Brightlingsea

Pioneer Clothing/Food Project

This project was set up in conjunction with the Pioneer Sailing Trust (www.pioneersailingtrust.org.uk) to research the kind of clothing which crew members would have worn in the late 19C. The Pioneer is a restored sailing smack – now a sail training vessel - which dredged for oysters in Victorian times off the Dutch coast in the winter months - hard, cold work for the oystermen. The group wanted to recreate the clothing as authentically as possible using the materials and techniques of the time. The collection would then be available for the modern crew to try out and to add to the ‘on board’ experience of young people taking part in educational trips.

Using archive sources, books, museum contacts, old photographs, stories of elderly relatives, the group amassed sufficient information to come up with the ‘most likely’ set of clothing. The project led the group down all sorts of unexpected avenues: What is the difference between a ‘slop’ and a ‘dopper’? What was used to proof clothing? What is ‘cutch’? What did the trousers look like – flap or fly fronted? How do you knit a cap? Where did they get their sea boots from? Does anyone know what would have been worn as underwear? Knitting a gansey is unexpectedly hard work…. and so on. Sourcing fabrics and materials was a challenge as well as finding and making up patterns. The clothing collection was completed and displayed at a public launch in 2014. Since then it has been shown at many exhibitions and educational events and will feature as a special display in Brightlingsea Museum.

The group went on to publish a full account of the project and its findings in 2019: ‘Oysters and Oilskins: The Clothes of Victorian East Coast Fishermen.’
The project was supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Essex Heritage Trust.

The group is now working on the question of what food the crewmen would have had in that era: The Pioneer Food Project with a working title of Onions and Oilskins!
For more on the Pioneer follow the link to the Pioneer Sailing Trust on this page.

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