Spinning Wheel

This is an English spinning wheel in the Flemish style. Spinning formed an important part of the Lakeland economy and Kendal's town motto, 'Pannus mihi panis' which translates as 'cloth (or wool) is my bread' reflects this. Kendal is also associated with Kendal Green, a type of material produced locally using the coarse wool of the native breed of Herdwick sheep. Shakespear refers to it in Henry IV Part I [Act II, Scene 4]:

Falstaff: 'But, as the devil would have it, three misbegotten knaves
in Kendal green came at my back and let drive at me; for it was
so dark, Hal, that thou couldst not see thy hand.'

Spinning wheels were a feature of lakeland homes as both a source of income through cottage industry and as an essential domestic tool to produce clothing for home use. Indeed, vernacular architecture would often include a spinning gallery on the first floor of houses.

Figures such as Annie Garnett, who set up the Spinnery in Bowness on Windermere, revived an interest in fine textiles. She was inspired by John Ruskin and the Arts and Crafts movement and supplied her designs to customers as far away as America in the early part of the twentieth century.