Recommended Posts

Just seen, on Bargain Hunt, someone bought a basket made by a Nottingham Company.  On the side , stencilled on -

                                      

                                                       ML &S Ltd

                                                       Nott'm.

 

I don't recall such a company but would like to know more as we used  identical baskets in  the City Fire  Brigade  to send kit on to another station. We called them "the laundry baskets" and I'm sure I saw them in the various City Hospitals too. We would have bought local for sure.

 

Can anyone elaborate please ?

 

Regards all

Link to post
Share on other sites

There was a Morris, Wilkinson wicker works in Basford. Nowt to do with yours I expect. My aunt who married in 1927, her occupation at that time was wicker worker.  i think the River Leen had something to do with certain factories, like bleaching and dying and wicker.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks both, not an exact tie up but an insight into that activity in the City. I will do some more digging on-line. Like lace, there could be a number of firms, even small long forgotten ones, I'll have a look in Kelly's next year in the archive centre,  I 'm looking forward to a day out in the City.

Link to post
Share on other sites

From memory ,thought at first it was this firm but wrong initials ! . A photo that Cliff Ton posted a while ago , scroll down to photo of bus in front of White Bros. basketmakers

 

https://nottstalgia.com/forums/topic/15235-old-nottingham-photos/?page=2

 

Of course the baskets may have been made by an unknown company and been especially stencilled with another firms logo .The baskets shown in my link above were stencilled for a Fred Clements a Skegness pantomime operator .

 

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

When ballooning I was told some of the wicker baskets were, for a while, made by the Blind Institute as was. Perhaps they also made baskets for the textile trade as sub-contractors too.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I found a vast on-line list of basket makers in the Nottingham area. Nothing tied in with ML&S so I now assume they were simply the people who used the basket, not made it. It could even be a sellers' tart-up to make it look more interesting to buyers. 

Never mind, some interesting history  never the less.

Regards all.

Link to post
Share on other sites
11 hours ago, Brew said:

When ballooning I was told some of the wicker baskets were, for a while, made by the Blind Institute as was. Perhaps they also made baskets for the textile trade as sub-contractors too.

The Blind Employment Factory of Waterloo Road London started in 1799 as the School for the Indigent Blind and grew until 1901 when its site was purchased by the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway and it moved to Leatherhead and became the Royal School for the Blind. Many wicker baskets were used in the coal mines and for moving textiles around in the mills.

As katyjay said the was a Morris, Wilkinson and Co of Victoria Works Basford, they were established in 1889 and in 1914 had 230 employees.

Image from Graces Guide

Im193306GHK-Sirr.jpg

 

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 1 year later...

Somewhere I have various bits & pieces about basket makers & osier growing across Notts. Rodney Cousins wrote a good book about the Basket Makers & Willow Growers (published by the library service in 2007). See for instance AbeBooks, but some local studies sections may have a copy.

 

Basford was a major centre for basket making in the last half of the 19th century, with William Scaling being a central figure. He had osier beds on the Leen North of Davids Lane & a large mill-style factory employing around 500 (with a Royal Warrant for 10 years). Robert Mellor's account of him is second to none: " He did better for the district than for himself". He also named a willow after Basford.

 

Big wicker baskets were used in quite a few industries, but especially in textile factories which is why basket making was concentrated in Lancashire, Notts & elsewhere. Largely everything fell apart after WWI, when growing basket willows more or less stopped. The East Leake works made shell cases for the Chilwell Ordnance Factory during WWI, but closed shortly afterwards. There were still 600-odd basket makers in the county according to the census in 1931, but as this included unemployed people this is certainly an overstatement.

 

From an Evening Post review of the Cousins book (April 13 2007):

 

Quote

By 1900 Basford had the largest concentration of wicker furniture and pram manufacturers in the UK with several factories each employing more than 300 workers. These included Alexandra Works, built in 1901, on the corner of Egypt Road and Radford Road; the Springfield Works and the factory site of Morris, Wilkinson - known as the Victoria Works - built in 1896

 

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...