The Lace Factory

Some 80 metres metres further along the street will bring you to the former Lace Factory, the next Point of Interest.

The building of the Lace Factory is the last example of a commercial attempt locally to keep the lace industry viable, in spite of the changing economic climate and the vagaries of fashion. The earlier buildings on this site were destroyed by fire in 1924.

The factory was built in 1928 by a slightly eccentric character, one Harry Armstrong, who hailed from Stoke Goldington. He employed George Knight to build him ‘something the like of which Olney had not seen before’. Builder George had to talk him out of Corinthian columns and other fanciful designs.

The photograph shows the ‘topping out’ ceremony on the top of the factory building; which doubtless would not meet today’s Health and Safety Requirements!

Being the time of the Great Depression, the building was constructed mostly with second hand materials. The only work with new materials was the façade over the front door, which included three huge carvings of a bobbin winder, candle-stool and a bobbin stand.

The next photograph is of the finished building, adorned with the heavy façade, which was later removed for safety reasons.

Lace was never made in the Lace Factory. It was used as offices and a warehouse, where lace was sewn onto garments or any article that Harry thought could be adorned with lace! It was then packed into parcels which were sent out worldwide.

The lace was made by women in their homes and brought into the Lace Factory for sale, or was collected by agents in local villages. The lace makers had to buy the thread for the next week’s work out of their earnings.

The lace maker in the photograph is of Mrs Mary Wooding, taken around 1930. She could be categorised as a typical Olney lace maker and lived in Osborn Court. As this court was accessed via an entry adjacent to Number 51 High Street, opposite the Lace Factory, she may well have sold her lace to Harry Armstrong.

Harry advertised his business in women’s magazines, and by sending out postcards touting for business from individual women or women’s groups. A response would result in the dispatch of a parcel of lace ‘on approval’. Prospective purchasers were given a month to pay up or return the goods. The late Cis Elderton who worked in the office for him said they lost very few parcels. “People were honest in those days” she said.

The photograph of the girls employed at the factory was taken in July 1931, and includes the late Cis Elderton (the fifth lady from the left).

Harry was quite a character as he traded as ‘Mrs Armstrong’, believing women were more likely to buy lace from another woman! Sadly, he died at the early age of 56 while on a business trip to Scotland in 1943.

Thereafter lace making in Olney, as a business, was carried on only by a few older women who made lace for gifts.

Lace making enjoyed a revival in Olney in the 1970s. But by this time, the once traditional cottage industry had become a leisure time craft.

The Church is situated next to the Carlton House Club and set back a little from the High Street. (see photograph above)

In 1762 the Independent Chapel was built on the site. (See image above.) Just above the door is an oval tablet to Ebenezer Abraham, the clockmaker. At that time there were several clockmaking businesses in the town of which Ebenezer Abraham was probably the best known.

This chapel was taken down in 1879, and was replaced in 1880 by a much improved and attractive building. At the same time the opportunity presented itself of securing a frontage to the High Street by purchasing the cottage that blocked the earlier chapel (see its rear yard on the photograph of the original chapel). The remains of the cottage are clearly visible on the house wall next door (Number 44 - above Millward’s Entry).

The new chapel was renamed as the Cowper Memorial Congregational Church. It is now known as the Cowper Memorial United Reformed Church. The splender of the 1897 church is shown in a photograph above.

A relatively recent local historian recorded that ‘it seems extraordinary that despite of all the widespread poverty in Olney for so many years, the chapels of the Independents were constantly improved'.

In more recent times even when this Church was gutted by fire in the 1960s, it was quickly restored and in use again as shown in the image above.

Continue to the next Point of Interest (4 ) by walking about another 100 metres along the street to Nos. 67 & 69 Orchard House; the next Point of Interest .

In passing it is worth noting that you can clearly see the Lace Factory on your right. (See photograph above.) The Lace Factory is a major Point of Interest in a sister trail - A Lace Trail around Olney. In short, lace which which had been collected from the town and surrounding villages was packed and dispatched all around the world. Lace itself was never made in this building.