Lace making in Olney

I drove over to Olney today for my family xmas meal. I know it's early, but there are 4 generations there so we get in early as people have so many different events to attend. It was really lovely to catch up with everyone. I arrived early and met my great friend M for tea and cake which was soooo nice.

On the way back to the car I saw the late afternoon sun catching the top of my favourite building in the town, with Bucks Lace Industry on the side. This is some history from the Lace Making in Olney website:

'It was the Flemish Protestants who brought lace making to England during the 1560's. Many of these immigrants were lace makers and as they moved out of the overcrowded ports they began to settle into areas now regarded as the historic centres for the craft of lace making. In the county of Buckinghamshire these immigrants settled in Newport Pagnell, Buckingham and Olney.

Lace makers themselves were known to work in horrendous conditions. John Newton, during his 15 year ministry in Olney was well aware of the plight of the Olney lace maker. His friend William Cowper was also sympathetic and was known as the 'lace maker's poet'. In 1780 he wrote: 'I am an eyewitness of their poverty and do know that hundreds of this little town are upon the point of starving and that the most unremitting industry is but barely sufficient to keep them from it. There are nearly one thousand and two hundred lace makers in this beggarly town'.