ABSTRACT
Elastic web weaving appears to have been concentrated in Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and to a lesser extent in Coventry, though latterly a small society appears at Wootton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire. The earliest societies at Derby, Nottingham and Coventry dated from the 1850s but all except the Derby and Nottingham Surgical Elastic Bandage Makers failed to survive far into the twentieth century, the Derby Elastic Web Weavers being dissolved in 1903 and the Coventry Elastic Web Weavers in 1904. The most successful organisation was the Leicester and District Elastic Web and General Fabric Weavers Society of 1886. By 1910 this and the Derby and Nottingham Society were the main organisations to survive together with a small Leicester Braid Hands Union. The former stood aloof from a federal Amalgamated Association of Elastic Web Weavers, Braid Hands and Small ware Fabric Weavers formed in 1893. The small scale of the industry is evident from the fact that the two federated unions could command a combined membership of only 388, Derby and Nottingham accounting for an additional 126. The two main societies never merged. In the early 1920s the Leicester societies combined to form the National Union of Elastic Web Weavers, Braid Hands and Small Wares Fabric Workers which remained in existence until the early 1960s while the Derby and Nottingham Society remained separate until coming to an end as the Surgical Elastic Bandage Makers Society in 1966.
