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There’s something quiet but deeply stirring about the sound of bobbins clicking gently on a pillow, the soft rhythm of threads crossing and twisting as fingers work in harmony with patterns passed down through generations. It’s a sound I’ve come to associate not only with creativity and tradition, but with resilience and a sense of place. Yet this gentle art is now officially at risk.

Recently, bobbin lacemaking was added to the Heritage Crafts Red List of Endangered Crafts in the UK.

​Lacemaking is no extinct, thankfully, but endangered – teetering on the edge. This means there are still enough people practising and passing it on, but not enough to be confident it will survive the next few decades without deliberate support.  Action is needed.

There are many causes for a craft to enter the endangered lists.  Shrinking market, move to manufacture outside of the UK, an aging workforce or a decline in the number of practitioners.

People still play cricket worldwide but the manufacture of hand stitched cricket balls is now extinct in the UK.  This is because of the rise in machine made cricket balls and non UK manufacture.

Fan making has been wobbling on the critically endangered part of the list for many years and it is has remained out of extinction partly due to lacemakers.  In the UK as well as Spain there is a tradion of lacemakers wanting to create a bobbin lace fan leaf and if you have a fan leaf, you need fan sticks.

However, lacemaking has started to face that those who began making lace in the great revival of the 1970s and 80s are now declining in number with no resurgence in the craft, we see lacemaking entering the list and that will affect fan making.

Bobbin lace is more than an historic curiosity or a nostalgic nod to the past. It is a living craft. One that has shaped communities, sustained livelihoods and created exquisite heirlooms from thread and time. In towns like Honiton and Bedford, and in smaller, less sung corners like Irthlingborough, lace was stitched into everyday life. It was work and pride and artistry.
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Bobbin lace is more than an historic curiosity or a nostalgic nod to the past. It is a living craft. One that has shaped communities, sustained livelihoods and created exquisite heirlooms from thread and time. In towns like Honiton and Bedford, and in smaller, less sung corners like Irthlingborough, lace was stitched into everyday life. It was work and pride and artistry.​

The potential loss of lacemaking is not new.  The 1800s saw a trying time for lacemakers, from the Devon lacemakers who petitioned Queen Victoria begging for her patronage to purchase their lace and prevent them from poverty, the the rise of the Luton Hat Industry pushing out other crafts in the East Midlands to the rise of Nottingham machine made lace, hand made lace has had it's ups and downs.

But today, we face a slow unravelling.

One of the greatest threats to its survival is something familiar to many heritage skills – a lack of visibility. In a world captivated by fast and flashy, the slow meditative nature of lace can be overlooked. Fewer people see it being made. Fewer still understand how complex and calming it can be. Even among craft circles, bobbin lace can seem impenetrable unless there’s someone patient and kind enough to guide new fingers through the first tentative stitches.
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Adult education once played a powerful role in this. It is four years since I wrote about this in The Lace Notes, and the situation has not improved.  The revival of lacemaking in the 1970s and 80s with it being added to the Adult Education syllabus caused a new generation to embrace the craft.
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Evening classes and local workshops were places where lacemaking quietly flourished. It was never just about technique. It was about community. About women (and occasionally men) gathering after work, sharing stories over lace pillows, helping each other finish tricky corners or repair broken threads. Those classes were lifelines for so many reasons. And now, they’ve largely vanished.

​Funding cuts, lack of space, an undervaluing of ‘non-vocational’ skills – they’ve all played a part in the decline of adult learning.  the final nail in the coffin of Adult Education Classes to learn lacemaking was the requirement in the mid 1990s that all tutors had to have formal teaching qualifications, often to be gained at the financial cost of the tutor and that all lessons had to have strict lesson plans.  Anyone who has tried to learn a craft knows that no one student learns at the same rate as another.  Two people joining a class will be a vastly different points within a few months so one lesson plan does not fit all.

All of this, in turn, leaves fewer avenues for passing lace skills to newcomers. The wonderful exceptions – dedicated lace teachers, committed guilds, enthusiastic local groups – are holding the threads together, but they need support.

It has been many years since the schools of Olney taught lacemaking in the classroom.

I accept that the focus for government funding for adult education has to be towards skills that enhance people's work prospects, especially for the longterm unemployed or returners to the job market.  I also accept that taking up a new craft such as lacemaking is not a cheap experience.

If you want to try to learn to knit, then a pair of needles and a ball of wool will set you back about the cost of a coffee.  Want to take up lacemaking?  Then that is going to cost you far, far more because you need a pillow and bobbins.  

Because, over COVID I received a large number of donations of equipment from the estates of lacemakers who had passed, I have been able to give new students complete sets of equipment to start.  Even before then, if someone wanted to try lacemaking, I would lend them the equipment for their first lessons then if they wanted to continue, I'd set them up with free plastic bobbins and try to source a reasonably priced first second hand pillow.

When I've taught, I've tried to keep the cost of a session down as low as possible.  Effectively I would cover the cost of my extra teaching insurance and nothing else.  Since we moved house, I don't have the space to teach at home and I've struggled to find a venue that it a reasonable cost.

As I work, I would be looking for running classes in the evening or at a weekend and I have found that many potential students have the same issues with availability as me, they can't attend a weekday class.

This means that to make learning accessible, we are looking at needing cost effective locations and access to equipment.  And that is before trying to source teachers because many people are wary of trying to share their knowledge.

There is also the quiet problem of ageing. Many of the most skilled lacemakers in the UK are now in their seventies or eighties. Their experience is extraordinary, but time is not on our side. with apprenticeships completely off the table, if younger learners don't step in, knowledge slips away with every lost teacher.
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Lacemaking is not financially viable as a business venture, it sits in the 'hobbies' section of crafts, relegated there because no one is willing to pay the true cost of a living wage for a piece of lace.  What hand made lace you find on the market is often from China or India and the cost to the customer does not reflect the true investment of time into the making.

Add to this that the market for handmade lace has also dwindled. Industrialisation changed things long ago, but even now, when handmade should hold premium value, the true worth of bobbin lace is often misunderstood. Its price rarely reflects the hours or expertise required.
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​We have to accept that for lacemaking to survive it has to be within the 'amateur' or hobby sector.

Now I say this with inverted commas around it as there are many lacemakers out there who produce professional level bobbin lace.  However as they do not receive payment for their work, it can not be placed in the proffessional sector.

I prefer to use the term artisan for anyone who makes lace.  I've talked before about how my sister introduced me to someone as 'a lacemaker' rather than someone who makes lace.  We have to embrace that term.  We are lacemakers.

One of the clear warnings that the Heritage Crafts Association make is over the shrinking base of crafts people, those with limited training opportunities or crafts where there is no mechanism to pass on the skills and knowledge.
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We can start by speaking about lace more often.
​Show it. Share it. Wear it.  Join the local talks circuit and get out there and talk about your lacemaking.  Become a WI speaker, local lunch club ... anything just get out there and talk.

Don't forget about International Lace Day.  Go and make lace in public.

Support local lace groups.
Help them thrive. And if there isn’t one nearby, consider starting your own, even a small group can offer encouragement, companionship and continuity. These gatherings are often where the magic happens: new lacemakers inspired, older hands supported and experience stitched into memory.

We also need to champion funding for adult learning. 
​Education is not a luxury, but as a vital part of community life. Bring back the spaces where people can try lace for the first time without having to travel miles or buy costly equipment up front. Let curiosity be enough to open the door.

The red list doesn’t mean it’s over. The patient isn't dead, just waving. 

It means we still have time. Bobbin lace may be endangered, but it is not gone.

​And like any good piece of lace, its strength lies in the connections between each part – between teacher and student, between generations, between memory and practice.
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Let’s keep thowing the bobbins.

So far, so good?

Not really, because when I learnt, cloth and whole stitch were interchangable as terms and Cloth Stich & Twist was described as Cloth Stitch & Twist or Whole Stitch and Twist.

Now, there were a number of reasons that the International System didn't take off and the main one was limitations on printing.  

During the resurgence of lacemaking in the 70s and 80s, colour printing was exceptionally expensive.  Most designers would only have a colour cover and maybe one or two colour plates in their books.  This wasn't an issue for looking at the lace patterns and finished articles because most, if not all the lace was made in the traditional white or black and the prickings were black dots.  

Around the mid 90s, dual colour because easier to do so we started to see the addition of blue into the printing of a number of books, most noticably Pamela Nottingham's later books.  This was followed by tri colour printing and we started to see red included in Geraldine Stott's and Bridget Cook's later books.

​With the opening of the EuroTunnel in 1990, it now became easy for lacemakers in the UK to take a train to Belgium and holiday in Bruges, giving access to the Kant Centrum and attend OIDFA events in Europe.

Towards the end of the 90s, access to international books was also becoming much easier in the UK due to international lace suppliers attending events like the National Lacemaker's Fair at the NEC and teaching at summer schools.

Interest in books from outside the UK grew and UK lace suppliers found it easier to obtain books from publishers such as Barbara Vey.  

It was around this time that multicoloured printing took off and we started to see the International Colour Code being used more and more in books and people started to realise that terminology isn't global.  So, the use of C and T became the international language on many of the newsgroups such as Arachne so that lacemakers could talk to each other and understand what was being discussed.

​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.​

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 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.​

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! 
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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.