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JOHN
Starting Member
United Kingdom
42 Posts |
 Posted - 08/20/2007 : 14:19:05
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The Euonymous is an inconspicuous little bush for most of the year, but in autumn it's leaves turn bright red, and it's berries, in clusters of four, are purplish pink with orange seeds in the centres. Because of this they are quite popular as garden shrubs and there are two of them behind the cafe in Black Park, next to the gate leading down to the park offices. I haven't seen any in Langley park, but then I haven't looked very hard. They are not as common in hedgerows as they once were, but they were once an integral part of English village life, and were so for thousands of years, known under their common name as "Spindle".
In 1767 James Hargreaves invented the first machine to take the drudgery out of mans work. The "Spinning Jenny". Four years later Richard Arkwright developed it into the water powered spinning frame, and so began the Industrial Revolution. By the end of that century there were already over two hundred "dark satanic mills" established in England, producing cotton cloth for export, and fueling rapid economic growth.
Before James Hargreaves, spinning was an extremely boring, and labour intensive job. A large flat stone with a hole in the middle was used as a "flywheel" with a piece of hardwood pushed through this hole as the spindle. Guess which bush supplied the hard wood. Threads of wool or cotton were attached to the end of the spindle and the flywheel given a spin to twist the threads into a yarn. Hence the name spinning. The men of the house were too busy with crops and stock to spend time spinning, and the lady of the house had other, more important, things to do. So the spinning was left to the un-married girls of the house and it became their "job". They were therefore known as "Spinsters", a name we still use for un-married women, although the spinning connection has been lost.
I have a pet theory about the word "spindle" although I can't prove, or disprove it. Spinning has been known for 10/12,000 years. Dolls, with baked clay heads and stitched clothes, have been found in Egyptian tombs. Poor people couldn't afford these dolls, so they made do with wooden ones, or even sticks cut from bushes. Even today trades like panel beaters use a small hand held anvil which is known as a "Dolly". My theory is that the sticks cut from the bush for the spindle, became known as the spin dolly, or spin doll, corrupted with use to spindle. If you can prove me wrong (or right) I'd like to know.
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Spin a Yarn
Posted - 08/23/2007 : 09:17:51
