Eliza Ann

On Wednesday, whilst at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, I caught by chance an exhibition of Scottish samplers – Embroidered Stories. The samplers are part of an extensive collection belonging to Leslie B. Durst. As well as collecting the samplers, Leslie researched the girls who stitched the samplers and found they led to some fascinating social history of lives in the 18th and 19th centuries. The book related to the exhibition, which of course I bought, is a lovely one and I am enjoying looking at the samplers again and reading the stories behind them. 

It reminded me of a sampler made by my great, great grandmother Eliza Ann Hoyle in 1850. Sadly I do not have the actual work, as she married twice and it is in the possession of the second family. However, a number of years ago I was contacted by a descendent of the second family and he sent me this scanned image of the sampler, which was very kind of him. 

Eliza Ann sewed the sampler in 1850 when she was 13 years old and attending Austonley School. Her father was a handloom weaver and the family lived in Austonley, not far from Holmfirth in West Yorkshire. A few years ago we visited the area and found the house with the row of windows upstairs indicating that it was a weaving workshop and the family lived downstairs. There were even the marks where steps had been so local weavers could get to the workshop without disturbing the family. 

In 1851 Eliza’s father was a weaver, as were her older brothers and sisters. They were some of the last of the cottage industry weavers, as at the same time Mills were being built down in the valley. In fact by 1861 the family had moved down to Hinchcliffe Mill, they lived close to a Mill and were now power loom weavers. Fascinating how much social history is revealed by the lives of just one family. I suppose that's the reason I have done so much family research over the years. 

Apologies - yesterday the fairy door was on the left in front the tree - it was hard to spot unless you were looking on a computer screen, which I was!