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- Women sorting flax
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- Flax mill interior
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- Flax in fields
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- Working in flax fields
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- Flax mill interior
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- Flax mill interior
From the collection of the Oxford Museum
Part of the Cantage Records and Archives Week 2010 exhibition
Linen flax growing and manufacture during the war years in Oxford
Oxford was one of the areas used for the flax industry during the war years.
During the Second World War, the government promoted the growing of linen flax (a different species from New Zealand flax) in Marlborough, Canterbury, Otago and Southland. Linen cloth was urgently needed by Britain for aircraft construction and other uses. With the German invasion of the Netherlands and Belgium, the usual sources of supply were lost, so allies like New Zealand were asked to help. But when the war ended, this new fibre industry faded away.
Extract from Flax and flax working from Te Ara
Information on the New Zealand linen flax industry
- A Specialist War-Time Industry: The development of the linen flax industry in Marlborough from the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre
- Flax and flax working from Te Ara
- Marlborough’s Flax Industry from The Prow
- From NZine
April 29, 2010 at 8:49 am
[...] Linen flax industry in Oxford from the Oxford Museum [...]