2007/1

Southport boat,

This basket is a ‘Southport boat’, designed originally for marketing butter and eggs. It is a rectangular basket with a distinctive shape achieved by the way in which the ribs are inserted. It is made of buff willow on a frame of ash spelk and with an ash spelk handle. It has a lid, hinged along the one of the long sides, to protect the produce inside. The Southport boat was designed in 1830 by Mr Cobham of Mawdesley and the manufacture was developed by Thomas Cowley, a local basketmaking firm. The donor purchased this basket from an antique shop.

1 basket; willow, wood (ash)

'This is one of the few baskets to which we can give date and inventor, but because a basket cannot be patented and the design was first-class, the Southport boat has been copied all over the world. Few people today, however, know that it originally had a lid and a band of ash spale running underneath from end to end. // The basket was designed about 1830 by Mr Cobham of Mawdesley, a few miles from Southport in Lancashire. It was taken partly from the Morecambe Bay cockle basket and from other ribbed baskets made by gypsies in the area. The manufacture was developed by a local basketmaking firm, Thomas Cowley, whose men made it in all sizes. The willows were always buffed and there is a tradition that the famous local osier known as Dicky Meadowes, a variety of Salix purpurea, was the only willow that would make it. Since some ‘boats’ were large enough for a child to sit in (for advertisement) this is not likely, but the little willows must have been excellent for the smaller ones, some so tiny that they had to be finished off with a crochet hook. // The handle and the band were made of ash, boiled and then cut thin with a cleaver or billhook. This made the ‘boat’ a great weight-carrier, designed originally for taking butt or eggs to market. // Other baskets made in Mawdesley on the ‘boat’ principle include clothes whiskets, butchers’ baskets, satchel boats and round boats for shopping. The principle itself is peculiar neither to Mawdesley nor to Britain, but there is no doubt that it was never better applied than in Lancashire.’ (Wright, Dorothy. ‘The Complete Book of Basketry’. Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1992. p.120), MERL ‘Stakeholders’ recording form, December 2013 – Object number: 2007/1 // Name of recorder: Hilary Burns and Sarah Le Breton // General construction method: Stake and strand. General for 2007/1, 70/223 & 70/224 (and we looked at 68/212 and 68/491). // Overall shape: – // Materials: Buff willow, skein buff willow on bridge, ash spelk and handle // Base: // Sides: – // Border: – // Handles: 2007/1 and 68/491 have a bridge that is hinged (68/491) or detachable (2007/1). Presume that all of the Southport baskets originally had bridges to protect produce in the baskets. Very delicate lapped loop hinges. Front latch is twisted willow (knotted on inside) and threaded through ash spelk. Most latches are broken off but perhaps the latch was one piece of twisted willow that threaded back through from inside to outside of basket and attached to a peg. None however remain on any of the Southport boats. Central spelk is secured with a metal track to the first rib down below rim. // Lid: The lid is a single thick willow rod that is bent and overlapped at the back. Very light stakes are scallomed on and woven towards the middle from both short ends of the basket. Bordered off leaving a gap. // Dimensions: // Anything else to note about this particular basket: The shape is achieved by the way in which the ribs are inserted and the size of the ribs. All ribs spring from pocket created closest to the rim. The 2 ribs that are on the bottom of the basket are thicker than the others. // Anything else to note about this type of basket: Frame basket with lid. All 5 baskets studied [68/212, 68/491, 70/223, 70/224, 2007/1] are made in the same way except for a variation of numbers of ribs (4 or 5) depending on the size and the numbers of stakes in the lid (6, 8 or 10)., MERL 'Handwritten accession' form (Museum of English Rural Life) – 'Standard museum name: BASKET, SOUTHPORT BOAT // Accession number: 2007/1 // … // Recorder: WAP // Date: 10/01/2001 // Description: Rectangular woven in straw or ‘wicker’. Peg and loop fastening. Handle – bark or wood strip, bent. Rim of lid and basket – bent branch. Bar at rim level under the handle made of the same material as basket – wrapped around a curved branch frame. Loop broken on fastening. // Dimensions: width: 29.5 cm // length: 41 cm // maximum height: 37 cm // Associated information: 2007/1–6 all collected by Alex Bury whilst doing a basket making course in London. // This Southport Boat basket she purchased in the mid 1990s from an antique shop in Bishops Castle, Shropshire.’

1830 - 2007

Basket, butter, Basket, egg

Wood, willow, buff, Wood, ash

Cobham, Mr ()
Thomas Cowley ()
Burns, Hilary (Recorder)
Le Breton, Sarah (Recorder)