Latest News
Current news.
It is with much sadness and a very heavy heart that I have to announce that yesterday afternoon Heather passed away.
Less than a year has passed since she received the final diagnosis that she was suffering from Fronto-temporal dementia. In the intervening period she experienced a rapid deterioration. Thankfully during her final hours she showed no sign of agitation and was not in pain. I was holding her hand and talking to her when she peacefully slipped away.
In the last few months she had had no quality of life so we are thankful that things weren’t prolonged and she didn’t suffer. Throughout the whole time she has been uncomplaining, which was so typical of Heather.
Dennis (Sizeland) her father who started the family business and will be 94 this month, has done remarkably well, all things considered.
I am keeping the header as 'Steve and Heather Smith' in recognition of the large part she played in the production of the remaining bobbins we have for sale.
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15 July 2023
Sadly we have had to remove the spangling option from the website.
As many of you know it was Heather who spangled our bobbins - not only did she have excellent hand-eye co-ordination she also was very good at choosing colours to match or tone with the painted decoration or wood, unlike Steve who suffers from colour blindness and has less than perfect hand-eye co-ordination.
Unfortunately since 'retiring' Heather's health has deteriorated and she is no longer able to spangle and much of Steve's time is taken up caring for her.
We have updated the Bobbin Store to show not only the number of bobbins available but how many are available spangled and unspangled. It may be that we will no longer be able to supply pairs of bobbins with matching spangles.
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31 August 2020
This day sees the end of our final business year when our final accounts are prepared and our Partnership dissolved.
However, we are keeping the website open as we still have some of our inscribed and painted bobbins available. We will endeavour to keep it as up-to-date as we can. For the foreseeable future we will also retain the 'Winslow Bobbins' domain name especially as we use it for many of our personal email accounts.
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27 February 2020
We are sad to announce that Heather's mum, Kathleen (Sizeland) died peacefully at Florence Nightingale Hospice, Stoke Mandeville in the early hours of this morning. Kathleen along with Dennis started Winslow Bobbins back in the early 1970's.
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22 January 2020
If you are a beginner or an experienced lacemaker about to embark on a big pattern and looking for a quantity of bobbins at a reasonable price we just might have what you're looking for. We have just added 'Potpurri' to our Current Commemoratives page. The selection is pot luck but these spangled bobbins are great value working out at £1.00 each or less. Our final few 'Thank You' bobbins have been added to the same page.
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18 January 2020
The transfer of Winslow Bobbins to Sarah and Ben of Harlequin Lace was completed today when they collected 'their' bobbins from us. As they have plans to introduce their own designs there were some bobbins that they did not want - principally those we have inscribed (eg. Birthstones, Zodiacs, Burnt Patterns etc.) and those with our painted motifs both plain and inscribed (Commemoratives, Wise Owls, sets etc.). In addition we also have some individual charms, including Initials and Zodiacs remaining.
Details of the bobbins and charms remaining are being added to the Bobbin Store pages. Where stock of a particular design is very low we will try and show how many are remaining and will do our best to keep these pages up-to-date. Once they have gone they will no longer be available. However, now that we are retired we may not be able to respond as quickly as we have in the past.
One minor inconvenience is that in running down the business we have given notice to terminate our contract with our debit/credit card provider and as a consequence we will no longer be able to accept card payments. New details of how to pay are on the How to Order page.
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For the old Winslow Bobbins 'What's New' pages go to the Archive page.
We have tried to check all the changes on the website resulting from these new additions but no doubt some mistakes may have slipped through the net. If you come across any mistakes or experience any problems, errors or failed links please let us know so that we may try and rectify them.