Glove-making memories captured in new book

A new book celebrating the memories of people who worked for the globally known glove factories of Westbury, Westbury Leigh and Warminster has just been released.

“With Skills At Their Fingers” is full of stories from glove-makers plus memories from children and grandchildren of factory workers or ‘outworkers’ (mostly women making gloves at home). It also contains updated histories of the individual firms plus insights into how gloves are made.

“There was a thriving glove industry in mid-Wiltshire from the 1860s to the 2010s with many of the firms being household names and their gloves sold in the most luxurious shops both in the UK and overseas.” said Rachael Holtom who produced the book.

“In Warminster, Westbury and Westbury Leigh were Boulton Bros, V.C. Boulton, A.L. Jefferies, Chester Jefferies Gloves, The “Westbury Glove Company, Kerns, Dents, Frank Bryan Gloves and Reynolds & Kent. They made gloves for everyone and every occasion, from specialist trade gloves (including beekeepers and the Household Cavalry) to glitzy evening gloves, gloves worn by champion golfers, celebrities and royalty. Many thousands of pairs were exported globally.

“I used to be archivist for Dents, the only glover still in Wiltshire and was inspired by chats with the glove makers to record valuable memories. This happened thanks to a grant from Arts Council England, and this book is free to collect from a variety of local libraries and museums.”

One of the people featured in the book, Kathryn Cundick, recalled watching her father George who worked as a cutter for Reynolds & Kent in Westbury. “In the beginning, he would have the ‘raw’ leather … and he would stretch it,” she said. “I’d watch him sometimes and he would [have it] on his bench and he would pull it that way and pull it this way, and then when it was finished, he’d spread it out to cut the gloves. He had these huge shears. He marked the leather, then cut the gloves.”

Sue Mears recalled her mother Rose Jones making gloves for Dents at home in Trowbridge.

“I remember vividly my late mother in the early 50s making gloves for Dents. They would be delivered each week, and when I came home from school, I can remember the wonderful aroma of new leather. The leather was very fine and usually black. I would sit and watch my mother sew the gloves together, entirely by hand.”

Lilly Munday, who still sews gloves at Dents, spoke in the book of one special order: “Dents made pilots’ gloves … eight layers of silk which went inside a leather glove … and explorer Chris Bonnington … took my gloves, my silk gloves, up Everest [in 1975.] He actually took them up … that was the first thing I ever done specially for someone and they were taken up [Everest]!

Elizabeth Brooks recalled the luxury gloves made at Boulton Bros. “In the 1950s, they did literally nothing but doe skin and shammy [chamois], and there were hundreds and hundreds of dozens of shammy and doe skin – doe skin, lovely and white – ah I’d love to smell the doe skin again if I could – they were beautiful gloves!” she said.

“With Skills At Their FingerTips” is available at the following locations: Warminster Library, Westbury Museum and Library, Dents Outlet Shop in Warminster and Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in Chippenham. For more information, please email rachael.holtom@gmail.co.uk or call 07774 613586.

Pictured: Rachael Holtom