In 1768, the first year in which any disbursements are mentioned in the Royston parish books, the first item was the granting of a spinning wheel to Nan Dodkin by the Vestry. Weaving proper had ceased at this date, but a great deal of business was done in Royston towards the end of last century in the "hemp dressing, sack weaving and rope making branches," as I learn from an auctioneer's announcement of a property sale in 1773. During the reign of George III. hand-spinning was an industry throughout this district, and at most cottage doors in the villages could be seen wheels busily turning, up to about 1825. The pay was not great, but the employment was more seemly than that of dragging mothers of families and young girls into the fields as one often sees {104} them at the present time. The evidence of the spinning industry is conclusive from the parish accounts alone in such entries as-- "Ordered that Thomas C---- and his family be permitted to leave the Workhouse, the Overseers to buy them a pair of old blankets and a new Wheel." "Ordered that the Overseers of Herts. Buy and Lend to the widow S---- a wheel for the purpose of setting her boy to work." L s. d. Spinning Wheles for the Widow D---- . . . 0 2 9 Paid for spinning 17 lb. of flax . . . . . 0 17 6 To mending a weel . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 0 8 14 new, Spendels and wool for G----'s family The parish accounts in the villages show that wool for spinning was supplied in small quantities, apparently by small shop-keepers who took the yarn, which was again bought by the dealers and sent away for weaving to the newly established mills--pretty much in the same way as the straw plaiting industry was managed in after years. Occasionally spinners were dishonest, and spun short measure, and associations were formed for punishing the offence. In every better class house a wheel was found by which the mistress would spin the yarn, which was then sent away to be woven into the family linen, and a very necessary part of the preparation for married life was this spinning of a supply of yarn and sending it away to the weaver. A full chest of table linen was as precious to the farmers' wives as Mrs. Tulliver found hers, and home-spun linen was as much a matter of pride as the cheese-making itself; so much so that servants in farm houses were invariably placed at the wheel to fill up their spare time. The earnings of the poor spinners could not have been very great, for in Essex in 1770 "a stout girl of fifteen or sixteen" was not able to earn above 6d. a day. When the industry disappeared as a wage-earning employment, parochial Workhouses turned their attention to teaching children straw plaiting, and plaiting schools were subsidised by overseers for this purpose.