Inside the UK's last-surviving lace maker Inside the UK's last-surviving lace maker
Inside the UK's last-surviving lace maker | Tom Maddick / SWNS

Historic Nottinghamshire: See inside England's last remaining lace makers as it fights for survival

Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire were once lace hotspots in England with hundreds of companies, but the trade has now almost vanished

Photos show inside Britain's last remaining traditional lace makers who say they are still optimistic about its future despite battling to survive in a once-flourishing trade.

Cluny Lace has been running since the 18th century and has famously produced wedding dresses for Kate Middleton and Princess Diana.

Founded in 1760, the firm has been run by the same family for over nine generations in Ilkeston, Derbyshire and still uses Victorian machinery.

And despite seeing the trade decimated by cheap imports from abroad, the 265-year-old company has managed to buck the trend and survive.

It supplies Ralph Lauren, Burberry and Dior fashion houses and Angelina Jolie and Vivienne Westwood have also been snapped in the company’s designs.

At its height in the 1890s, the lace industry employed around 100,000 people in Nottingham alone across hundreds of businesses exporting all over Europe, North and South America.

But Cluny Lace has now remained the UK's sole Leavers lace factory for the last 20 years and admits its in a race against time.

Owner Charles Mason, 59, said: "It’s involved a lot of luck to keep us here, we’ve made a lot of the luck ourselves.

“A lot of the other companies weren’t so lucky, there’s been a relentless destruction of textiles in Europe for a long time because of the cheap imports from the rest of the world.

"There’s been a sharp decline in everything. We know our future is finite, the skills are disappearing and nothing can be done about it.

"But it’s still not a bad market, it’s sort of interseasonal. We mainly work in the fashion trade.

“We have seen plenty of people wearing our lace, from Dior to the other fashion houses. And from the likes of Paloma Faith, the Queen of Jordan and wives of Spanish bullfighters.

“Kate Middleton used it on her wedding dress and we see loads of celebrities use it.

"I’m reasonably confident about the near future. We're not shutting up shop yet and we'll keep going."

Leavers lace is made by a machine twisting ultrafine threads together to create an intricate pattern - it’s often regarded as the closest in quality to handmade lace.

The lace is made using a Leavers machine, created by John Levers in Nottingham in 1813, which uses hole punched jacquard cards to produce a detailed design.

Each card follows a pattern which, due to their complexity, cannot be recreated today - so the company has stockpiled thousands of varying designs.

Charles added: “The lace is unique because it’s as close to handmade lace a machine can get.

"The beauty and quality of the lace is better than modern machines.

“Most lace is made on machines where the construction is knitting, whereas leavers machines are twisted.

“It’s a lot cheaper to make the knitted style of lace, it's a lot less skillful too, and it isn’t generally as good as leavers lace.

"The modern world is more interested in function and ease.”

The newest Leavers machine they use is at least 60-years-old while most of their lace is produced on machines dating back to the late 19th century.

Each machine, which weighs at least 17 tonnes can stand up to 10ft tall, needs an expert machinist on hand at all times.

Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire were once lace hotspots in England with hundreds of companies, including the well-known Thomas Adams, Birkin's, Morley's and J Jardine.

Cluny Lace focus on lace for skirts and blouses and have worked with fashion giants Christian Dior, Vivienne Westwood, Burberry, Gucci and Paul Smith.

The company currently offer 250 patterns to customers but have thousands more designs in storage.

Charles added: “It adds variety and it’s a beacon of excellence. If you’re making cheap stuff you can aspire to make good quality. If you make great quality lace then you can only get worse.

“When I started there were about 15 manufacturers, when my father started in the 1950s there were hundreds. The last one closed down 20 years ago.

“It’s a shame there aren’t other businesses, there’s no one to gossip with and share ideas.

"There’s still some machines in France but they make a different product and different style. Nobody here does what we do."

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