Page 66 - Phonebox Magazine December 2009

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go in “cold”!
So I had to choose a simple pattern, which also looked ‘lacy’, so opted for alternate fans of whole and half stitch with a Torchon ground (net) and simple footside. I had set the pattern up already and worked a few inches to show her the different parts and explain how to ‘read’ a pattern. Unfortunately, I had finished with a whole stitch fan, which means the next fan was half stitch (the most difficult stitch for a beginner!), but after watching me for a few rows she was game to have a go herself and picked up the basics much more quickly than I had anticipated, probably because she is such a good ‘all round’ craftswoman, particularly of hand sewn period costumes, I later learned!
There were no ‘lines to learn’, the producer merely saying “Ruth, ask Elizabeth about the various items of equipment”, or “Elizabeth tell Ruth how you do so and so”. It was very easy and relaxed. Ruth merely clapped her hands when the camera men wanted action to begin. I sat on a tin trunk at the bottom of the bed alongside Ruth, correcting her when necessary! I had put a striver (marker) pin to mark her progress!
After a while the film crew went downstairs to film Ruth making mincemeat. I carried on with the lace making as Ruth was supposed to be giving a lace present to Mrs Acton, the lady at the Hall, and it was needed for filming in a fortnight’s time!
After the ‘mincemeat episode’, I was called downstairs to meet Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn, before they went off with the film crew to do something elsewhere. In the meantime, Ruth, Felicia, Charles and I sat around in the warmth of the kitchen and Ruth told us of her involvement with other period productions. It was really cosy chatting by the fire..
Although there were no ‘facilities’ in the cottage I was quite relieved to find there was a modem purpose built loo and shower room in the garden for the use of the tenants of the cottage, as we were regularly plied with cups of tea!
Once the filming crew was back again we had another session upstairs talking about the various types of bobbins I had put on the pillow from named bone bobbins to the whittled wooden bobbins made by boyfriends for their lace making girlfriends, carved with a pen knife from sticks out of the hedgerows. I am particularly fond of these simple bobbins as they represent so much love, and they are always worn very smooth from much use-age. I also showed other special bobbins I had in an old bobbin box ranging from bone spirally inscribed bobbins to the large plain wooden Yak bobbins used by the men-folk to make lace in the winter months with worsted (woollen) thread.
Relaxing off camera
Charles and I were then taken to our B & B in Church Stretton, with me still in full costume, which caused some curious looks. After changing, our hostess gave us a welcome ‘cuppa’ and we relaxed until re-convening
with the others in an Indian Restaurant for an evening meal together - apart from Peter and Alex who wanted to watch an important football match on the television! We spent a very pleasant evening together before going back to the B & B, where I had to “move-up” the lace, as Ruth had, by now, worked to the end of the pattern and it needed “lifting up” to the top of the pattern to begin again tomorrow morning. This is a complicated procedure, needing careful attention and I didn’t want to do this ‘on camera’.
Thursday, 28th May 2009
Next day, I left the B & B in costume - again causing stares from passers by -1 think it was the glasses halfway down my nose, as I had to look over the top of them for ‘distance’!
As soon as we arrived at Henley Cottage, it was upstairs with the pillow and stand to find the bedroom ‘blacked out’ for an evening scene of lace making by candle light! I had hoped to bring a proper candle stool from the Museum, but it was found to be too fragile to travel, so brought instead a small candle light which could be used on a table top alongside the lacemaker. We filled the glass globe with water and Ruth lit the candle and gave a cry of delight when it cast a small circle of light on the sleeve of her dress. She carefully turned it until it reflected its light onto the area of the lace pillow where she was working.
I then explained about the large glass globes called ‘flasks’ that were placed in wooden sockets around a central candle on a stool in order to magnify the light onto the pillows of several lacemakers sitting around the stool, all getting benefit from one candle. The night time session finished with Ruth yawning over how much more lace she still had to make!
We then moved outside to film my arrival at the cottage to teach Ruth to make lace, complete with my pillow and maid. I had to knock on the door and wait for Ruth to open it and welcome me in. For some reason we had to repeat this ‘knocking on the door’ sequence, but the door flew open as I knocked on it! So we had to do it again! And the same thing happened! By this time Ruth and I were in a fit of giggles. Fortunately, it was a case of fourth time lucky, and all went well.
Miking up
I had had to be ‘miked-up’ for the outdoor shots and this involved Tim weaving a small microphone and leads in and out of the buttonholes of my blouse “Good job Charles is in the room as chaperone” he said as he did it. The ‘recording box’ was clipped to the waist band of the petticoat under my skirt. The walk up to the door had seemed to take ages and I was aware of things ‘slipping down’. After they had done the first take I asked “Can you see my petticoat as something is definitely slipping down?” “No”, they said. After the second ‘walk’, I knew I had to investigate and realised it was the thick black tights that were gradually slipping down, so with no one looking, up went the two heavy skirts to readjust things!
Ruth then had to break off to be ready to
make a mushroom bed once a cartful of manure had arrived, drawn by dumper the horse. I was upstairs arranging various lace samples on the bed showing how the different types of lace had evolved and also setting up the bobbin winder, which they wished to film in use.
I went down to watch dumper in action and fortunately he backed the cart (on Peter’s instructions) perfectly onto the garden and released the load of manure from the tip cart. This was one action they could not have repeated without first reloading the manure in the cart!
Cumper was then walked back to the farmyard and all remaining members of the production team had to assist with making of the heap of manure into a mushroom bed! Before they got dirty doing that, however, I asked them to sign my copy of their book, ‘Victorian Farm’, as I wanted a memento of the two days I had spent with them.
The second time I had to be ‘mike-ed up’ was for the bobbin winding session as it would be difficult for Tim to hold the large fluffy microphone into the window sill, where I was to demonstrate. This time I had the ‘recording box’ in a pouch tied around my waist, but under my skirt. Tim had just finished adjusting things when I said, “I shall have to go to the loo before we start filming”. “Oh, dear,” he said “you should have done that before I started as I shall hear everything - but I promise not to listen - just don’t drop that box down the loo, it is very expensive - and don’t be surprised if we’re all laughing when you come back indoors!” I have never gone to the loo so quietly and carefully before!
After the bobbin winding, it was time for a quick clearing up of the cottage, to remove all evidence of the last two days’ filming, as the cleaners were arriving to get it ready for tenants coming in that evening. I changed back into my own clothes, for the picnic lunch we were to have at Glebe Farm, during which I got my final autographs as a memento of a very interesting and enjoyable two days’ experience making lace in the Victorian manner!
Unfortunately, the lace making feature did not make it to the final edit fo the Victorian Farm Christmas Specials. The programme wrote to Elizabeth to break the disappointing news, saying:
“I really am so sorry about this; we constantly face the challenge of ensuring that each programme fits into a tight timeslot, and as a result it's not always possible to include all the material that we have shot. I wanted to write personally to let you know this, and to explain that it had absolutely nothing to do with the piece itself, which was fantastic, but was purely a matter of timing.”
Nethertheless, Elizabeth had a fantastic experience.
66 Phonebox Magazine