The statue is of a man seated on a bollard, wearing only a sycamore leaf and a sock, which he is looking down at admiringly.
His sock is symbolic of Loughborough's hosiery industry, and the rest of the sculpture contains images from the town's history.
"HOSIERY:
Framework knitting was from the outset an East Midlands industry, the stocking frame having been invented here. Following a period when the trade was dominated by London, it moved back to this area in the eighteenth century. In the first half of that century, most hose were made from woollen worsted but in later years cotton became increasingly important.
Competition from silk led to a temporary decline in the early part of the nineteenth century but manufacturers soon discovered that hosiery brought higher profits. By the 1840s more and more factories were phasing out lace to go over full time to hosiery, making it the most important industry in CHARNWOOD.
Early framework knitting was a family business in the sense that every member of the knitter's family had to work in order to make a living. Usually the father would do the actual knitting although the mother would also "work the frame" if needed. Otherwise she would "seam up" the finished hose while children would wind bobbins and work the "footings" - foot operated controls similar to those found on a church organ. The knitting also took place in the knitter's own home and many of these knitters cottages still survive, especially in the Midlands and Yorkshire. They are easily recognisable by the large expanse of windows, designed to make maximum use of the available light.
In the early years of the nineteenth century, knitting was often carried out on a profit rather than a wages basis. Raw materials would be brought to the knitters by the "bagmen" on a Tuesday morning with an order to be completed that week. These materials would have to be bought by the knitters who would then sell the finished articles back to the bagmen on their next visit. One constant source of grievance for the knitters was the way this was done. The raw materials were sold by weight and on many occasions the bagmen would wash them before selling on to the knitters. This sounds reasonable enough except that the material was then sold wet and was therefore heavier so the price was higher. The frames themselves also had to be rented from the manufacturers who, of course, set their own prices.
Knitting continued throughout the week, from early morning to late into the night. Every minute of daylight was precious as any candles used had to be paid for by the knitters themselves. The finished work was usually collected on a Saturday night and almost every waking hour on a Sunday was spent at church or Sunday School. The only day in the week they had to themselves was Monday, or "SAINT MONDAY" as it became known to the knitters.
As the century progressed, working patterns began to change. Many manufacturers abandoned the old payment system and began to pay wages. Hitherto, hose had been made as a complete article, on one machine and completed on the premises. But then came the introduction of "cut-ups", a form of prefabrication done on a newly designed "wide frame". These frames knitted large sections of material which were later cut up into shapes which were then stitched together. The final product was of a much lower quality but - and this was the important part to the manufacturers - much cheaper. On the plus side, wide frames did mean that knitters could diversify a little as they could now also make other articles including shirts and caps. The introduction of the WARP FRAME led to the production of much finer fabric which could be used for gloves, as it was in SOUTH CROXTON, QUORN, MOUNTSORREL and MOSS'S in LOUGHBOROUGH.
However, having such a dominant local trade could lead to great difficulties in times of depression. When prices fell, so did wages and with such a high proportion of the population employed in the one industry, almost an entire village could be hit hard. In the middle of the 19th century, things got so bad that framework knitters petitioned Parliament to set up an enquiry into conditions. And they certainly had a valid case. Wages were low and variable and manufacturers would certainly have won no humanitarian awards.
The knitters' petition was granted and the investigation took place in 1845. The Commissioners'' report criticised the manufacturers for their failure to fully introduce steam power to the industry, calling them "slothful". Their reluctance was blamed on the high rents they received for frames and the poor returns paid to their workers. Their had been attempts to use steam power in the past. One of the first was by BRUNEL himself himself in 1816 and it soon became clear that steam would mean a fundamental change from home based to factory working. Slowly, however, the change began to be made. The first in LOUGHBOROUGH was also the first in Britain when PAGET introduced partial steam power in 1839. This was followed a year later by CARTWRIGHT AND WARNER who began to use steam in their shirt making section. PAGET went on to open a second factory in 1845 but change was not exactly rapid as by 1871 there were only 74 steam powered hosiery factories in Leicestershire. However, the fact that there were only 129 in the whole of Britain underlines the importance of the industry to this area.
Probably the most significant local figure in the industry was WILLIAM COTTON. Born in SEAGRAVE in 1819, he became an apprentice to a firm of hand stocking machine builders in LOUGHBOROUGH and quickly proved to be a skilled and imaginative designer. In 1864, he came up with the radical idea of of altering the positions of the components inside the power loom to greatly improve its speed and smooth running. A common contemporary expression said that COTTON had "turned the needles upside down."
COTTON developed his invention further and later established his own machine shop in LOUGHBOROUGH, first in FACTORY STREET and later in PINFOLD GATE. He went on to register many further patents, all of which had a considerable effect on the knitting industry both locally and nationally.
Frame rents were finally abolished in 1874. This, combined with new education laws which removed many child workers from the industry made the advance towards a factory based industry unstoppable. By 1894 both ROTHLEY and HATHERN had flourishing hosiery factories and CARTWRIGHT AND WARNER in LOUGHBOROUGH were employing over a thousand people. Increasing numbers of these were now women and as the century ended, hosiery changed from being a male dominated to a female dominated industry. By 1931 in LOUGHBOROUGH there were three women in the industry to every man.
Three of the other most significant firms in LOUGHBOROUGH were PAGET AND WHITE in Beehive Lane; HINE AND PARKER (later BRAUND) in WOODGATE and HANDFORD AND MILLER in Derby Road. CARTWRIGHT AND WARNER themselves ran three mills in the QUEENS ROAD area but were taken over by TP TOWLE in 1929. TOWLES survived as a going concern until 1997 when they finally closed. Ironically, this was about the same time that the SOCK MAN statue was erected in the Market Place to celebrate the town's hosiery heritage!
HOSIERY IN THE VILLAGES:
SHEPSHED:
The 17th century saw a rise in the already large number of knitting frames in use in SHEPSHED, a precursor of the importance the industry was to have here in later times. By the 1840s, framework knitting was the most important industry in the village with 1,209 frames in use in 1844 compared with only 906 frames in LOUGHBOROUGH. This also had an effect on village architecture with houses being adapted to take the characteristic larger frames and long windows of the knitter's cottage.
In 1851, 335 out of 788 households in the village were involved in the framework knitting industry. Agriculture, the next largest industry, employed only 56 workers. This dependence on one main industry could cause real problems during an industry depression but at one point, SHEPSHED was the local centre for the stockinger trade and was, in fact, larger than LOUGHBOROUGH. One significant development came from SHEPSHED born DANIEL SCATTERGOOD, who in 1858 was granted a patent for "the construction of straight hosiery frames to be worked by rotary motion".
CROPSTON:
A major development in framework knitting came from MATTHEW TOWNSEND who was born in CROPSTON in 1817, the son a framework knitter. By the time he was 20, he was living in LEICESTER and working in the luxury end of the hosiery market, making such items as cravats, shawls and gloves. But it was in the 1840s that he came to prominence with his "latch" needle for knitting machines. The success of this led to further machine refinements which TOWNSEND patented in 1854 and 1856. But overconfidence and reckless trading led to his being declared bankrupt a year later. TOWNSEND had to auction off all his possessions to pay off his debts and decided to start a new life in America. Unfortunately his American businesses also failed!
HATHERN:
The first hosiery factory in HATHERN opened in 1887 and by 1900, about two thirds of the then 1,110 inhabitants were working in the hosiery trade in some capacity. Most were framework knitters, or STOCKINGERS, who worked from their own homes or outbuildings. Many of these shops can still be seen in the village. The stockings were usually knitted by men and seamed by women. HATHERN still make high quality hosiery today, some by the third generation of family businesses.
SEAGRAVE:
The inventor of knitting machines, WILLIAM COTTON, was born in SEAGRAVE in 1819. As has been seen, his new machines had a profound effect on the knitting industry not just in CHARNWOOD but all over the world.
SYSTON:
Framework knitting was at it's height here in the 1840s when records show there were 280 frames in SYSTON. However, the drift to factory work in towns was well underway in 1851, by which time there were only 220 frames in use.
WYMESWOLD:
Framework knitting was never as dominant in WYMESWOLD as in other parts of the Borough but it did provide an alternative employment to agriculture - albeit with notoriously low wages. In 1844 there were 10 frames in the village while SHEPSHED had 1,209. This number went up to 60 in 1851 and by the 18709s, manufacture had moved from the home to purpose built small factories. The house at 9 Brook Street, known as the Wye Building, is a good example of one of these early buildings."
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