Clothworker 10

Clothworker Winter 2013 • No 10

The

www.clothworkers.co.uk

Welcome

The Master

Cover photo: The Clothworkers’ Centre for the Study and Conservation of Textiles and Fashion, Victoria and Albert Museum

I do hope that you all had a wonderful festive season.

I have been very busy so far in my year as Master and you may have read about some of my activities on my blog, including my participation in the Sleep Out event in November, fundraising for Centrepoint. I spent a cold and uncomfortable night to highlight the plight of the homeless. I was very pleased to have raised £2,800 in sponsorship for the charity, more than doubling my target.

Many thanks to all those who donated.

Lord Mayor’s Show In the same week, I was privileged to ride in the britska, a half-open four wheel carriage, in the Lord Mayor’s Show.

As a part of the Lord Mayor’s installation, I presented fellow Clothworker and Aldermanic Sheriff Sir Paul Judge with our gift of a replica Burton Tankard at the Presentation of Addresses Ceremony.

V&A In October I was delighted to attend the opening of the Clothworkers’ Centre for the Study and Conservation of Textiles and Fashion at Blythe House, Olympia, part of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The aim of the Centre is to provide the best possible access for students and researchers to the Museum’s outstanding collection of textiles and fashion in a relaxed environment. We are a long-standing funder of the V&A and this development has been 2 | THE CLOTHWORKER | Winter 2013

made possible by our £1m lead grant. You can find out more about the new Centre on page 4.

The Master’s blog Those of you who would like to read more about some of my activities as Master can visit my blog which is at www.masterclothworkerblog. wordpress.com or is accessible via the Members’ Area of the website.

Social events We have had good turnouts for very enjoyable dinners in October and December, and I have a full diary in the coming months including the Civic Dinner and the United Guilds Service. You’ll find an article about the history of the Service on page 5.

Trusteeship Trusteeship constitutes the Company’s common purpose.

Accordingly, I am very keen that as many Liverymen as possible get involved in pro bono work by becoming a trustee of a charity, school governor or the like. Antony Jones tells us about his experience as a trustee for Azafady on the page opposite. Please take a look at the Trusteeship page in the Members’ Area of the website to read about the benefits and what’s involved in becoming a trustee, plus any current opportunities.

I wish you all the very best for 2014 and am looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible at forthcoming occasions.

Christopher G McLean May Master

Trusteeship

My experience of trusteeship Antony Jones, Assistant What do you know about Madagascar beyond lemurs?

Probably not much; like me a few years ago when, through a friend of my son, I was asked if I would give some time in retirement to a small London-based charity which aims to eradicate poverty, suffering and environmental damage on that mystical island in the Indian Ocean. High aims and a daunting challenge for anyone, but aims that are slowly but surely being met by Azafady.

Madagascar So, Madagascar, a place of extreme contrasts: Fourth-largest island on Earth, but one of its least developed countries; part of Africa but over 225 miles from the mainland coastline; 21 million inhabitants, but 92% of them living on less than £1.25 a day; 5% of Earth's plant and animal species, but only 10% of its forests left. 80% of the species found in Madagascar are found nowhere else on the planet and many are listed as endangered.

Azafady After a time getting to know the people at Azafady I was invited to join the trustees. All of them had developed a lifelong commitment to Madagascar while visiting there,

mostly as young volunteers. Their contributions to Azafady are impressive and are critical to its wellbeing with backgrounds from medicine and accountancy, to web design and employment.

My contribution What could I bring to the table? As it turns out, a lifetime of experience in governance and good practice from a legal, compliance, ethics and risk management perspective gained while working in industry

and commerce. As Azafady has grown from a small charity with a focus on cash to an organisation which is trusted with large sums, we have had to develop smarter accounting and management reporting.

Remote meetings I helped update our constitution to enable us to use modern technology to our advantage. “Meetings” are often attended remotely by trustees in Wales, South Africa and Philadelphia. Email and Skype are a way of life.

Documents in the cloud are accessible to all

trustees. All trustees (even me) are Facebook Friends with Azafady which has become an accepted way of keeping up to date with events in Madagascar.

A key responsibility for us is to ensure a proper balance between funders on one side and our independently-established local NGO partner on the other. This is staffed mostly with Malagasy

professionals carrying out projects on the ground alongside a handful of international volunteers.

Volunteering Project funding may come and go (unfortunately we do not qualify for a Clothworker grant!), so the core organisation depends on individuals volunteering and donating. I cannot finish without mentioning Reza and Steven who recently completed cycling 11,000 miles in 100 days from Nordkapp in the Arctic Circle to Cape town, raising over £20,000 for a schools project. This is the kind of passion that is typical when you get involved with Azafady. I have certainly got a lot out of being a trustee, and would heartily recommend it to fellow Clothworkers. www.azafady.org Winter 2013 | THE CLOTHWORKER | 3

Textiles

The Clothworkers’ Centre The Victoria and Albert Museum's textiles and fashion collection is among the finest and most comprehensive of its kind in the world, and is used by thousands of researchers, students and enthusiasts every year.

Photos: The Clothworkers’ Centre for the Study and Conservation of Textiles and Fashion @ Victoria and Albert Museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum's textiles and fashion collection is among the finest and most comprehensive of its kind in the world, and is used by thousands of researchers, students and enthusiasts every year.

Clothworkers’ Centre for the Study and Conservation of Textiles and Fashion is a new £3m research resource designed to improve access to this extensive collection by offering better facilities for its study, care and appreciation.

Collections The Centre houses over 104,000 objects ranging from small Egyptian archaeological textile fragments to enormous tapestries created for mediaeval European palaces; and from creations by contemporary designers to hoop petticoats from the 1740s.

The new Centre is located at Blythe House in Kensington Olympia; the building was originally the headquarters of the Post Office Savings Bank. The Museum's Director, Martin Roth,

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and the Master spoke at the opening reception in October which was attended by many of the leading lights from the world of fashion and textiles.

Facilities The Centre comprises a public study room, a seminar room and conservation studios for the collections overall, as well as extensive custom-built storage to ensure the long term preservation of the objects.

The storage includes 1,280 large rolled textiles of up to six metres in length; 500 linear metres of storage for hanging garments; and 7,000 drawers in different sizes to house everything from dress fabrics to religious robes, handbags to walking sticks, and embroidery to underwear.

The Clothworkers' Centre forms part of the V&A's Future Plan development and has allowed the Museum to free up space at South

Kensington for use as public galleries which was previously used as storage.

It took over two and a half years to pack up the archives and 18 months to install them at Blythe House.

Funding The development is being made possible by a £1m lead grant from The Clothworkers' Foundation, and support from many other donors.

We are a long-standing funder of the V&A, having made grants for equipment in the Textile Galleries and conservation of textiles in the New British Galleries. More recently, we have funded internships at the Museum in the conservation of upholstery and miniatures.

The objects are now much more accessible, an important deliverable as the volume of requests to view items from the textile and fashion collection is the second highest at the Museum.

Civic City

United Guilds Service

The Bishop of London, the Rt Rev’d Dr Fisher, gave the first address to a Cathedral packed with Liverymen, Aldermen and the Lord Mayor, Sir Samuel George Joseph. Afterwards, Sir Samuel hosted an ‘austerity luncheon’ for the Companies’ Masters and Prime Wardens.

An annual celebration In a speech to the congregation the Lord Mayor suggested the service be held annually, celebrating the opportunity for Livery Companies to ‘approach God with one voice of united prayer’. The Master Mercer replied, emphasising the problems facing the Companies, many of whom, including the Clothworkers, had lost their Halls in the Blitz.

Despite these struggles however, he declared the Companies could be relied upon to do everything possible to repair the City.

Seventy years later and the United

Guilds Service is a firm feature of the Livery Year.

It still fills St Paul’s Cathedral to capacity and is the only event where all of the Livery Companies and Guilds attend gowned and badged with their Masters, Prime Wardens and Wardens, together with the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, Aldermen and other City dignitaries.

Oxygenating plants At the 2012 service, the Bishop of London, the Rt Rev’d Richard Chartres, delivering the sermon described Livery Companies as being like ‘platinum, dense and precious, but malleable and resistant to corrosion even at high temperatures’. Looking around the congregation, he commented that

they were also clearly ‘never knowingly underdressed’! The Companies act as ‘oxygenating plants, helping those less fortunate to flourish through philanthropy, conviviality and common standards of decency and morality.’

City spectacle The service is a spectacle accurately described as ‘one of the grandest occasions in the City’, and one which Liverymen have an opportunity to attend. The Master processes with the other dignitaries to wonderful singing by the Cathedral Choir, which includes the Clothworker chorister.

© Graham Lacdao

The first United Guilds Service was held in St Paul’s Cathedral on Lady Day, 25 March 1943. Born out of a meeting of Masters and Clerks of the Great Twelve, the service was held to bring London’s Livery Companies together with a shared resolve to rebuild blitz-damaged London. It was seen as an act of spirited defiance and an occasion to raise alms

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Notable Clothworkers

George Peabody Self-made millionaire and father of modern philanthropy

Inquisitive and astute, Peabody travelled widely in search of business opportunities and after several visits to London, decided in 1837 to reside there permanently.

In 1843 he withdrew from his US business and established George Peabody and Company, which quickly became a successful merchant bank – from which Morgan Grenfell, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan originate. Peabody

chose JP Morgan to take over because he had no wife or family of his own and wanted to keep his own name for his benefactions.

“The founder of modern philanthropy” Keen to invest his wealth in improving the city of which he had become so fond, Peabody directed the same investigative skills that had made his fortune into researching how he could make a difference to the lives of London’s poor. His initial ideas included building a system of water fountains to provide free drinking water, and the provision of charitable ‘ragged’ schools, but he eventually settled upon a model dwellings company. The Peabody Donation Fund was launched with

Peabody Buildings 1863 6 | THE CLOTHWORKER | Winter 2013

© Bridgeman Art Library

The grocer’s apprentice George Peabody was born in 1795 to poor Puritan parents living in Danvers, Massachusetts. Unable to afford more than a very basic education for their son, George was apprenticed to a local grocer aged eleven. Just eight years later he became a partner in a dry goods warehouse in Georgetown and through hard work and initiative, vastly expanded the business, amassing a personal fortune as he did so.

an initial gift of £150,000 and its aims, in his own words, were to “ameliorate the condition of the poor and needy of this great metropolis, and to promote their comfort and happiness”. The Times announced the scheme with grandeur: “We have today to announce an act of beneficence unexampled in its largeness and in the time and manner of the gift.”

“Washing must be done in the laundry” Peabody’s model houses were designed for the benefit of that resoundingly Victorian category of person, ‘the deserving poor’.

Prospective residents were interviewed before they could move into a property and had to be employed, morally sound and community spirited. If successful

Notable Clothworkers

Funeral at Westminster Abbey, 1869

in their application, strict rules had to be adhered to: No application for rooms will be entertained unless every member of the applicant’s family has been vaccinated ... and [the applicant] further agrees to have every case of infectious disease removed to the proper hospital ... the passages, steps, closets and lavatory windows must be washed every Saturday and swept every morning before 10 o’clock. This must be done by the tenants in turn. Washing must only be done in the laundry ... Tenants are required to report to the superintendent any births, deaths or infectious disease occurring in their rooms. Any tenant not complying with this rule will receive notice to quit.’

Whilst it seems authoritarian, even patronising, to exert such control over tenants, Peabody’s ‘model housing’ was undoubtedly a far cry from the conditions working class Londoners endured in the overcrowded, unsanitary, ‘semi-criminal’ rookeries of London. Applications swamped the Fund and Peabody became famous and well loved for his generosity.

By the time of his death in 1869 he had contributed £500,000 to his housing scheme.

Honorary Clothworker The regard with which Peabody was held was recognised in a number of ways, not least by The Clothworkers’ Company. The Honorary Freedom and Livery of the Company was bestowed on Peabody on 2 July 1862, ‘in recognition of his munificent £150,000 to be applied for the general benefit and advantage of the Poor in London.’

Through the Company, he became the first American to receive the Freedom of the City of London.

Five years later, in 1867, the Clothworkers contributed 25 guineas for erecting a public statue of George Peabody in London, a rare honour for a living person.

It was unveiled by the Prince of Wales, himself a Clothworker and the future King Edward VII. The statue may still be seen behind the Royal Exchange.

“An air of earnest sympathy” Peabody passed away shortly after in July 1869. Upon the orders of Queen Victoria, his body lay in Westminster Abbey for a month, before being taken by a British warship to be buried in his home town, Danvers.

Undoubtedly an astute business man, it is Peabody’s generosity as a benefactor for which he is remembered.

‘Peabody Buildings’ are a familiar sight to every Londoner, and George’s legacy, the charity ‘Peabody’, is an urban regeneration agency and housing association still housing tens of thousands in London today.

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Foundation

The Shannon Trust Prisoners and ex-offenders has featured as one of the nine Foundation programme areas since 2012. To date, 21 grants totalling more than £240,000 have been awarded to organisations and projects working in this area, including our £50,000 grant to the Shannon Trust in May 2013.

Shannon Trust was started in 1997

by Christopher Morgan following publication of his book containing letters between him and Tom Shannon, a life sentence prisoner.

Shocked to learn of the poor literacy levels amongst the prison population, Morgan donated the royalties from the book to setting up peer mentoring reading schemes in prisons.

Poor literacy levels For most of us, reading is a skill we take for granted. Yet for thousands of people in prison, reading a letter from home, a job application or a newspaper is simply beyond them.

It is estimated that almost half the prison population has a reading age at, or below, that of an 11 year old; literacy skills are so low that on release these now ex-prisoners are precluded from applying for more than 90 percent of jobs, reducing their chances of successful rehabilitation.

The Shannon Trust seeks to transform prisoners’ lives by inspiring those who can read to teach those who cannot; it believes that learning to read is the key to unlocking a

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number of life skills, and it aims to engage with non-reading prisoners early on in their sentence. Its first ‘prisoners-teaching-prisoners’ to read programme started in Wandsworth prison in 2001. An immediate success, the scheme was running in 30 prisons within 18 months; today it runs in 150 prisons and at least 10,000 prisoners have learnt to read through the programme.

Transforming lives The Trust wished to commission a new reading manual. This could replace the existing one – developed more than 20 years ago for children with reading difficulties – with an aid written specifically for use in prisons which would better meet the needs of adults with reading difficulties.

Reading plan Having awarded £50,000 towards the £177,000 cost of producing the new reading materials, we were delighted to hear the announcement last September from Prisons’

Minister, Jeremy Wright, that the National Offender Management Agency (NOMS, an Executive Agency of the Ministry of Justice) would work with the Shannon Trust to ensure that the Reading Plan would be rolled out across every public prison in England and Wales.

What this means, in effect, is that, having depended to date essentially on the goodwill of individual prison governors and officers, the Shannon Trust programme will now become a core activity in every public prison.

David Ahern, Chief Executive of Shannon Trust, says this will give the Trust unprecedented access to a huge number of prisoners who cannot read: “Thousands of literate prisoners would like to use their time in prison positively by teaching other prisoners to read. Working with NOMS gives us the ability to release this potential and make a radical difference to literacy levels across all prisons”.

Foundation

Fine Cell Work Fine Cell Work is a social enterprise which trains prisoners in paid, skilled, creative needlework. The charity works in prisons across the UK, using trained volunteers to teach the skills and providing the necessary materials.

Embroidered Ottoman cushion

Stitching in prison Convicted prisoners spend an average of 17 hours each day locked in their cells, which can often lead to behavioural problems. The ability to learn basic stitching, appliqué and embroidery can have a huge therapeutic benefit, and prisoners work collaboratively on commissions and receive a proportion of the sale proceeds.

Over 400 inmates in 26 prisons are involved in this activity which for many is a path to rehabilitation, a craft, a solace and a refuge.

Clothworkers’ support The Clothworkers have supported Fine Cell Work since 2000, including hosting a sale evening at the Hall. In 2012, we met with the charity to explore how we might support them in continuing to work with prisoners once they leave custody to gain training and employment.

Accordingly, we have made a grant of £40,000 for the charity to work with the Langley House Trust (who provide supported accommodation to ex-offenders) on developing a training and work centre in Croydon to allow Fine Cell Work

graduates to secure a City & Guilds qualification and access other forms of support and training.

The project is at an early stage but has the potential to allow exoffenders to build on the skills they have acquired in prison and earn a living following release.

Cushion for Kings Chair in Dover Castle

Cockerel cushion in crewel work

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Archives

© Bridgeman Art Library

Women in The Clothworkers’ Company, 1606-1800 It’s a commonly held conviction that, historically speaking, a Livery Company was no place for a woman.

The Clothworkers’ archivist, Jessica Collins, has disproved this in her article: Jane Holt, Milliner, and Other Women in Business: Apprentices, Freewomen and Mistresses in The Clothworkers’ Company, 1606-1800.

“A most genteel business...”

Using the Clothworker-funded website ROLLCO (Records of London Livery Companies Online), Jessica has uncovered women throughout the Company’s history.

At apprentice level, ROLLCO reveals 144 girls apprenticed to Clothworkers between 1606 and 1908, most of these entering the textile industry and millinery in particular.

Millinery was a predominantly female craft which some contemporaries claimed went hand-in-hand with prostitution, but upon closer inspection it was one of the most respectable occupations open to women. An eighteenthcentury parents’ guide describes millinery as:

... a considerable trade in the shopkeeping way, carried on by women who buy all sorts of fine linens and laces...it is a most genteel business for young maidens that are good proficients at their needles, especially if they be naturally neat …

focused, in part, upon needy members. Pensions and places in almshouses were available to poor Freemen in times of illness, hardship or widowhood. Freedom was insurance for when times got hard.

Were there Female Freewomen too?

Only 8% of female apprentices were made Free upon completing their apprenticeships, compared with 39% of men. Why?

Did women take their own apprentices?

Mistresses are named in 944 apprenticeship and 451 Freedom records between 1606 and 1799.

Many more women would take apprentices under their husband’s name, or complete an apprenticeship after his death.

In comparison with the tens of thousands of men named on ROLLCO, the numbers of women are undeniably small, but they are far from insignificant. ROLLCO proves women were engaged in business activities within the Company during the 17th and 18th centuries and at every stage: as apprentices, Freewomen and Mistresses. Some, such as Jane Holt, even served the City’s wealthiest.

For girls from poorer families, an apprenticeship may have served instead of a dowry. Proficiency in a trade made for a more desirable, useful wife. Here then, marriage was the ultimate goal for a woman and Freedom was unnecessary.

However in the days before government support, financial stability was a huge concern.

Freedom gave the right to trade, offering women independence if a marriage was cut short, or indeed never embarked upon. Perhaps those 8% were thinking ahead.

Furthermore, the Clothworkers’ charitable traditions Bill for Jane Cox Milliners’ and ChildBed Warehouse

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‘Everything in the millinery and childbed way…’

Jane Holt, daughter of John, deceased, was apprenticed in 1745 to Elizabeth Hutt, a milliner operating near St Paul’s Churchyard. Nine years later she became Free of The Clothworkers’ Company.

Jane trained six apprentices and

Carolyn Boulter, High Sheriff of the Royal County of Berkshire 2008-09, by June Mendoza

was described as ‘milliner’ in the records of each binding. At the final two ‘femme sole’ was also written beside her name. Jane is the only known woman in the Company’s records to receive this title and the reason behind it appears to be the man who bankrupted her.

Jane had been operating as a milliner for eight years before marrying John Cox, a hatter. Whilst single she had become proprietor of a shop in Lombard Street, supplying ‘everything in the millinery and childbed way.’

A principal thoroughfare in the City, shops here were smart, with glass windows displaying swiftchanging fashions to passing merchants, goldsmiths and bankers.

A husband’s rights...

To afford premises on Lombard Street, Jane’s business must have been profitable. But a year into marriage John was bankrupt, and shortly afterwards Jane followed suit – we could speculate that she did so to raise funds for her husband.

Assignees for John Cox’s creditors seized five fans from Jane’s shop in recovery of her husband’s debts, but Jane’s creditors protested,

petitioning the Lord Chancellor for his intervention.

The stock, they argued, was Jane’s alone and as her creditors, they had the sole right of recovery.

Furthermore, Jane had for many years prior to her marriage traded as a femme sole by virtue of her Freedom of The Clothworkers’ Company. Her creditors and tradesmen continued to consider her a femme sole trader. Her husband, they claimed, had never been involved: ‘John Cox seldom if ever came or was seen to come to the House or Shop of the said Jane Cox except at meal times or ... to go to bed’.

The defence replied that a husband’s rights took precedence over his wife’s and as such, Jane Cox’s stock was part of John Cox’s estate. However, Lord Mansfield found in Jane’s favour, a commission of bankruptcy was allowed to stand against her and the fans were recovered.

Despite a protracted legal case, Jane managed to re-establish her business and is explicitly referred to as a femme sole from this point on. Her case has frequently been cited in case law over married women’s property rights.

In 1781 Jane married her second husband, William Hales, a gentleman and probably himself a Clothworker. Upon William’s death in 1803 Jane received

The first fourteen Liverywomen, by June Mendoza

an annual income for life.

Thereafter, her story is lost to history...

A woman’s place Whilst there was a place for women in the Clothworkers, it was far from an equal one.

Women could be apprenticed, made Free and themselves take on apprentices, but they could not enjoy Livery dinners, social events or achieve positions of office – least of all become Master.

However, Jane is an example of the women who were involved in every part of Company life available to them. Jane ran a successful business – the Company was even one of her clients – and importantly, she was far from alone.

Today Women are of course involved in all aspects of the Company today.

The first female Liverymen were elected in 1994, an event commemorated by June Mendoza’s painting; the Court now has its first female member, Carolyn Boulter; and soon, undoubtedly, we will see our first female Master.

This information has been taken from ROLLCO. Visit www.londonroll.co.uk to find out more.

Jessica Collins’ full article was published in The Textile History Journal, Vol. 44, May 2013

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The Clothworker | Design by Chris Monk | Printing by Trident Printing | www.tridentprinting.co.uk

Social Events

All event invitations are being sent by email so please ensure we have your current email address. Please send it to events@clothworkers.co.uk

Photos from recent events are available for download free of charge in the Members’ Area of the website on the Past Events page.

Staff

Heather Rawlins

Following Alan Reed’s retirement, Heather Rawlins has joined us as Steward. Heather has over 20 years’ experience within the hospitality and catering industry in London.

We have two new members of staff in the Grants department. Laura Street has replaced Laura Parrott as Grants Assistant and Siobhain Flynn has joined us as Grants Officer, replacing Nicola Birch.

Laura Street, left, and Siobhain Flynn

Dates for Your Diary

Royal Geographical Society Lectures All lectures take place at Clothworkers’ Hall.

Young Livery Supper Wednesday 26 February

United Guilds Service Friday 4 April

Will the shale gale prevail?

Professor Michael Bradshaw Tuesday 28 January at 7.00pm

Masters and Clerks Dinner Tuesday 11 March

Civic Dinner Thursday 10 April

Future oceans: a sea of hope or despair?

Professor Callum Roberts Tuesday 18 February at 7.00pm

Charities Lunch Wednesday 26 March

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In deep water Mark de Rond Tuesday 25 March at 7.00pm