Box pleats

[Allan Thomson]

You're absolutely right, weaving was a specialist trade. Each village, depending on its size, would have had one or more weavers, there were also certain villages renown for weaving, for example; Barnkittock (the township of the little plaids) near (and now part of) Crieff.

Weaving was an indoor business i.e. the loom was in the house, not in some outside lean-to or shed. For this reason, weavers' cottages had to be a bit bigger than the standard Highland house. It needs to be understood that before the advent of the flying shuttle (invented by John Kay in 1733) the width of cloth was generally restricted to the width a weaver could throw and catch the shuttle. I don't know how quickly the flying shuttle got into the Highlands but suspect it was quite late because of the extra room it takes up. I weave 'traditional' 28" cloth on a flying shuttle, the width of the beam is 88" which, allowing for room to pass on at least one side, means an uncluttered width of at least 3.5 yards is required, then there's the floor-print taken up by the rest of the loom.
A double width flying shuttle loom would need something like a 5 yard width plus related floor



That is a bit of a red herring; firstly, it's very unlikely that any commercial cloth was still being hand-woven 20+ years ago and even if it were, the loom would not be the same as that used in the 18th century Highlands.

The village I'm thinking of is Cregneash on the Isle of Man, it's period is more late 19thC early 20thC and there was a separate weaver's shed, but I guess whilst over here the setup was very similar to a late 19th C early 20th C. Highland Scottish village (there's enough commonness in clothing, textiles and language to make me think the setup would be similar). That said I know that an old man who was a boy when the village was taken over by the Museum who said that the museum changed more things in the village than they give the impression of to visitors so things may have been different in its working life (just found an article which suggests the loom which is currently there is a later addition but it does make reference to weaving sheds in different parts of the Island, and makes it clear that they were attached to the house in a shed).

Re the hand woven looms, but the place I bought the plaid from was Laxey Woollen Mills and they were and are still using Hand Looms which I think would be 19thC in vintage (1881) as that was when Egbert Rydins set the Mill up (with hand looms), then later John Ruskin converted a corn mill into a woollen mill, but it was in the spirit of the Arts and Crafts movement trying to keep old skills alive. I know certainly they're hand weaving lengths of Manx Tartan Cloth (I did have a recent conversation about the width of the Manx Tartan cloth and I think from memory it was something like a yard and a half + in width (but less than 2 yards). According to their history the hand looms were reintroduced post world war II as the sole means of production. So if the Black Watch was woven on site it was hand woven, if it was shipped in then it may not have been. Anything in Manx Tartan was definitely hand woven though.

There were a number of Woollen Mills on the Island, the one at Laxey, the Union Mills (the fleece and the flax I think it was called, outside Douglas) and the Tynwald Mills at St Johns (the Machinery was removed when it was converted into a retail centre, but there are still pieces exhibited outside. I recollect my brother who does a bit of weaving as part of a support role in his job showing me a piece of cloth which he told me was one of the last pieces produced by the Tynwald Mills. Union and Tynwald Mills were mechanical mills.

As you say though they're later and not 18th C but interesting none the less. Whilst there are differences between the Island and the Highlands there is a lot of commonness, particularly with the Island communities. However the Island was Anglicised more completely than the Island's of Scotland, as Manx is only just returning. Obviously with my mixed heritage I've made a point of studying the similarities and connections of the Island and Scotland, and that extend's back to the Pictish period as well as the Norse Gaelic one. Whilst the Kilt is not the traditional form of dress on the Island (but Manx tartan kilts are picking up a vogue in the similar way that Irish and Cornish and Welsh ones are) there are a lot of other similarities in the types of clothing that would have been worn and how they were manufactured. For example there's an interesting pair of Goat Skin Carrane's in the Manx Museum Folk life gallery with the hair still attached to the Exterior. As I've pointed out elsewhere the Links and the shared History between the Isle of Man and the Scottish Isles are very strong indeed although fragmented at times.

Another aside but back on the topic of Scottish Weaving in the 18thC but I recollect a folk tale about a fugitive from Culloden claiming he was a Stewart of Appin, and taking shelter with a blind woman. She felt his plaid and apparently said "that never was a weave that was in Appin Waulked". It may be a myth or she may have been able to tell a regional difference in the cloth despite being blind?