Uncovering Carlisle’s Textile Revolution: Distington School

With Christmas in mind, today we all made some Christmas themed drawings.  Over the past few weeks we had learned how to weave on cardboard looms, peg looms, a four shaft loom and a heddle loom. A peg loom by Chloe  All of these taught us how the warp threads were vertical and the weft threads which we wove through the warp threads were horizontal. After finishing our drawings, we overlaid them with mesh and after choosing a coloured wool, using a needle we were able to weave in any direction we liked to add to our pictures. This taught us that there are many ways we can weave and it is good to experiment as well. Sienna joined us today and although was her first time weaving, made a lovely picture.   

We travelled from Distington today to Prism Arts and walked to Carlisle Library where we met our friends from the Creative Conversations group again. Stephen White explained what life was like to be a weaver two hundred years ago and we were able to look at maps which showed us where the mills were in Carlisle then.  We really enjoyed reading the old newspapers - The Carlisle Patriot and saw some very old manuscripts that had been written on animal skin.  It was very exciting to be able to have a good look at these and be able to touch them. We then walked back to Prism Arts, where some from Creative Conversations joined us for lunch. After saying goodbye we left on our coach to travel back to School after a great day.

Our school today, 6th November was all decorated with fabulous art, before we held a remembrance party in the afternoon for the community to celebrate 100 years since the end of the first world war. Staff and children had worked really hard to decorate the school and prepare and were dressed - as nurses, soldiers, pilots and looked fabulous! In the morning we did some peg loom weaving for the first time.  Anesha joined us today and tried weaving for the first time and did really well. Our inspiration was the poppy fields and soldiers and we chose colours to reflect this.

On the 30th October, we travelled to Carlisle and met the participants from the Creative Conversations group at Prism Arts again. Laura from Laura's Looms, who runs a small business at Farfield Mill came to tell us about her business and to teach us how to weave. She gave us all a cardboard loom and showed us how to weave with different coloured yarns. It was tricky as we had not used a cardboard loom before, especially when we got to the end of a row and had to remember to loop the yarn over and making sure for example we went over the warp if we had gone under before!   Confusing, but we managed just great and made some lovely weaves and helped each other when we found it difficult. Laura had brought a four shaft loom and a heddle loom and after showing us how these worked, we all got the chance to try them out. It was lovely to meet everyone and spend time learning to weave in so many ways and after having lunch, we left to go back to school.  

Conditions failed to improve and although the Reform Act of 1832 gave more people the right to vote, ordinary workers had no way of making their voices heard.  Wages were being cut throughout the country and the workers gathered together (The Chartists) to demand a People's Charter - to provide for fair treatment of the workers. Nearly 200 years ago, we talked about how we could let people know we were unhappy with the way we were being treated. There was no television, no radio, no internet and no social media.  We would need to put our feelings and demands onto a poster. After taking strips of paper, which we wove together and decorated, we used our drawings and big writing to make striking posters to let people know how we felt about our poor conditions. This taught us how to weave - that vertical pieces are called the warp and horizontal pieces are the weft. We learned how the weft goes over and under the warp to form the weave. 

Two mill workers and mill owner's wife Mill workers In October, we learned about what life was like as a Carlisle weaver in the 1800s.  One in four people were employed in the weaving industry and a third of them were children.  Stephen White a historian from Carlisle Library told us that children from seven years old worked in the local mills. They were cheap to employ and as they were small, were sent under the machines, whilst they were still running, to clean, tie yarn and make repairs.  It was hard dangerous work for all in noisy, dusty conditions.  Only wealthy children went regularly to school (not made compulsory until 1880 for 5 - 12 year olds).  Charity schools and Sunday schools taught children how to read, knit and sew however. As the cotton industry grew, workers flooded into Carlisle, most were agricultural workers.  Living conditions were cramped, close to the Mills.  There were ten thousand, mostly in the Caldewgate area. We learned about t