Ropemaker David Ellwood is calling it a day after 48 years in the business, writes Justin Hawkins.

His retirement spells the end of an era for the Ellwood family, who have been making rope in Kendal since 1816.

Back then, when George III was on the throne, D.F. Ellwood and Sons began life on Stricklandgate and moved to High Tenterfell before finally settling in 1910 into the custom-built, 100-yard sheds at Stockbeck where David started work with his father and uncle almost half-a-century ago.

Nowadays it's hard to imagine just how important rope was in this country's sea-faring history and how much was once required.

For instance, Admiral Nelson's ship, HMS Victory, which fought at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, had more than 29 miles of rigging. And even when the age of sale had passed, rope was still a crucial part of Britain's industrial might and Ellwood and Sons provided miles and miles of rope to meet the huge demands of the mighty Port of Liverpool in its hey-day in the 1930s.

But even in David's time, he has seen plenty of change in the industry, not least with the decline of the British fishing fleet. "They used to say that a fisherman's line and nets were worth more than his trawler," said David. That need may be much diminished, but David still supplies some trawler men. Indeed, he still has more to do with fishing nets than with the internet and the small office at Ellwood and Sons which has seen neither computer nor fax machine as David has always kept his books in a ledger and all the information he needed in his head.

Technology may have moved on and, while David does produce plenty of modern synthetic rope, he also uses traditional natural fibres and traditional techniques when he can.

He still makes traditional cow bands, used by farmers for tethering cattle and other farm jobs, out of Egyptian flax on an old-fashioned rope-making sled and top.

"We used to make gross after gross of these," he said, "but there's still a few required and it's nice to work with the flax - farmers prefer it because it's kinder to the animals."

The softness of such fibres also means that they are the best thing for cargo nets in popular children's playgrounds, tug-o-war ropes and the like.

Other new markets have turned up in recent decades; nowadays there is a huge demand for certain types of twine fuelled by the national gardening obsession; in the 1970s a fad for macram created a need for umpteen miles of hemp, jute and other fibres from which to make thousand of plant pot holders; and David has made rope for a Roman catapult, other replica weapons and ancient battle dress.

One unusual market hurled David into the headlines when he declined a contract to provide dozens of hangman's ropes to the South African government and refused to send a hanging rope to execute a prisoner on death row in America.

"I got a letter from Amnesty International thanking me and I got into the Gazette and the national dailies for that," he said.

While David, who lives on Aikrigg Avenue and has never married, admits he'll miss the business, he says it's about time he bowed out.

"I will be 66 at the end of May and I'm getting tired," he said, "Business now is all deadlines everybody wants everything yesterday. It's much more pressurised than it used to be. I'm ready for retiring. I've got plenty of interests but I think I'll just recover for the time being."

May 1, 2003 13:00