LACE MAKING
Museum sign
The Cowper and Newton Museum
Lace Making Home Page
Welcome to this special area of the Museum website. We have assembled some of the information you can gather while visiting the lace making rooms in the Museum, and photographed just a few of the exhibits.

This is not an exhaustive account of lace, of lace making techniques, or of the industry in the Eastern Counties, but just an introduction. We hope you find it interesting and useful.

The Eastern Counties in this context are Buckinghamshire (Bucks: Olney is in Bucks), Bedfordshire (Beds) and Northamptonshire (Northants).

This area of the Museum website covers three main topics:

  • The lace making industry
  • Lace making equipment
  • Local lace

You can find your own way around the site using the links in the column to the left.

Or you may visit the whole site as a continuous narrative by following the NEXT links on each page (or PREVIOUS if you want to go back), starting here...

  • Lace is still being made in Olney today - but purely for pleasure. Go to
    The Olney Lace Circle to find out more.