[Hucknall Shawls]

Just to clarify:  The framesmith is directly opposite Victoria Cottage  (the big one) and Broomhill Cottages are on the same side as the framesmith between the two big tree areas, opposite the cottages at right angles to the road. I can't remember if they had a name. 

[Hucknall Shawls]

I lived in one of the Broomhill Cottages on Nottingham Road, Hucknall from 1937 to 1970 and a few doors away was the framesmiths - a workshop where the shawl knitting frames were manufactured and repaired. The last remaining  framesmith I met  was Sylvester Smith who was very old (this was around the 1940's) and had a big white beard, looking like George Bernard Shaw!

The workshop became Tom Bailey's motor repair garage in the 50's and I helped to clear out all the knitting frame components and tools when he moved in, these items would be priceless for the frame restoration people today but they were just scrapped. The knitting frame needles were encased in a lead/tin holder and I melted down  some of these and cast them in a piece of tongued wood to make sticks of solder, some of which I've still got in my garage.

I can remember the noise of the machines that came from the  Bamkin's  Shetland Shawl factory on Portland Road, nearly opposite "Bottom Pit" - both long gone sadly.