LACE made by machine has played an important role in the industrial life of Notts and Derbyshire since the 1760s.
By the early 1900s, Nottingham was the lace capital of the world with one third of the entire population earning their living in the trade – two thirds of them women.
Lace was a way of life, full of characters and interwoven into the region's industrial heritage.
Sadly the trade is now just a shadow of its former self with a handful of surviving firms doing their best to maintain pride in producing beautiful products, while facing fierce overseas competition, especially from the Far East.
With the demise of the UK lace industry, it is more important than ever that its history and contribution to society is faithfully and accurately recorded.
After years of highly detailed research, Sheila Mason, of Wollaton, compiled a comprehensive history of Nottingham Lace, first published in 1994.
Such was the international interest in her book that more than 3,000 copies have been sold throughout the world. Now it has been revised and reprinted.
Mrs Mason combines her passion for history with a deep knowledge of the lace trade and the machines used in its production.
She is secretary of the British Levers Lace Manufacturers' Association and a director of the Cluny Lace Company in Ilkeston, the last Levers lace-maker left in the UK.
How times have changed. When Sheila's husband John joined the family-owned firm, there were 63 similar companies in Nottingham, Long Eaton, Ilkeston, Heanor, Stapleford and Sandiacre.
Cluny can trace its roots back more than 250 years.
Charles Mason, managing director of the company, is the ninth generation of the family to work for the firm.
The updated edition of the book reproduces the front page of a letter, written in March, 1729, showing that the Mason family were in at the very beginning of machine-made lace making.
It is surprising how much has happened in the 17 years since Mrs Mason's original book was first published.
For example the Anglo-Scotian Mill in Beeston has been converted into up-market apartments while the Player's Lace Factory in Player Street, Radford, and the Boulevard Works on the corner of Hartley Road and Radford Boulevard, are both now student accommodation.
Mrs Mason has added information about Peace Mills in Perry Road, Sherwood, which was missed out of the first edition.
Built in 1920, it once contained 94 machines and employed 300 workers.
Mrs Mason is delighted that her revised edition has been printed locally.
She said: "It was organised by Steve Summers, a director of Sherwood Press, of Glaisdale Drive, Nottingham.
"They have done a first class job. The pages are sewn in, which is I understand, is the old fashioned way, and bound together by another local company in Ilkeston."
The 381-page book contains scores of photographs and illustrations. As part of her research, Mrs Mason studied lace machines and their technology, visited numerous sites and examined documents from individuals, firms and factories all over the world.
Nottingham Lace 1760s-1950s by Sheila Mason is available from Cluny Lace Co Ltd, Belper Street Works, Ilkeston, Derbyshire DE7 5FJ at £25 plus £5.50 for postage and packaging (no credit cards).
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