MANY ANIENT CRAFTS ARE DYING.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 14 July 1938, Page 3

MANY ANIENT CRAFTS ARE DYING.

Hidden away in forgotten coiiii'-'.-' ■''!' the towns and villages of Great B' tain there may still U: found some of the country's oldest i-raff; av<\ ludustries, handed on from ,<i;;ter to son m defiance of the machino u;.;>'. Every year, however, sees a decline in their numbers. Unable to withstand the growing economic challenge of the machine, they are forced to abandon the unequal struggle. It is a pity. Down Paddock Wood way, centre of the Kentish hop fields, for instance, there will bo general regret when 00-year-old Mr Fred W. Blackshall has to give up his old handicraft of hoopmaking. Sole Survivor.

Mr Backshall is the sole survivor of what was once a flourishing village trade.

"Forty years ago," he told a News of the World representative, "we used to employ seven men working full-time here making hoops. As they have died I have closed their sheds. The last to go was my 86-year-old father, who passed away last summer.

"When I die I suppose it will be the end. There is no one to take my place here."

Throughout his forty-odd years in the trade Mr Blackshall has been engaged in making hoops for wooden barrels or tubs of cement. He calculates that in his time he must have made nearly 5,000,000 hoops, every one by hand.

He showed how it is done. First he picked up a willow pole about liin. thick, and chopped it. to a length of sft. Then, with an adze, he dexterously split it into five lengths.

In turn he placed these into a brake —a kind of vice—and skilfully pared them with a double-handed draw shave. Then he forced them through a bending jaw, placed them in a fixed ho*bp to bend them to the required size, and tied the ends with twine.

Really Hard Work. The hoops were stacked together in bundles of 120. 'lt takes a skilled craftsman about three hours to complete a bundle," Mr Blacksliall said, "and the pay is 1/11 a bundle, so that a man has to work really hard to earn 25/- a week.

"Once upon a time all cement used to be transported in wooden barrels. Nowadays, cement in this country is packed in paper bags, but for export purposes barrels or tubs are still used. "It is impracticable to make wooden hoops by machine, but light iron hoops are now being manufactured, and I suppose, in time, will eventually displace the wooden hoops. "Perhaps it is as well," he said,

gazing sadly at the row of deserted thatched sheds, which are a picturesque landmark on the Maidstone road at Paddock Wood. "If I had a son I don't think I would advise him to become a hooper."