A Fascinating Museum - Making Fine Cloth

After the fireworks display, we reluctanty left Honfleur and travelled back towards Paris to another village called Caudebec-en-Caux. 

When we arrived, a group of us went to see the highly recommended Textile Museum at a nearby hilltop village called Bolbec. We were so glad we did. Run by volunteers who are very proud of the weaving industry that once flourished in the town, providing employment for over 300 people, this museum housed many working machines that were used for the entire range of stages of producing a fine cloth - from spinning raw cotton to weaving dyed threads into beautiful fabrics. We even saw machines that produced wicks for candles and the fabric used to house electric wires in operation. So we saw the whole ‘story’ of this industry, which was really fascinating. I will give you a glimpse of this story through the following photographs. 

On our journey there, our guide told us the tragic story of the young daughter of the renowned French author Victor Hugo. Victor and his family spent a lot of time near this part of the Seine. While he was away one time with his mistress, his daughter and her husband were boating along the river when the boat overturned. She could not swim and was trapped under the boat and drowned. When he could not rescue her, her husband could not live without her and so he gave up and drowned too. Victor Hugo only found out about this double tragedy, and the fact that his daughter had been expecting her first child at the time, when he saw the news in the newspapers. He apparently never forgave himself. 

On our journey home, we visited another museum that featured old farming implements, tools and carriages. I must confess I was not interested in the display, so I decided to go to the museum shop, which turned out to be a great decision. I ended up chatting with the French man in charge of the shop, who was a similar age to me. He told me he volunteered to help at this small museum to keep up his English, and went on to tell me about his brilliant English teacher at school through whose teaching he was able to secure a job with an English company. So I then told him about my brilliant French teacher who sparked my interest in France and how delighted I have been to be able to see him again in the last couple of years. He then told me he had recently tracked down his old English teacher too, and finally was able to thank him. His old teacher was thrilled to receive his call. 

A chance meeting - two similar stories. A great conversation! I was so glad I visited that museum too. 

Spinning thread by hand.

A more automated spinning machine - called a 'spinning Jenny'! 

The raw cotton used in the demonstration.

Cleaning and disentangling the cotton, turning it into what looked like a fluffy cottonwool sheet.

Turning the cottonwool sheet into a long thick piece of cottonwool 'rope'.

Joining, twisting and stretching the cotton 'ropes' to produce a much longer, stronger 'rope'.

Feeding the new 'ropes' into a spinning machine to make a finer thread. By twisting and stretching and spinning them together they reduce a much stronger, narrower thread.

These are samples of the reels of thread that are produced. 

This gives you an idea of the speed of the spinning when at full speed.  (See the 'cones' above the metal bar - an optical illusion created as the angle of the thread keeps changing.)

The thread is spun onto plastic cones that have holes in them. Where desired, dye is injected through the middle of the cones to colour the threads. 

An early weaving machine run by hand.

This machine still require an operator but the pattern of threading is controlled by the way the machine has been set up. A pattern feeds through and controls the many wires that hold the different coloured threads. 

A fully automated machine with an inbuilt computer.

Weaving the thread used for wicks of lamps and candles.

Weaving the cotton coating for electric wires.

One of the intricate plates once used for printing a pattern onto a fabric.

A roller that was used later to print on fabrics.

It took a lot of innovation to work out how to achieve light and dark shades of the same colour. This is a fabric that was made and printed at the factory.

This (and the next photo) shows another example of the intricate printing achieved by the craftsmen at this factory.