Adult Education in the UK and why it was more than just learning to make lace

Adult Education services in the UK played an important role in educational development for women; not just craft courses but access to qualifications. The revival of these services aimed at women in the late 70s and through to the mid 90s really impacted many women who left school at 14 or 15 and had no formal qualifications. I recently found an excellent article on this which set me thinking.

For many women who went into work during WWII, they lost their career path when the men returned from the war and took back their jobs or they were expected to resign when they got married.  My mum left at 14 and spent 4 years at Lloyds Bank until she had to leave when she announced she was getting married.

​My Great Aunt was a Bank Manager with Coutts, during the war, but faced being demoted to Assistant Manager when the Bank Manager returned.  As Assistant Bank Manager, she could progress no further and was still restricted that she had to leave when she got married.   As her fiance earned less than her, they put off marrying as long as possible so as to save as much money as possible on two wages.

1946. My Mum aged 14, Captain of the Netball Team and about to leave school and go work in a bank.

The inspirational Aunty Joan receiving her Queen's Nursing Institute long service award, from the Duchess of Gloucester, in 1975 for 21 years Community Nursing

When Hubby's Aunt Joan qualified as a Community Nurse in the 1950s, she knew that this meant she would effectively never marry as it was her career or marriage.

Joan is a very inspiring woman.  Born from her mother's first marriage, she grew up with her brother in Malmsbury, Wiltshire along with her later half siblings.  In the 1930s, she and her brother were the only two BIPOC children and were even captured on film watching the 1935 carnival.  A feisty child, she stood up for herself and her brother against children and adults who saw her skin colour as a barrier.

She left to train in 1944 as a nurse in Bristol but returned to the area once qualified and continued to work as a State Registered Nurse, Midwife, health visitor and Queen's district Nurse for 30 years. 

I had primary school teachers in the 1970s who had never married because up until the mid 60s, to do so would mean losing their job. Yet the male teachers were expected to marry and have a family as a way of grounding them and giving them further life experiences.

​Shirley Conran's book, Superwoman, published in 1975, was telling us that we could have a career and a home life.  There was now no need to chose. 

I had moved on from reading my weekly Jackie to stealing my sister's copies of MS Magazine.  By the mid 80s, we believed that we could have it all and we were going to grab life with both hands.

​Adult Education Classes became extremely fashionable in the late 70s and reached a peak during the 80s and early 90s. 

No longer was it seen that a qualification taken through these classes was second choice, it was seen as a primary source of learning. 

​Living away from home for the first time, sharing a flat with a friend, Evening Classes were a great way to go out, meet people and learn a new skill. 

​Women were now often living on their own and were taking diverse classes such pottery and car mechanics, often signing up for 1 or 2 classes a week. Costs were subsidised so that they became affordable. 

​Add to this that it was still considered unacceptable for women to go, unaccompanied, to pubs and bars, these classes gave women a socially acceptable activity that they could engage in, outside of the home.

A number of fellow lacemakers have said that they learnt to make lace as such classes.  

In the 1980s, I would scourer TimeOut for the best things to do in London.  From the hottest places to be seen, gigs and exhibitions to classes to take.

​Access to crafts and leisure past times were not just through Adult Education at this time.  Many national companies had social clubs schemes that allowed subsidised access to courses and crafts through their own clubs. 

I learn to make lace at Willesden Telephone Exchange through BT's West London Sports and Social Club.

The Lace Club was granted funds to buy all the equipment, up front, then we paid a small weekly amount back an after a couple of months we owned our equipment.  The Club also subsidised the cost of the teacher.

Willesden Telephone Exchange is now Exchange House and has been converted to flats

The first piece of miniature lace that I made, early 1989

Any craft has a cost for equipment and tuition. 

What is interesting is that over time, the cost of lacemaking equipment has relatively lower compared to income. 

Let's put costs into perspective here.  I was working as a Technical Officer for BT and was earning a pretty good wage. 

I was renting a one bedroom flat in West London and was able to pay my bills, but lived frugally as my money after bills and travel was limited. 

​I could afford to buy 1 bobbin a month from Sarah Jones and save up enough money to visit the annual Springett fair in September.

Let's add some context.  If I compare what I was earning in 1988 with a similar role today and its wage basically the take home in 2021 is three times that of 1988.  A bobbin from Sarah is 2/3 more.  My first pillow cost £9 for a polystyrene 18" pillow, a similar one £20.

• 2021 wage = 300% 1988 wage
• 2021 bobbin = 160% cost of 1988 bobbin
• 2021 pillow = 220% cost of a 1988 pillow

Even allowing for food and bills, the cost of lace equipment has not risen at the same rate as other things.  It has become more affordable.​

My Sarah Jones' Orchid bobbins, bought one bobbin a month from the early 1990s

So, why did Adult Education craft classes collapse in the 90s?  Two key things happened in the UK.  Firstly, in order to teach at an evening class, you had to have a tertiary teaching qualification.  Secondly, funding was limited at this point and many 'non essential' classes suffered. 

​Don't get me wrong.  Having a recognised standard of teaching is important. However, this was badly handled by the local authorities with many teachers being told during the summer holidays that they would need to be qualified by the start of the new term in September.  ​

The qualification cost was something that the tutors were expected to pay for themselves and couldn't continue to teach without the qualification, but couldn't get the qualification if they weren't teaching. 

​​This lead to a number of teachers who had started in the 1970s withdraw from teaching as they just didn't want the hassle.  Some, but not all, encouraged their pupils to start up their own lace groups and may of these were social lacemaking groups without their own teacher.

The groups that started in the late 80s and early 90s offered lacemakers a place to meet and more importantly, lace days where people could come from different groups, meet, make lace together and have access to multiple suppliers.

Lace fairs were a regular fixture in our calendars.  June was the Bromley Lace Fair, September we all went to Rugby for the Springett Fair and Christmas was a trip to the NEC. 

​The first time I went to the Springett Fair in 1988, the whole of the back wall of the sports hall was filled with the teachers from the British College of Lace.

With a lack of teachers for lacemaking at the evening classes, the limited funding was often prioritised to courses where the markets dictated - those leading to qualifications such as languages or social classes such as cooking, which were always over subscribed following the new TV trend of cookery programmes feature Delia, Keith Flloyd or Gary Rhodes and the launch of Breakfast TV in 1983, with resident chefs told people that cooking food was accessible for all.

Single term classes allowed enough commitment (13 weeks) to learn a new skill without having to agree to 2 or 3 year commitment of a qualification such as City & Guilds.  

City & Guilds offered a lacemaking qualification starting in 1987 and was launched at Knuston Hall.  The qualification was taught at local colleges for over 20 years, however the biggest barrier to most lacemakers was the time needed to take the qualification.  I remember inquiring about it when it was first organised and realising that it would cost me more than I could afford in both time and funding. 

​Effectively, the course needed a full time commitment and as I was working, I couldn't complete the units in the timescales needed.  The cost per year, for two years, was the equivalent of 3 months wages for me, something which I just couldn't afford.​

In the UK, following the loss of Adult Education classes we still had the Lace Guild and in the early 90s it was the largest guild after sugar crafts.  At the same time, the Lace Society was limited in its membership numbers, under its constitution, and after asking to join in 1988, I finally was accepted as a member in 1992 - think on that; a 4 year wait to join a society.

(You can get a glimpse of the Lace Society from this link using the Wayback machine that shows sites that have now gone)

The Lacemaker's Circle was the third national group for UK lacemakers.

Sadly, in the UK, we have lost both the Lacemaker's Circle and the Lace Society in the past decade.

Lace in the UK is still being taught at summer schools and residential courses, however, there are two issues with this.  Firstly, many of these courses are during the working week, making them difficult to attend for those still working and, offered in desirable country houses or conference centres, cost is still a factor.  Tutors deserve to be paid and venues need to be profitable. 

In 2020, the Women's Institute announced that their flagship Denham College was closing.  The have since launched Denman at Home to promote online learning.

Denman's ending after all these years must bring into question the long term viability of residential courses.

The lacemaking population is aging out. Many of the suppliers that we loved are either second generation or have retired and in some cases, died. Lacemaking in the UK hovers on the borders of the Red List of endangered crafts.  

I was appalled a few years back when at a meeting of influential lacemaker, who should know better, it was suggested that our new demographic should be newly retired women as they had time and money! 

The Lace Guild

The WI have moved to online learning in 2020 with Denman at Home

We must not limit ourselves to just one demographic - we have to make lacemaking accessible to everyone regardless of age or social background.

I accept students from the age of 8 upwards, but have been happy to teach young as 6 where they have an aptitude.

Lacemaking has gone through its ups and downs in the UK.  From the decline when lacemakers moved into industrial centres to make more money, the women of Bedford, who left lacemaking to plait straw for hats, the lacemakers of Devon, who petitioned Queen Victoria for help, decline through World War II and it's ups in the 1980s to downs in the late 90s, what next for lacemaking?​

The lockdowns may just have helped to bring lacemaking out of the it's doldrums this time. 

People have turned to craft as a way to express themselves and online sharing and learning has become a way for people to support each other as they develop their skills. 

In July 2020, Beginner Bobbin Lace Makers was created by one person as a peer to peer group to support lacemakers.  They support each other through regular zoom meet ups, answer questions online and help each other through messenger.

As of May 2021 this group has over 1.7k members, worldwide.  

Think about that.  1.7k members who regularly talk to each other.

Probably the saving grace for lacemaking in the UK is the fact that whilst people join the Guilds and Societies, the individual groups are not affiliated with any governing body.  The recent demise of the Embroiderers Guild and the local groups were all tied up to it shutting has taught us all a big lesson. 

Just as evening classes in the 70s and 80s opened up educational opportunities for women in the UK, online communities are opening up lacemaking to people who would not have access through traditional classes, worldwide.

I think that the next evolution of lacemaking has begun and it's happening online.