  |
  |
  |
  |
  |
  |
 |
Pin Making in Gloucester Folk Museum |
|
|
The upper floor of the Gloucester Folk Museum was used as a pin manufactory during the eighteenth century. Another building was converted for pinmaking at about the same time. Both have continuous rows of windows along one wall. This was to allow both light and air in for the delicate work, and because the tiny fragments of metal resulting from grinding were a health hazard. |
Early in the nineteenth century Gloucester's pin industry went into decline. The Napoleonic Wars interrupted trade with Europe and North America and manufacturers couldn't sell their products. The War was ended by the battle of Waterloo in 1815, but the damage to the industry was already done. Thomas Haynes, one of the principal pinmakers in Gloucester, had gone bankrupt in 1808 and many others had also suffered severely. Even more damagingly, deprived of Gloucester's pins, other countries had established their own pinmaking industries and the export markets lost were never fully recovered.
Gloucester Made > Pin Making > Pin Making in Gloucester Folk Museum