Knitters Paradise

All sorts of shops have been tried in Market Lavington. Sadly, many didn’t survive and this is one of them. This was a shop for all things knitting whether it was wool, needles, patterns or ready-made knitted items. It opened on 5^th October 1987. The premises were on Church Street which had once been Mr Pike’s butchery shop and later a business called Lucinda. It was run by Mrs Karen Clarke

A new shop is announced in Market Lavington – 1987

Karen was born and raised in Market Lavington and still lives there – but don’t try that phone number for we do not know who has it now. Not that there is a Lavington exchange with its own four digit numbers any more. Our local numbers became 6 digit Devizes numbers.

At the museum, we cannot recall how long Karen’s shop lasted but it does feel like quite long time since we had a knitting shop.

Sadly all trading outlets have declined, not just in Market Lavington and Easterton.  Shopping is so easy on-line these days.

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A knitted bedspread

We may be inclined to think that knitting big bedspreads was something done in Victorian days by ladies whose only permitted job was to look after their man. But today we feature a bedspread knitted in the 1950s.

A corner of a bedspread knitted by Mrs Baker of Market Lavington in about 1950

The bedspread – we just show a corner of it here – was made by Mrs Baker of Spin Hill in Market Lavington. It is made of cotton and has a width of about 140 centimetres. It would just fit on a standard double bed.

Sadly, we cannot trace just which Mrs Baker this was – there have been many different Baker families in the village. It may have been Mrs Bertha Baker?  However, we do know that the bedspread was given by Mrs Baker and Mrs Hodgkinson some twenty years ago. Maybe one or other of them could tell us more about this truly marvellous piece of craft.