Forest of Dean FHT Forum - Basket making

Basket making (reply)

braillemaker — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 00:36:43 +0000

Thank you slowhands; interestingly I've just discovered a whole family of basket makers in 1861. Going by the name of John, they were living in tents only a couple of miles from my relation. Taking the father, wife and two eldest sons - 4 people - and they each had different birth counties! Pity their descendants trying to do family history!

Basket making (reply)

slowhands — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 04:20:17 +0000

< not an expert>

The Forest would have been a source of (coppiced) Oak and Hazel, and Willow and Reeds would have been found in Gloucestershire, so I guess there would have been plenty of material to weave into baskets.

Next time I'm in the Lea/Mitcheldean area I'll see if I can identify the wood growing ther today.

Selling in markets in Ross and Mitcheldean, Gloucester would be quite possible.

Basket making

braillemaker — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 06:38:30 +0000

My great-great grandfather, Charles Barnard lived at Lining Wood - on the edge of the hill above Mitcheldean. in 1855 he was an iron miner. In 1861 Charles is listed as a ‘former iron miner’. Ten years later he is described as having been a cripple for 13 years – maybe as the result of a mining accident? However, at the time of his death (June 1889) his daughter Rhoda said he was a Basket maker.

I wonder if anyone could flesh this out a bit.
Might we assume that a family member would have taken the baskets down to a market at Mitcheldean? From where, and how, would he have obtained his raw materials?