St Mary's Lane

Prosperity generated through stockings

This modest house, tucked down a historic side street in lovely Tewkesbury, is a evidence of the town's 18th century prosperity. It is a rare survival of a house designed for framework knitters or stocking makers, recognisable by its long, first floor window to light the knitting frame (and now the sitting-room). Weaving was an organised but domestic trade – each stocking maker had his own knitting frame, kept in his home, while his wife and children carded and span the yarn. Stocking making provided the main employment in the town through the 18th century, until the cotton thread provided by Richard Arkwright’s factory experiment at Cromford gave the Nottingham stocking knitters the edge over those using Cotswold wool.

The roof was once falling in but now it's light and cheerful

This is one of several tall and well-made houses that suggest the living was a decent one. Above and below the weaver’s workroom were rooms for the family and there is a small yard at the back. When we took on the row in 1969, their roofs were falling in. We repaired the row and gave one to the local preservation society to further its cause. The cottage is light and cheerful, its steep, winding corner stair still in place and leading up to a fine view across Tewkesbury’s marvellous roofscape to the abbey. The town lies in a vale with the Cotswolds on one side and the Malvern Hills on the other. Both are in easy reach, as is Cheltenham. Tewkesbury itself has much to offer in that quiet, grounded way of our historic towns: an ancient battle site; the watery activity of the Avon and Evensong, if you wish, in the beautiful abbey.

See all our Landmarks at Tewkesbury

Tewkesbury developed as an early centre of expertise for cotton stockings (cheaper than silk) because spinners in the west country were used to working with the local short staple wool, which enabled them to twist two threads of cotton together to produce a regular cotton yarn suitable for use on the knitting frame. Framework knitting became the chief occupation for inhabitants of Tewkesbury, and the domestic pieceworkers would have spent their days at the long first floor windows where their knitting frames were installed.

As a direct result of Richard Arkwright’s success in factory cotton spinning, by the 1780s the Nottingham knitting industry, which had previously concentrated on silk, had transferred its focus to cotton, using machine-spun thread superior in quality to that produced by the west country spinners. The inevitable outcome was depression for the more domestically scaled Tewkesbury knitters, further too from the source of mechanically spun thread. The Tewkesbury industry gradually declined through the 19th century, workers creatively turning their skills instead to outer footwear, as the town became known instead for shoe and boot manufacture.

Landmark stepped in and, retaining Gem Town’s architect H G Raggett, paid for the restoration of both cottages, in return for the freehold on No. 30. (Gem Town Ltd kept the freehold of No. 28, which they have since sold).

No.28 was the most dilapidated, having suffered from the removal of its neighbour at the end of the row. Its roof had fallen in and its side gable wall had to be rebuilt. Both cottages were retiled with original and second hand tiles, new dormers were installed and first and second floor floorboards replaced. The yards were tiled with old blue Staffordshire bricks, whose strange size (12" x 6½") made them impossible to lay herringbone fashion. The first Landmarkers stayed at No. 30 in 1972.

In 1982, Landmark acquired No. 32, which had also been allowed to decline, and Mr Raggett again drew up plans for its restoration. Equivalent repairs were required to this cottage too, including the rebuilding of its dormer window. During the building work, a blocked window was discovered in the side wall and re-opened to reveal the magnificent view of the Abbey tower. Nos. 30 and 32 were both let for holidays by Landmark until 2006, when No. 32 was instead made available for residential letting to the local community, while remaining in Landmark’s care.