The museum hopes to bring back the art to the area.
Amersham Museum have received a grant from the Endangered Crafts Fund (external site) run by Heritage Crafts to support a project to bring straw plaiting back to Amersham. The Fund was launched in 2019 to increase the likelihood of at-risk craft skills surviving into the next generation.
The project – A Home for Straw Hat Plaiting: Preservation, Development, Accessibility and Outreach – includes expert plaiter Veronica Main MBE to take practical steps to support people to discover the craft and develop their skills. Veronica was awarded the MBE for her services to straw plaiting. She has been working with straw for over 40 years, is an experienced teacher and has written two groundbreaking books that record straw work’s endangered skills.
According to the Museum, working to make straw plait for hats was once an important occupation for women, children and men in Amersham and surrounding villages. The area was also home to milliners who could make the plait into hats for local women to wear. In 1871, there were more than 100 straw plaiters listed in the Amersham census records, the youngest 11 years old and the oldest 78.
Amersham Museum have taken the initiative and with the support of the organisation Heritage Crafts have developed a year-long programme to bring straw plaiting back to Amersham and surrounding areas. There are workshops to teach how to plait and a workers’ network will support and continue the learning. The materials and tools for plaiting will be sold in the Museum shop. The museum will also commission a contemporary hat made from straw plait to add to the Museum’s collection.
The Museum is hosting Veronica to run two free beginners’ workshops and two half-day intermediate workshops. The aim is that workshop attendees form a community that brings the craft back from critically endangered to thriving. They hope that attendees at a beginners’ workshop will go on to attend a half-day intermediate workshop later in the year to develop their skills further.
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