Friday 12 April 2019

Spinning Wheels and Tinto House

I did rather well this morning - a few days ago I saw a dress I liked advertised on Facebook, and there was something pretty much identical on the clothes stall in the Cheese Market this morning, in my size, so I snapped it up.

I was just showing it to a friend outside the Post Office when the lady from Fleur de Lys antique centre came across and said she had something to show me.
She's just brought a treadle spinning wheel into the shop and had it standing in a corner with a bag of bits that belonged to it. It was obvious straight away that it was a beautifully made spinning wheel, though it was also obvious that it needed a bit of TLC to get it to spin again - the string that goes round the wheel was tangled, and some pieces were disconnected.
There were plenty of bits in the bag, though, including a decorative band with the tablets for tablet weaving still attached at one end, and another woven band with a tiny rigid heddle still attached to it. The wheel was made, Susie said, of ash and elm.
The best thing, though, was that the wheel had come with a booklet on hand spinning, with the original bill of sale still inside.
It was made at Tinto House in Hay in the 1980s, when it was a craft shop and workshop. Now it's a rather nice B&B, with a lovely garden at the back, and Tim the Gardener's little bookshop in the side passage.

4 comments:

ELP said...

Made by Gordon Clarke who lived at Tinto and moved to Penzance in the mid 1980s

mentioned on this site:

https://www.ukspinningwheels.info/

Emma Balch said...

Great! I wonder if Hay Castle Trust would be interested in buying it and putting it into working use?

Emma

Anonymous said...

My father!! He made 460 over the years.

Anonymous said...

My Dad.made 460 - my brother and I still have the originals. He was an amazing and talented man. Sally