Braintree Museum

The Silk Room

Warp Yarn Winding

Hand Vat Dyeing

Vat Dyeing

Card Cutting

Power Loom

Hand Loom

Fabric Inspection

Warp Yarn Winding

The warp is the name given to the threads that run the length of the fabric. This is a winding frame where the silk is transferred from hank to wooden bobbins. The operator puts the hanks onto special circular frames known as swifts, winds the yard round the bobbin, before placing it on the frame where a friction drive turns it.

Weft Yarn Winding

The weft is the yarn the goes from side to side of the fabric. This winding frame operates in the same way as the one used for warp yarn but the yarn is wound on hard conical cardboard containers known as cones. In both types of winding the operator would look after two sides of the frames. It was a job that didn’t allow for a lot of sitting about.

Warping

Here the wooden bobbins have been grouped together onto a purpose built frame know as a creel. This method of warping built up the yarn in sections onto a large open drum winding the length required. Once the width needed was achieved the yarn was unwound onto a large metal roller called a beam which went into the back of the loom.

Pirn Winding

These machines wound the weft yarn onto pirns. Which are special long thin bobbins inserted into the shuttles during the weaving process. Before these machines were used, initially for the power looms, the pirns, for the hand looms were wound by hand using a piece of equipment that looked very similar to a spinning wheel.

Hand Vat Dyeing

When smaller amounts of yarn were needed the silk was dyed by hand in an open vat. The dyers moved the hanks from side to side through the liquor to ensure an even coverage.

Vat Dyeing

Here are hanks of yarn being removed from a vat dyeing machine which has a pump to circulate the dye liquor. This method enabled the company to process large quantities of yarn. Initially the hanks were wrung out by hand before then being placed in a purpose build spin dryer and going on for further processing.

Card Cutting

Designs that were to be woven on jacquard looms were first of all drawn onto a special type of graph paper creating what was known as a draft. We are now looking at a piano card cutting machine where the operators follows the draft and cuts holes wherever a small square has been painted. The tiny squares were in multiples of eights which matched the number of fingers. Once the cards had been cut they were laced together to create a continuous pack which was taken to the loom.

Power Loom

Here we can see the cards as a complete pack going through the jacquard machine on top of the loom. The jacquard controls how the harness, the threads going up and down in the centre of the loom, is lifted. This is how the actual pattern in the cloth is created. Power looms were driven by individual electric motors which not only powered the shuttles from side to side, but also operated the method of lifting the warp threads.

Hand Loom

Here is one of the hand loom weavers, Bob Mears. Bob’s father worked for Warner’s in the factory at Holly Bush Gardens in Bethnal Green and Bob always said that his dad had walked to Braintree since he couldn’t afford the train fair. Bob was full of tall stories and we shall now never know if that was true.

His right hand flicks the shuttle side to side, whilst his left controls the baton and beats up the weft, thus creating the fabric. All the while his right leg is pushing the treadle up and down operating the jacquard on top of the loom lifting the warp thread to create the pattern. This technique is rather like rubbing your tummy whilst patting your head.

As well as weaving figured fabrics, as we see here, Bob could also make hand cut silk velvet which was incredibly skilful and difficult.

The hand looms at Warner’s dated from the early 19h century and whilst some were brought from London many were inherited from Daniel Walters who started his business in 1822 at Pound End Mill in South Street, building New Mills across the road in the late 1850s. Sadly the company went into liquidation in the 1890s when it was bought by Benjamin Warner.

Fabric Inspection

All fabrics, whether power or handwoven, were inspected and mended before shipping to customers. The examiner has a special tool with which she can remove small knots from the surface of the fabric. Every roll was checked in detail so that any faults could be rectified is possible or marked on the edge of the fabric if not. The textiles woven at the mill were of a very high value and therefore every effort was made to ship fabric that was as perfect as it possibly could be.