Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

WELSH COTTAGE INDUSTRIES. 363 The Aberystwith College has already taken action in this matter, and extension lectures and technical schools are now being organised. A little instruction and initial expense are alone needed. The Welsh have always been expert dyers of the old sort. 1 here is the famous secret black dye of Carmarthenshire, the concoction of which is now known only to one old spinner, who intends commu- nicating the receipt to his nephew on his deathbed. It is a pity a less limited use cannot be made of his knowledge, for the black is perfect, and, however old or maltreated the fabric that has once received it may be, it is never rusty. The gener- ally known dyes are vegetable, and are mostly collected by old women from the woods and hedgerows. Ragwort, damson, crottle, logwood, seaweed, and imported indigo are stewed mysteriously in the witch- like cauldrons. The range of colours pro- duced is, though small, pretty and absolutely trustworthy in sun or rain. The natural wools of Wales are particularly good. There is a breed of black sheep from whose coat a rich dark-brown cloth is pro- duced, and another of different ilk whose winter wool becomes a pure blue-grey tweed, while the white fleece of the mountain sheep should easily rival the finest German white wool goods. Until the technical difficulties of scientific and artistic dyeing are mastered it must be in the manufacture of these white and natural goods that the cottage weavers succeed. Their natural shirtings, flannels, tweeds, breeches cloth, petticoats, and shawls, in pattern, colour, and texture, compare favourably with the best in the market, while as the result of self-preservation in the -Welsh climate everything produced on the cottage looms washes well, without shrinkage; and the wearing-out of a Welsh coat is still a matter of much time <incl difficulty. Welsh cottage weavers of to-day earn about £1 a week. This means eighty yards of flannel at the wholesale price of fourpence-halfpenny a yard, less one- third for attendance of boys, shuttles, looms, etc. Often his profits are fuithei docked by one-tenth, owing to his lack of combination in selling, which necessitates his trudging to the fairs and markets with his produce, in the mediaeval manner of his ancestors. MARY BARBER. photographs specially taken for the purpose, and are the ’ll and Co., Ltdl) {The illustrations accompanying this article are from copyright of WELSH FLANNEL STALLS, CARMARTHEN’ MARKET.