Monument record MDR13021 - Plackett's workshop/factory (site of), Longmoor Lane, Breaston

A lace factory is marked on the 2nd ed. 25" Ordnance Survey map of c. 1900, on a site which had previously been occupied by what, on the 1st edition map, appears to have been a house or houses. (1, 2) Between the 1820s and 1920s machine-made lace in Breaston was dominated by the Plackett family, who concentrated on warp lace. Out of six warp net makers listed in Breaston in 1857 five were Placketts. In 1861 Henry Plackett, aged 60, was manufacturing both silk and cotton warp laces, and eight other Placketts in the village were all described as either silk or cotton 'lace makers'. Henry retired in the 1870s and the business continued to be run by Henry junior and William Plackett as H & W Plackett until it ceased trading between 1925 and 1928. Plackett's were noted for cotton warp tattings and a fine quality Italian silk warp lace. The Breaston factory was four stories high, with 15 standings on each floor. (3)