Just outside the city of Coventry to the West and North are two 19th century areas of development. Looking at the back of houses on Mount Street we can see 3 storey houses with glass roofs called top shops, which were built for the weavers of the city when the centre became too crowded. Later in the 19th century the same idea was used to provide accommodation for watchmakers. Top shops were houses with a workshop at the top with a long window to let as much light in as possible. In the census of 1851, entries for Mount Street in Chapelfields give the names and occupations of the people there, for example, a George Atkins who was a watch case maker. The watch makers needed to be close to one another because each worked on specialist bits of the watch - one would make the case - another would finish the watch. Hillfields was the first area to be built for silk weavers. There was a great demand for intricate silk ribbons. They used a new technique - the jacquard loom - to create the designs. This industry called for skills in precision engineering and the same skills would be used in making watches and later in making cycles, motor cycles and ultimately cars. The silk trade declined in the middle of the 19th Century because of competition from France . One very successful offshoot, however, was the production of small detailed woven silk pictures and bookmarks called Stevengraphs. They are still made in Coventry by Cash's Limited. Credit http://www2.bbc.co.uk/education/mapping/coventry.shtml#hill |
We wish to buy Stevengraphs. One at a time or collections. We also seek photos, brochures or any item of related history.
|