from the attic to a workshop about 30 yards away in the grounds of their residence, Sycamore Lodge, Woodhouse Cliff, Leeds. The internal leads to the instruments were of gutta-percha covered wire.

Although no batteries were used, speech could be heard quite plainly at the first trial after a preliminary adjustment of the adjusting screws.

The first conversation over the line was:-

"Are you there?"

"Yes, I am, will you count?"

"1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9"

"That's all right. Will you go through the alphabet."

"A.B.C.D.--"

"Wait a minute while I adjust the screw."

The new telephone was an object of interest to all the friends of the family and many were the demonstrations given in the evenings."

The original instruments were donated to Leeds Museums by James Bedford in the early 1920s.

It appears from the chronology that James and Charles Bedford just managed to make their replica telephone before Graham Bell patented his invention in England. Bell had been granted his US patent in March 1876. The Bedford brothers first tried out their version in October and Bell was granted his English patent in December. Bell's telephone was first officially exhibited in England in August 1877 to the British Association at Plymouth and was demonstrated to Queen Victoria in January 1878.

World's biggest 3D Jigsaw?

A bold claim maybe but a big puzzle nonetheless. My engineering volunteer team Andy and Gill found these rusting cast iron leviathans stored outside whilst auditing, apparently in no particular order but next to other bits of machinery including a press, a rolling mill and a couple of large boilers. The first image appeared to be a lineshaft with a set of pulleys and two flywheels, not a common arrangement. The second picture shows, hidden in the undergrowth, a large cast iron disc with rubber inserted around the rim and a central square sockle hole. The third picture seemed to be two curved arms with bearing rests at one end. After Gill and Andy brought the audit sheets back and i was trying to reconcile what we found with accessioned items I had several trips down to try and figure out the puzzling bits and pieces and see if i could work out what they were part of. they certainly didnt seem to be part of the same thing.

I decided to have a closer look at the press because we had identified it as a blanking press made by Greenwood & Batley of Leeds. It was used at the Royal Mint in Haverfordwest but I still couldnt work out how all the bits could be part of it.

I couldnt see any power source for this press, it had no motor or pulleys for belt drive, and the other thing that struck me was the sockle on the top of the screw thread, which was square. taking measurements showed that it fitted the hole in the centre of the disc with the rubber inserts perfectly. this still seemed odd though, a horizontal flywheel? and what was the rubber for? I measured the outer diameter of the disk and then took a closer look at the gap between the two flywheels on the lineshaft - again, it fitted perfectly. and then a metaphorical lightbulb lit up and i realised how the press worked and how the pieces fitted together. The two curved arms fitted on the flat rectangular sections at the top of the press, they supported the lineshaft with the two vertical flywheels whilst the other flywheel fitted horizontally between them on the top of the screw, creating what is known as a friction drive. The leather inserts would give enough adhesion to allow the disk and the screw to be driven downwards to press out the coins or blanks but once slipped out of gear it could be skidded back into its original by the lever mounted near the sockle. Using a friction drive meant that the press screw could move in two directions without having to invest in a complex gearing system or reversing the power source, and it turned out to be a very common and still used drive for screw presses.

As an added bonus I looked up Greenwood & Batley screw press on Google and found this, the very same press in action at the Royal Mint!

John Smeaton's model for the foundation of the Eddystone lighthouse

John Smeaton was a great 18th century engineer, from Austhorpe, Leeds. He coined the term "civil engineer" and the symbol used by the Institute of Civil Engineers is an image of one of Smeaton's most famous creations, the Eddystone lighthouse, built on the Eddystone Rocks fourteen miles from Plymouth, in the English Channel . The Eddystone Rocks are a major shipping hazard and are marked by a lighthouse beacon as a warning to shipping. The first lighthouse lasted only five years and was destroyed, and its keeper killed, in a truly fearsome storm, of hurricane proportions, in 1703. Smeaton's lighthouse, the third to be built on the Eddystone Rocks, lasted much longer, from 1759 until 1877. The structure itself was sound, but it was the rocks underneath that were being undermined by wave action that led to the decision to replace Smeaton's lighthouse. At the end of its serviceable life the citizens of Plymouth had it dismantled and re-built in Plymouth, so proud were they of this extraordinary pioneering structure. The Leeds collections have the model that Smeaton made for the foundation of the lighthouse. It underwent conservation a while ago, to glue back together some of the wooden components. It is made of oak, and it was in effect the instructions to the masons on how to make the flat platform on which to build the lighthouse. It is comprised of interlocked stones, dovetailed together and let into dovetailed recesses cut into the Eddystone Rock, to key it all together. The story of the lighthouse's innovative and pioneering design and construction is a fascinating vignette of someone who could engage the brain and solve a significant problem.

Institute of Civil Engineers:

http://www.ice.org.uk/bookshop/bookshop_main.asp?ISBN=9780727700889

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Smeaton

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddystone_Lighthouse#Smeaton.27s_lighthouse

A great little primary school in Austhorpe, Leeds, also uses the the Eddystone lighthouse as the signature symbol of the school. This beacon of learning is rightly proud of Austhorpe's greatest son:

http://www.austhorpe.leeds.sch.uk/homepage/index.php

During the spring and summer of 2011 Temple Newsam House had a John Smeaton exhibition. Smeaton undertook several projects at Temple Newsam House and estate for the Irwins. The exhibition gave an overview of Smeaton's career and significance, as well as details of his most important accomplishments, especially his famous lighthouse. In addition to items from Leeds collections, we were privileged to borrow objects from the Royal Society, of whom Smeaton was not only a Fellow, but a Copley Medallist as well.

An old West Country folk song about the Eddystone lighthouse is good fun!
Eddystone Lighthouse folksong