There’s more to a needle than meets the eye
February 2025 Meeting Report
‘There’s more to a needle than meets the eye!’ This was the intriguing title of Barry Mead’s talk on Monday 3rd February.
Barry was the former curator of the Forge Mill Needle Museum in Redditch, centre of the needle making industry from the early C17th. Needles and pins of all kinds, from sewing and knitting needles, dressmaker’s and hat pins, to surgical, hypodermic and even gramophone needles were manufactured here and distributed world wide. The museum is housed in an old mill, complete with water wheel and mill pond. A tour around its various buildings reveals the various stages (and there are many!) in the production of the humble needle.
The wire arrived in a coil which was straightened and stretched to the desired thickness and cut to an appropriate length. The needle was then sharpened to a point on a stone wheel. ‘Pointer’s rot’ was an unpleasant lung disease suffered by the men performing this task whilst breathing in the fine dust. Stamping and eyeing the other end of the needle was a job done as a home cottage industry. The needles were then returned to the factory where the soft steel would be hardened in furnaces. But this would cause the metal to bend, so local women were employed to straighten the needles which had now also become blackened by the furnace. The next stage, then, was to polish, a process which took between 1 and 5 days depending on the quality required. The needles were first scoured under wooden runners, then washed in soapy water followed by a second polishing and washing before being dried in barrels of hot sawdust to prevent rusting. Finally they were laid out trays to separate the sawdust from the needle before being sent for packing in acid free paper or canvas.
In 1851 working hours were 6am – 7pm Monday to Saturday in summer and 7am – 8pm in winter with half an hour for breakfast, an hour for dinner and a half hour for tea. Boys were paid 2 shillings a week, women between 8 and 12 shillings and pointers up to 1 guinea, with 10 full days and 7 half day holidays a year.
Barry’s talk was illustrated throughout with pictures of every stage of this remarkable process. It was also peppered with anecdotes in his own unique style which kept the audience both amused and engrossed. Needle-less to say our eyes were well and truly opened.
Report by Kathryn McLachlan