'Buy a suckin' pig, ma'am?'
'No, no thank you,' she said, turning away from the huxter in embarrassment.

A rope and sheep net vendor pretended to entangle her in the fold of a net, which he held for the inspection of bantering farmers.

In 1823, Thomas Bellshaw in Market Place, who also manufactured sacks, and James Barclay, were rope and twine spinners.

Originally yarns were spun on a spindle whorl, a weighted stick which was rotated, often by rolling along the thigh, in order to twist the fibres together.


Then came the spinning wheel with its foot treadle, wheel, belt and flyer, which enabled the spinner to keep the yarn twisting continuously.

Yarns were also spun in the rope walks from fibre wrapped around the waist.

Twine from which the nets were made was two or more yarns twisted together.

The method of manufacture was almost identical to that of spinning yarn except you start with two or more twisted yarns instead of a series of loose fibres.

Before the East Riding was so well-drained there were many districts where flax or line could be grown.

The quality of a flax crop depended to a large extent upon its length and upon its evenness and closeness upon the ground. The stems needed to be tall, straight and slender, three feet high being a good length.
A good thickness, said Marshall, was the thickness of a crow's quill.
A fine stalk gave more line and fewer shivers than a thick one. If the best quality line was needed it had to be pulled when the seeds were fully formed but not yet ripe.

The 'pulling' was done by holding the plants near the top and breaking them off by the roots and making them into sheaves, with a band made from underlying plants.

The sheaves were first collected into heaps and then taken to the watering pit, in which they were completely immersed, first by treading them down and then by placing sods or other heavy material on top of them. The time of steeping depended on the weather and other local factors, but was usually 10 to 14 days.

From the line pit it was carried to the rating ground. There it lay until it was sufficiently 'rated' when the more wood-like substance of the stems would separate freely from the filament of flaxen fibres.
The operation of 'swingling' was that of separating the woody substance from the flaxen fibres.

The rough stems were mangled in an instrument called a 'break', which broke the brittle substance of the stem into fragments.
The separation was achieved by hewing the mangled stems against a 'swingling stock', an upright board, with a wooden broad axe.
The fibrous portion was spun into fine thread, during the long winter evenings.

Net-making by hand is very similar to knitting. You can 'cast on' the chosen number of meshes, and you can increase or decrease by braiding twice into the edge mesh or braiding two meshes together.

To make square-mesh netting you start at one corner with two meshes and increase at the end of each row until the maximum width has been achieved.

To produce a rectangle, you increase on one side and decrease on the other.

The tools required to speed up the work are the braiding needle, so designed that it carries the maximum length of twine and is still narrow enough to go through the mesh, and the lace or measuring stick.

The term 'lace' is a memory of the days when lace net was knotted rather than woven. The needles may be of wood, metal or plastic.

Modern ones are usually made of nylon. They may be of the pronged type or they may be double ended. The lace may be flat, round or eliptical section, depending on the method of knotting being used.

As well as the larger firms making ropes and netting in Driffield were a number of cottage industries, whose main trade was in stack nets and ellthers (halters).

The ellthers were made in two parts, the shank which the boys would make and the headstall made by the men.

George Addy worked in Washington Street in the twentieth century and his nephew, Allan Addy, in Westgate.

The photograph shows Allan Addy at work on a stack net in Westgate, using a braiding needle.

Mr. Reg Richardson used to go to George Addy in Washington Street before he went to shool in a morning.

He would start off making a stack net by knocking a nail into the window sill.

The stack nets were 12 yards by eight yards and two were joined together. George Addy also made nets and ellthers for Gourock Rope works in Scotland.

Mr Richardson told me that the twine used was made from coir, which was coconut husk fibre, and filling a braiding needle with this was rough on your fingers.

• Wally Simpkin's latest local history book - Driffield And District Through The Times - is on sale at the Driffield Times offices on Mill Street, Driffield, at a price of £10.