About the project

In June 2001 Leicester City Museums Service and its partners successfully gained a grant from the New Opportunities Fund to develop a website celebrating the history of the East Midlands knitting industry. The Knitting Together project commenced in December 2001 digitising objects from museum collections in the region. This website now brings the results of that work together with a range of features that reveal the history of the industry since the sixteenth century.

Knitting Together is also part of the Spinning the Web consortium (Manchester City Council, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council). The consortium website brings together four textile related New Opportunities Fund projects.

The Knitting Together partners include:

Leicester City Museums Service
Derby City Council
Leicestershire County Council
Nottingham City Council
The Friends of Leicester & Leicestershire Museums
The Pasold Research Fund
Belper North Mill Trust
Ruddington Framework Knitters Museum

The project has also benefited from the work and efforts of:

Professor Stanley Chapman (external historical advisor to Knitting Together)
Dr Bramwell Rudd (knitting industry historian)
Jeanette Young (volunteer)
Millie Smith (volunteer)
Fred Maio (volunteer)
Martin Green (framework knitter and volunteer)
Rhianydd Murray (knitting industry historian)
Tony Nutting (knitting machine building industry historian)
Lynda Carter and the Friends of Ruddington Framework Knitters Museum (event organisation)
Mary Smedley and the Belper Historical Society (event organisation)
Peter Clowes, Wigston Framework Knitters Museum (event support)
Bill Partridge (knitting industry historian)
Neville Hall (H J Hall Ltd)
David Jennings (T Jennings Ltd)
Cynthia Brown (East Midlands Oral History Archive)
Judy Kingscott (Nottingham Central Library)

Knitting Together is also grateful to all the individuals who have supplied books, photographs, information and support to the project.

David Orton, Project Co-ordinator
Gurdeep Sian, Project Officer
Yolanda Courtney, Project Executive, Collections and Audience Services Manager
2004

Timeline