Life on the Edge III: Nottingham Lace

Synopsis: With unemployment rising across Europe, why isn’t there more demand to learn the specialist craft skills that once brought wealth and fame to the industrial heartlands of the UK? Across the developing world, family firms are advised to cling onto niche markets and exploit their unique craft skills in today’s globalized world. But opting for a career in textiles no longer seems to appeal to British workers: Cluny Lace is the last of its kind, still making intricate and beautiful lace on old jacquard machines, but it now faces a dilemma: can East Midlands towns today find a place for the skills that made them rich? And does the lace which former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once lauded as truly British now belong on museum shelves, or designer dresses worn only by fashionable elites?
Series: Life on the Edge, Series
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Year of release: 2010
Year of production: 2010
Documentation: Transcript available at http://www.tve.org/lifeonline/index.cfm?aid=2042
Subjects: Social Studies; Crafts; Geography
Keywords: economic geography; industrial archaeology; manufacturing industries; textile industries; globalisation; lace making; Nottingham

Name: TVE
Email: General email: tve@tve.org.uk.Sales and outreach: distribution@tve.org.uk
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Notes: TVE works with partners globally to produce films on environment and development issues, as well as health and human rights. Most of the 600 films are available for sale on DVD for educational use. Previously known as Television Trust for the Environment.

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