A photographic print of Fishing, Net Making & Repairing & Pellets

THE MODERN GIRL PLIES A CENTURIES-OLD TRADE July 13th 1953 PAR 36404 -2 (BKS-R) For at least seven centuries, the manufacture of nets, ropes, sailcloth and other hempen products has been the staple industry of the town of Bridport, Dorset. Of Bridport's present-day population of about 6,000, over a a thousand - many of them young women - are engaged in the industry, directly or indirectly. At one time locally-grown flax and hemp were used, but nearly all the raw material is now imported. It is recorded that all the ropes and sails for King John's Navy (he reigned from 1199-1216) were made at Bridport. And the expression 'stabbed by a Bridport dagger¹ for a person who had been hanged was current in 1530, when King Henry VIII reigned. This picture was taken in the Bridport works of of Joseph Gundry and Co. Ltd., a firm founded in 1665 and still controlled by lineal descendants of the founder. There were Gundrys engaged in the trade as early as 1580. PICTURE SHOWS:- PHYLLIS STROUD, attractive representative of modern Bridport, 'squaring through' a length of netting with a knife. FOR FIRST PUBLICATION IN EVENING PAPERS OF TUESDAY, JULY 14th. Industry - Fishing - Net Making