The Nottingham and District Hosiery Workers' Society was a trade union representing machine knitters in and around Nottingham, in England.
The union was founded in 1925, when the Nottingham United Rotary Power Framework Knitters' Society merged with the Nottingham Circular Framework Knitters' Society, and the Nottingham Female Hosiery Workers' Union. The new union had 5,013 members, significantly more than any of the predecessor unions, but this began to fall in the 1930s, dropping to only 1,666 by 1942. [1]
In 1942, the union's general secretary, William Hartshorn, died, and the union was unable to agree on a replacement from any internal candidates. Eventually, Jack Charlesworth, president of the Nottingham and District Hosiery Finishers' Association, was appointed. [2] He was able to almost double membership, to 3,500, and resolve serious disputes between the men's and women's sections. [3]
The difficulties experienced led the union to support a merger with other hosiery unions, which at the start of 1945 formed the National Union of Hosiery Workers (NUHW). The Nottingham union became the Nottingham District of the NUHW. [1] [3]
Anthony John Mundella PC, known as A. J. Mundella, was a pioneering and innovative English manufacturer and later a Liberal Party MP and Cabinet Minister who sat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1868 to 1897. He served under William Ewart Gladstone as Education minister from 1880 to 1885 and as President of the Board of Trade in 1886 and from 1892 to 1894. As Education minister he established universal compulsory education in Britain and played the major part in building the state education system. At the Board of Trade he was instrumental in the reduction of working hours and the raising of minimum ages in the employment of children and young people. He was among the first to prove the effectiveness of arbitration and conciliation in industrial relations. He also brought in the first laws to prevent cruelty to children. His political achievements in the late Victorian age are said to have anticipated 20th century society.
Knitting is the process of using two or more needles to loop yarn into a series of interconnected loops in order to create a finished garment or some other type of fabric. The word is derived from knot, thought to originate from the Dutch verb knutten, which is similar to the Old English cnyttan, “to knot”. Its origins lie in the basic human need for clothing for protection against the elements. More recently, hand knitting has become less a necessary skill and more a hobby.
A stocking frame was a mechanical knitting machine used in the textiles industry. It was invented by William Lee of Calverton near Nottingham in 1589. Its use, known traditionally as framework knitting, was the first major stage in the mechanisation of the textile industry, and played an important part in the early history of the Industrial Revolution. It was adapted to knit cotton and to do ribbing, and by 1800 had been adapted as a lace making machine.
Community is a UK trade union which formed in 2004. The union represents workers in a diverse range of sectors, including iron and steel, domestic appliance manufacturing, clothing, textiles, footwear, road transport, betting and gaming and call centres, as well as workers in voluntary organisations, workshops for visually impaired and disabled people, community-care providers and housing associations. Although the former trade unions which amalgamated to form Community were all craft unions or industrial unions, Community is now a general union. Community has merged or transferred engagements with a number of smaller unions, some of which have become sections within Community. These include the National League of the Blind and Disabled (NLBD), the National Union of Domestic Appliance and General Operatives (NUDAGO), the National Union of Knitwear, Footwear & Apparel Trades (KFAT), the British Union of Social Work Employees (BUSWE), the Prison Service Union and the UFS.
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The Leicester and Leicestershire Amalgamated Hosiery Union was a trade union representing machine knitters in Leicestershire.
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The Ilkeston and District Hosiery Union was a trade union representing people involved in making hosiery in northern Nottinghamshire and eastern Derbyshire, in England.
John James Charlesworth was a British trade union leader.
The Nottingham Hosiery Finishers' Association (NHFA) was a trade union representing workers involved in trimming and putting together hosiery in the Nottingham area of England.