Griswold

A Griswold circular knitting machine, used for making socks. Small and portable, this made working from home much easier for many people. Courtesy of the Wigston Framework Knitters Museum.

Mr Morton: The brightest thing that ever happened to the women in the villages them days, were when that firm of hosiery people and Griswold machine came. It stopped the racket of all the girls going into service, there’s no doubt about that, they stopped at home and worked the Griswold. Then the carrier bloke used to take it to the factories in Leicester.

Interviewer: How often did the carrier come to Sharnford?

Mr Morton: Oh, once a week, Saturdays, that’s all. Then there were farmers used to go and take the stuff into Leicester market, and the butcher from Sharnford, he had a stall in Leicester market. So you see, one way or another the villages kept the town going to a certain extent.

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