190 STRAW-PLAITING—A LOST ESSEX INDUSTRY.
The next operation is the removal of the projecting splint
ends (Fig. 6a) by the use of scissors or shears, and then the
mill or the roller is again requisitioned and the plait is passed
through or under till sufficiently flat.5
But even when passed through the mill the plait is not
finished, for it retains the yellow brown tint of nature's painting.
This has to be removed by bleaching, a process formerly carried
out by the plaiters, but now done by the factors. The old plan
was simple, just a wooden box, a foot or two long and
proportionately broad, with a few bars inside, half way up its
height, on which the plait was laid, while underneath was placed
a pan of live charcoal, or glowing embers, on which a few pinches
of brimstone were cast. The door or lid being shut, the box
was covered with old clothes or carpet to keep in the fumes, and
in a couple of hours the plait was removed white and ready for
market. (Fig. 6b.)
FIG. 5.—HAND ROLLER FOR FLATTENING THE STRAW.
As a collection of gaudy-coloured plaits is exhibited, I must
explain that the villagers of Offley occasionally make up this
material for the Luton trade. I am told that the factor's agent
brings a pattern book of designs to some clever worker, who
makes up plaits til! the result is satisfactory to the agent. She
then proceeds to instruct the other villagers, and the plait is in a
few days ready for the factor who has provided the material.
But as part of the material used is a foreign fibre, the subject is
perhaps outside the scope of this paper.
Returning to the old Essex straw-plaiting, those of us who
have seen women and children at their cottage doors on a fine
summer day, busily plaiting straw, cannot but feel some sadness
that this homely industry should have been killed by the
5 But fashion having occasionally decreed that a lady's hat should be decorated by
having slightly projecting ridges on its surface, it became necessary to produce what is
called a whip-cord edge to the plait. Therefore, the upper roller of some mills is made
with a little rebate on one end. The whip-cord edge of the plait projecting over this rebate,
or groove, would not be crushed flat as the rest.