What's New - Archive
An Archive of the Winslow Bobbins 'What's New' page.
(Please Note - Any links in the archives below are no longer active.)

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11 November 2019
Reduction in stock
As we get ever closer to our retirement date, the stock of many of our beads, charms and other items reduces and in some cases will have sold out completely. Rather than have ever more and never ending 'While stocks last', 'Last few remaining' or No longer available' notices on every page and having to update the website continuously we are just putting the message here.

What will happen when and after we retire?
Any orders we receive or are postmarked on or before 5 January 2020 we will process so long as the items are still available. Orders received after that date, that is from 6 January, will be forwarded to Harlequin Lace.
Initially there will inevitably be a delay processing your order since, for accounting and legal reasons, we will have to complete a stock-take. Once this has been completed we will have to arrange with Sarah and Ben delivery of the remaining bobbins. Please bear with us and them during this transition period. Thanks.

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10 October 2019
BREAKING NEWS
On 6 January this year when we announced our decision to retire from bobbin making in 12 months time (see Important Announcement below) we thought we would finally find time to embrace eBay and gradually sell off our stock of bobbins over the ensuing months and years.

However, at this year's lace fair in Peterborough we were approached by Sarah Duffy, or Clothier as she was then, of Harlequin Lace who enquired what were we going to do with our remaining stock; were we thinking of selling off our stock of bobbins?

This set us thinking, especially as it would save us the time and trouble of selling on eBay - valuable time which we could use to do some of the things that we have planned in our retirement.

Over the years we have built up quite a stock of bobbins, therefore we agreed to prepare over the summer an inventory of our bobbin stock. This we handed over the next time we met, just after Sarah had married Ben.

We arranged for Sarah and Ben to return home via Buckingham after the lace fair in St.Ives last weekend so that they could see exactly the space our bobbins and equipment took up and to discuss matters further.

We are therefore delighted to announce that Sarah and Ben of Harlequin Lace will be taking over our stock of basic bobbins, exotic hardwood bobbins and also the templates we use to make the bobbins after we retire on 6 January 2020. This means that you will still be able to buy our popular bobbin styles after we have retired and enjoy collecting and using them in the years to come.

Obviously, we will not be around to decorate, pyrograph and spangle the bobbins as we have done in the past. However, after they have taken over, Sarah and Ben have many exciting new ideas which they are planning to introduce over time. No doubt they will announce details on their website as and when they are available.

We are sure that you will still enjoy the same quality and level of service from Sarah and Ben as you have from us in the past.

We'd like to end on a personal note. As we rapidly approach our final lace events before 'Retirement day', we are meeting many of our lacemaking customers, some of whom we have known for more years than we care to remember, for the last time and on occasion this has proved to be both touching and emotional. We will miss you. We'll also miss the other suppliers we have come to know in the lace world, and many we now regard as good friends. Despite being in competition, we are one big family. And remember we are only retiring from making bobbins, not retiring from life itself!

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On 6 January 2019 we made the following
Important Announcement
After much soul searching we have made the decision to cease bobbin production on 6 January 2020 - one year today. We thank you for your custom, and for the support and friendship of all our customers and fellow suppliers over the 47 years that Winslow Bobbins have been trading.

Why have we made this decision? What are the reasons behind our decision? Why 6 January 2020?

1. Over the years the number of lacemakers has contracted and since reaching a peak in the mid 1990’s our turnover has been following a slow downward trend.  We think it is better to retire now whilst we are still making a profit.
2. We want the time to do things, whilst we are still able - as many of you will know Ash Firth, a fellow lace supplier and good friend, decided to retire to do likewise but sadly died before he could fully enjoy his 'retirement'.
3. In a similar vein: many of you may have noticed that at Cranmore Park this year, our very good friends who have helped us over the past 10+ years were not there.  Very sadly, just over 6 months ago, Kathryn, who is less than 10 weeks younger than Steve, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer (having never smoked or worked in a smoky environment) and the prognosis was 6 months - 3 years.  
4. The impending introduction of "Making Tax Digital" by HMRC which will require small businesses to do their tax returns in a specific way.  Whilst tax accounting was Steve's speciality, it will involve us in a lot of extra work and expense, as we would need to invest in specialist approved software and not use the program that Steve wrote himself which suits the business and its needs perfectly.
5.  Changes in customs declarations for overseas packages - these are only proposals at present, but are scheduled to be introduced in the early 2020’s.  They will involve a great deal more paperwork, and since quite a lot of our sales are overseas it will take up more time, giving us less time to make bobbins!
6. Increasing Red Tape and associated costs in a number of areas affecting us as a small business eg. introduction of GDPR and PCI DSS compliance imposed by credit/debit card providers.
7.  The Brexit debacle - so much uncertainty, but leaving the EU with or without a deal in place will have quite a big effect on the business.
8. On 6 January 2020 we will finally both be entitled to our State Pension!
9.  That’s enough for now …. but we think you get the idea.

In the meantime we will continue as usual, attending lace events and producing our usual bobbins to commemorate significant anniversaries and other events. Although, since we will not be replenishing our stock of beads, charms and timbers, some items may become unavailable during the year.

There are a few things we won't miss like the early 4am starts and unloading/loading in the rain but many more things that we will miss, particularly our customers, event organisers and fellow traders many of whom have become good friends over the many years. Thank you all and we hope we will see you at a lace event somewhere in the country during our final year.

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September 2019
Having introduced our Christmas 2019 bobbin last month we have now added the companion New Year 2020 bobbin. See what it looks like on the usual Current Commemoratives page.

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August 2019
A little later in the year than usual we have finally come up with the design for this year's, and our final, Christmas bobbin and just added it to our Current Commemoratives page.

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July 2019
To celebrate England's first World Cup win in the ICC Cricket World Cup we just had to do a bobbin, especially after the exciting final against New Zealand.
See what we came up with on our Current Commemoratives page.

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March 2019
It has been a busy month which has seen the addition of three new bobbins to our Current Commemoratives page. The first commemorates the 75th Anniversary of D-Day, the second recognises the Centenary of the formal end of World War One by the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and finally a bobbin to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the first Moon Landing.

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February 2019
Sadly on 4 February our dear friend Kathryn, who was mentioned in our Important Announcement above, died. This has only served to strengthen our decision to retire. We will miss her greatly.
This month we have added our 2019 Mothering Sunday and Easter bobbins to the Current Commemoratives page. Whilst you are there you can see the commemorative bobbin we have done for the 50th Anniversary of Concorde's first British flight.

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6 January 2019

We would like to wish all our customers and visitors to our site a very happy, healthy and prosperous new year.

For us, 2019 starts with an
Important Announcement
After much soul searching we have made the decision to cease bobbin production on 6 January 2020 - one year today. We thank you for your custom, and for the support and friendship of all our customers and fellow suppliers over the 47 years that Winslow Bobbins have been trading.

Why have we made this decision? What are the reasons behind our decision? Why 6 January 2020?

(Since we would like all new visitors who visit this page to read the Important Announcement we have moved the complete announcement and the answers to these questions to the top of this What's New page.)

In the meantime we will continue as usual, attending lace events and producing our usual bobbins to commemorate significant anniversaries and other events. Although, since we will not be replenishing our stock of beads, charms and timbers, some items may become unavailable during the year.

There are a few things we won't miss like the early 4am starts and unloading/loading in the rain but many more things that we will miss, particularly our customers, event organisers and fellow traders many of whom have become good friends over the many years. Thank you all and we hope we will see you at a lace event somewhere in the country during our final year.

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November 2018
On the 14th November Prince Charles reached the grand old age of 70. To commemorate the event we have made a bobbin and full details can be found on our Current Commemoratives page.

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September 2018 (2)
We have introduced our New Year 2019 bobbin which complements this year's Christmas bobbin - details can be found on the Current Commemoratives page.

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September 2018
The start of a new business year for us and the time when we add six more sayings to our 'Wise Owl' collection and introduce this year's Christmas design. Click on the link to see the new sayings and go to our Current Commemoratives page for details of the 2018 Christmas bobbin. On the same page you will find the commemorative bobbins we added over the summer:
• The Centenary of the Great War Armistice
• The latest in our literary anniversary bobbins, Emily Brontë's 200th Anniversary and
• Geraint Thomas becoming the first Welshman to win the Tour de France.

Also over the summer we have added a page outlining our Privacy Policy and what we do with your details following the introduction of the new GDPR rules on 25 May 2018, clicking the link will take you to the relevant page.

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July 2018
Following the Christening of Prince Louis on 9th July we have added a new bobbin to our Current Commemoratives page to commemorate the event. The motif matches those we produced for the Christenings of Prince George and Princess Charlotte.

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May 2018
The name of the new Prince was announced too late for us to have bobbins ready for the Lace Society Rally, but we have been busy since and they are now available. It is a busy time for the Royal Family too as they celebrate the wedding of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle later this month. We have already designed the bobbin, but after the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla was postponed at the last minute following the death of the Pope in 2005, we will wait before finally adding the date. However, you can see both bobbins on our Current Commemoratives page now.

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April 2018
We are introducing a bobbin to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the Dambuster Raid to complement the RAF Formation Centenary bobbin currently on offer. Find them both on the Current Commemoratives page.

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March 2018
Eureka! After many weeks of emails between us and the software developers we have finally solved the problem of the missing logo.

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February 2018
Lesson learned - don't do a major change to the website just before going on holiday! Everything appears to be running smoothly, although we still have not solved the missing site logo.

We have just added two more Centenary bobbins to the Current Commemoratives page - one to commemorate the passing of the 1918 Representation of the People Act which, for the first time gave some women the right to vote and another for the formation the the Royal Air Force.

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17 January 2018 *** IMPORTANT ***
We expected there may have been a few problems when we uploaded the new website, but we didn't think they would be as disastrous as they turned out. When the new website was published on Sunday (14th), the code used was too advanced for the outdated legacy webserver we have been using for nearly 20 years. The website did not load properly and we were left with a very basic Home page.
It was therefore necessary for us to change webhosts which we have done. The new website should work on all current popular web browsers.
There are still one or two problems of which we are aware (the most noticeable of which is the missing logo on each page header, but this is not essential to the working of the site).

If you have our website bookmarked, please check that it has the correct URL www.winslowbobbins.com and NOT www.auax56.dsl.pipex.com.
Also if you have our email as auax56@dsl.pipex.com you should change it to info@winslowbobbins.com .

When the change of webhost was made we were required to switch our DNS nameservers. We have been advised that when this change was being made (between 4.30pm on Tuesday 16th and 11.15am on Wednesday 17th January - UK time) it is more than likely that any emails sent during this time will have been lost.

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14 January 2018
We've been busy little bees over the Christmas and New Year period and have at long last completed the update to our Website. It is rare that such major revisions go without a hitch, but if everything goes to plan we hope that when the new code is uploaded everything will work as it is supposed to. If there are any serious glitches we will revert to the old site if we can. We have tested the site using the most popular web browsers but should you experience any problems, come across any glaring errors or find missing links please let us know.

January 2018
As part of the update we have added this year's Mothering Sunday and Easter bobbins to the Current Commemoratives page.

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3 December 2017
On 27 November HRH Prince Harry and Ms Meghan Markle announced their engagement. As it was less than a week before the Christmas Lace Fair at Cranmore Park we were very busy preparing for the event. Still, we managed to produce some commemorative bobbins to take to the Fair but we didn't have any time to update the website - until now. Details, as usual, are on the Current Commemoratives page.

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20 November 2017
Congratulations to HM Queen Elizabeth and HRH Prince Philip who today celebrate their Platinum (70th) Wedding Anniversary. To commemorate this wonderful achievement we have produced a bobbin. For those of you who choose spangled bobbins we have a special spangle with platinum coloured Swarovski crystal pearl beads. Find out more on the Current Commemoratives page.

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November 2017
Just realised that we didn't add our New Year 2018 bobbin to our list of Current Commemoratives last month. This has now been rectified.

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October 2017
Our new eight bobbin set, 'Diets of the Week' is a parody on the 'Days of the Week' rhyme. It should have been added last month but time got the better of us. Still, better late than never. You can see full details on the Painted Sets page.

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September 2017
We had hoped to have rolled out our new website this month at the start of our new business year, but it is taking more time than we anticipated.

Since September 2010 we have kept the prices of our bobbins the same, absorbing all the increases in our costs. However we have now come to the point where we can no longer do this as our current prices are unsustainable.  Consequently, it is with regret that, for the first time in seven years, you will see an increase our prices.

It is at this time of the year we add six new 'Wise Owl' sayings and the link will take you to the relevant page to view the new additions.
Our Current Commemoratives page has details of the recently introduced Battle of Passchendaele Centenary bobbin along with our Christmas 2017 bobbin.
March 2017
We are celebrating two notable royal events the year. On 7th July it will be the centenary of Royal Proclamation issued by King George V which declared the formation of the Royal House of Windsor and on the 6th February the Queen became the first British Monarch to reign for 65 years. To commemorate both the Centenary and Her Majesty's Sapphire Jubilee we have produced bobbins. In addition, on 20th March the Forces Sweetheart, Dame Vera Lynn, celebrated her 100th birthday. Go to our Current Commemoratives page for full information on both bobbins.

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February 2017
We've added another bobbin to our Literary Anniversary collection - the 200th Anniversary of Jane Austen's death - details are on the Current Commemoratives page.

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January 2017
Back in September last year we mentioned that we were working on a major update to our website. It took us a little longer than we anticipated (doesn't it always!). but we eventually uploaded the revised site earlier this month.
However, as with all updates despite the best laid plans sometimes things can go wrong... and they did. Consequently we have had to revert to the old website for the time being.
To avoid any further problems we have decided to rebuild the website from the ground up. Therefore it will be much later in the year, or beyond then, before the new website will be up and running.

In the meantime we have introduced our Mothering Sunday and Easter bobbins for 2017 and you will find full details on the Current Commemoratives page.

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November 2016
For the many lacemakers who are also tennis fans we have produced a Bobbin to celebrate Andy Murray's achievement of becoming the first British singles tennis player to hold the number one ATP ranking. As usual the details are on the Current Commemoratives page.

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September 2016
As we start our 45th year it's time to add the six new 'Wise Owl' sayings to our ever increasing list - we are now up to 180 sayings.

Click on this Current Commemoratives link for details of the new additions - bobbins to commemorate the 350th Anniversary of the Great Fire of London and the 950th Anniversary of the Battle of Hastings along with a further addition to our 'literary anniversary' range, the 100th Anniversary of the birth of Roald Dahl.
On the same page you'll also find the designs for this year's Christmas and New Year bobbins.

Despite Team GB's heroic achievements at the Olympics in Rio, sadly the legal reasons, which prevented us from doing any London 2012 commemoratives, still apply.

Now for some good news. Despite continued increases in our costs, we are delighted to say that for the time being we are absorbing these increases, and our prices will remain unchanged as they have done for the past six years.

Sometime in the coming weeks we will be uploading a major update to our website (apart from a few pages, visually it should look the same. It is the underlying code that will change which should lead to pages loading quicker). As with all of these things however well we plan for all eventualities sometimes things can go wrong. If this should be the case, it may be that the website will be unavailable for a short period yet we will be unable to notify you of this.

Whilst we were on holiday we were informed that the Post Office had surcharged a customer for 'insufficient postage' paid deeming the package to be over 25mm thick. We have Post Office approved templates to measure our packages and could say with certainty that the surcharge was levied incorrectly.
Naturally, the package had been opened, so it was difficult to prove. However, on this occasion, the Post Office did refund the surcharge but it has suggested that should this happen in the future, the package should be weighed and measured before opening. We appreciate this is inconvenient, (especially if you are desperate for the bobbins to start or finish a project!) yet it is wrong to be surcharged without recourse to any appeal.

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July 2016 (2)
Quite a lot has happened since our first update this month so we've had to add a second update for July.

Firstly, Andy Murray has added a second Wimbledon title to his collection and we have added a commemorative bobbin to ours. Whilst neither of us are political animals we do recognise major political events and therefore have a bobbin for Theresa May's appointment as Prime Minister. Further details are on our Current Commemoratives page.

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July 2016 (1)
To complement the existing EU Referendum bobbin we now have another recording the result. We have also added another bobbin to our 'literary anniversary' range; the 150th Anniversary of the birth of Beatrix Potter. See our Current Commemoratives page for details.

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June 2016
See our Current Commemoratives page for details of the bobbin we have made to commemorate the 300th Anniversary of the birth of one of Britain's greatest landscape gardeners, Lancelot 'Capability' Brown.

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May 2016
To commemorate Leicester City's remarkable against-the-odds Premier League Championship win this season we have a bobbin to mark this feat. As usual the details are on the Current Commemoratives page.

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April 2016 (2)
Congratulations to Her Majesty on her 90th birthday. As promised, our bobbin to celebrate this milestone is now available and details can be found on our Current Commemoratives page along with a bobbin to commemorate the 50th anniversary of England winning the World Cup - is it really 50 years ago?

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April 2016 (1)
There are a number of literary anniversaries this year. We already have a bobbin to commemorate Shakespeare's 400th Anniversary and are now introducing a new bobbin with a book themed motif to commemorate the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Charlotte Brontë. Later in the year we'll have anniversary bobbins with the same motif for Beatrix Potter and Roald Dahl.

The European Union In/Out Referendum on 23 May is a significant political event and part of the social history of the UK. We have therefore produced a bobbin to commemorate the event which does not show allegiance to either camp. However, should you wish to pin your colours to the mast we can always do a 'special' inscription.

Details of these new bobbins are on the Current Commemoratives page.

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March 2016 (2)
Our stock of presentation boxes has lasted many years, but regrettably we are no longer able to offer them for sale. We had hoped to order more from our suppliers but the cost and minimum order requirements proved to be too great. Consequently they have been removed from the website.

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March 2016 (1)
It has surprised us, but there are quite a number of events to commemorate coming up. Some we will introduce later in the year, but for now we have added bobbins for the 500th Anniversary of the establishment of Royal Mail by King Henry VIII, the 400th Anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare and the Centenary of the Battle of the Somme.

We had hoped to offer an acrylic 'tennis ball' head bead option for the Davis Cup commemorative bobbins (to match those we had for Andy Murray's Wimbledon win) but our search for new stock proved fruitless. However, we have managed to source some ceramic ones.

Details of the new additions and ceramic head bead option are on the usual Current Commemoratives page.

Even though Her Majesty is presently in good health we are holding off doing a bobbin to commemorate her 90th birthday until after 21st April but, rest assured, we will be doing one.

Our main bead supplier appears to be reducing the range of beads suitable for spangles. Therefore, unfortunately, you will find an increasing number of items which are either low in stock or no longer available.

However, we have found a few new additions - 'Silver Speckles' and some new Semi-precious Stones. Go to our Special Spangled Bobbins page for details. There are also some new charms on the Special Charm Bobbins page along with a new range of Swarovski Crystal Birthstone Charms.

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January 2016
Another New Year - we hope it will be a good one for us all.

5-4-3-2-1 Blast Off! It's taken us a while, but at last we have found time to add the details of the commemorative bobbin we have done to mark Major Tim Peake's achievement of becoming our first 'Official' astronaut.

Details of the bobbin and those for Easter and Mothering Sunday 2016 are on the Current Commemoratives page.

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November 2015
Not only do we have our fingers crossed we are also touching wood as we report that we believe the email forwarding problem we were experiencing in September and early October has finally been resolved. If you were affected in any way we do offer our most sincere apologies.

We have therefore removed from the website all the warnings and temporary instructions we posted. However, just in case we have acted too hastily, if you do send us an email and have not had a response within 2 days (48 hours), please either resend the message or give us a call on 01280 816980.

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15 September 2015 (update 2)
The Continental square bobbins have arrived from Belgium and are available once again.

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10 September 2015 (update)
Just in case she decided to abdicate, we waited until late yesterday afternoon before starting to inscribe bobbins recognising that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II had become Britain's longest reigning monarch. See details on the Current Commemoratives page.

Our computer operating system has been updated. To date, it appears it has not affected the publishing of amendments to our website. The software upgrade has still to be implemented - fingers crossed!

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September 2015
It's hard to believe that another business year has come and gone, but here we are starting our 44th year.

As usual at this time of the year we introduce six new 'Wise Owl' sayings. We now offer a total of 174 sayings. We have also added a new four bobbin set, "House and Home" and details can be found on the Painted Sets page.

Our Current Commemoratives page also contains details of the latest additions: our Christmas 2015 and New Year 2016 bobbins and a bobbin to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of VJ Day which complements the VE Day Anniversary bobbin introduced earlier this year.

The latest news on the Continental square bobbins is that delivery is expected by the end of this month or early October.

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August 2015
Following a recent run on the Continental square bobbins which we import from Belgium, we have very low stocks of the plain Square bobbins and are totally out of stock of the plain Fancy Square bobbins. We have placed an order for more of these bobbins and hope to receive them in the near future.

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July 2015
At long last we believe the problem with the Current Commemoratives page has been solved. The page has been tested on most popular web browsers. However, if you encounter any glitches, please let us know.

There have been two new additions to the Current Commemoratives page - a bobbin to commemorate the Christening of Princess Charlotte and another for the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

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May 2015
We have another addition to the Current Commemoratives page - the 75th Anniversary of the Evacuation of Dunkirk. We hope that everything goes smoothly when we upload the page, but apologise in advance if things get worse. If you do experience any problems, let us know and we'll send details by email.
Congratulations to the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge on the birth of their second child, Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana on 2nd May. Naturally we have a produced a bobbin and details are on the Current Commemoratives page.

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March 2015
It's been a busy month for commemoratives with four new bobbins added - 200th Anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, 70th Anniversary of V.E. Day, General Election 2015 and the Reinterment of Richard III . Go to our Current Commemoratives page for full details.

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February 2015
We've added two new bobbins to our Current Commemoratives page: a companion to the Reverend Libby Lane 'Appointment' bobbin which commemorates her Consecration as Bishop of Stockport and a bobbin to celebrate the 800th Anniversary of the Magna Carta.

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January 2015
Happy New Year to you all.
Production came to a halt over the Christmas period, not only as a result of the holidays, but Steve foolishly suffered freezer burn handling frozen turkeys, blistering his fingers and stopping him from doing any bobbin work.

Consequently it's taken until now before we could produce a bobbin for the appointment of Reverend Libby Lane the first woman Church of England bishop - details on the Current Commemoratives page.

Our 2015 Easter and Mothering Sunday bobbins can be found on the same page.

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December 2014
In the past few weeks we have had requests for a bobbin to commemorate the Tour de France visiting Yorkshire for the Grand Départ. At the same time we added a bobbin for the European Space Agency's spectacular scientific achievement of landing the Philae probe on a comet. As usual, full details can be found on our Current Commemoratives page.

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September 2014
The start of another business year, our 43rd.
Only a few new additions this year, but these do include the latest half dozen 'Wise Owl' sayings bringing the total number of sayings we now offer to 168.
Our Current Commemoratives page also contains details of the three latest additions: New Year 2015 and bobbins to commemorate the first birthday of Prince George and the 'No' vote in the historic Scottish Independence Referendum on 18 September.

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June 2014
We must start with an apology for the following announcement. Summer has hardly started we know, but Christmas is just around the corner!
We are often asked why do we have Christmas bobbins so early in the year. Well, there are some places we visit just once a year and that's the only opportunity some lacemakers have to see and buy them. Also, if we left it until November/December to make them we could find ourselves with no time to do any other bobbins. To see this year's design go to Current Commemoratives.

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May 2014
The acrylic tennis ball head beads are back in stock for the Andy Murray bobbins. We have also obtained acrylic football head beads which are an option on our World Cup Brazil 2014 bobbins which have just been added to our Current Commemoratives.

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April 2014
Unfortunately our suppliers are out of stock of the acrylic tennis ball head beads at present. However, whilst searching for other stockists we did come across two new interesting bead ranges, Neon Pearls and Gumdrops which we have added to our Special Spangled page.
By special request, we are now making a bobbin for the 70th Anniversary of D-Day which is on our Current Commemoratives page.

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January 2014 (update)
Due to issues with our static IP address, or so we are told, the upgrade to fibre broadband took longer than anticipated and we were off-line for 46 hours. Apologies to anyone who was affected. However we are now back on-line and 'cooking with gas'!

The 2014 Easter and Mothering Sunday bobbins have now been added to our Current Commemoratives page.

STOP PRESS
We have been notified that our telephone connection will be upgraded in the afternoon of Monday 27 January (to provide us with a super-fast fibre broadband network). This will mean that for a minimum of one hour that afternoon (and, we are told, a maximum of four hours!) we will have no access to the internet and will be unable to make or receive calls during this down time.
At the same time our website server should also be upgraded. We have not been given any estimate as to how long this may affect access, other than "it could be days rather than hours if things don't go smoothly!". So do bear with us during this transition.

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December 2013
Following the announcement of the death of Nelson Mandela on the evening of Thursday 5 December we were very busy the following day making commemorative bobbins for the National Christmas Lacemaker's Fair at Cranmore Park, Solihull on the Saturday. Of course we couldn't make enough and we sold out. Since then we have been working hard and not only are the bobbins now back in stock but we have also found the time to put a photo on our Current Commemoratives page.

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October 2013
HRH Prince George was Christened on 23 October and to commemorate this event we have produced a bobbin. Details, as usual, on our Current Commemoratives page.

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September 2013
For us, September sees the start of a new business year. During the summer we have been busy updating our paper brochure, which was long overdue and making some changes to the website

In these difficult economic times we are pleased to announce that our bobbin prices remain unchanged for another period. However, due to increased postal charges on larger, bulkier packages, regrettably we have had to introduce a 50p postal supplement on a few items. These are marked with a ^† throughout the website.

If you are likely to be meeting us at a lace event why not avoid the postal charges altogether and get in touch beforehand. We'll do our best to have the bobbins done and put to one side for you to collect. As we can be very busy before most lace events, particularly the larger Lace Fairs the more notice you can give the better, preferably at least one week.

New Additions
As usual at this time of year there are a few additions to our line-up of bobbins.
For further information and pictures of the new bobbins please click on the appropriate link.

Firstly we have a new 4 bobbin Painted Set - 'Friends in Lace' and three new ranges of Special Spangled bobbins:
'Wood Grain' Stones - a natural stone (marble) head bead which has the appearance of wood grain,
Four-sided spears - a black and orange spear shaped head bead and,
Peacocks - peacock eye-feather dots on three different shaped head beads.

We have added a further six sayings to our 'Wise Owl' list. The total number of sayings is now 162.

Current Commemoratives
We have three more bobbins to add to our Current Commemoratives range - our New Year 2014 bobbin and, with apologies to our Australian lacemakers, one for England retaining the Ashes, together with another for the Lions' Test Series win.

**Special Offer**
Never one to miss a bargain, we found ourselves with a surplus of Amarello. So whilst stocks last, we are offering 10 spangled Amarello 'Better' Basics in our popular style J for £20.00, a saving of £4.00.

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December 2012
If you have one of our 2011/12 brochures, we are pleased to say that despite increases in our costs we are making no changes to our prices. We have therefore extended the validity date on our order form to the end of April 2013. The Brochure and Order Form, which can be downloaded from this website, have been amended to reflect this.

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October 2012
For legal reasons we have been unable to commemorate the Olympic and Paralympic Games or the wonderful achievements of our athletes (see explanation below).
But, thanks to the performances of our sports stars we have been able to produce bobbins to commemorate their other successes - Bradley Wiggins' historic achievement in becoming the first ever British winner of the Tour de France, Andy Murray winning his first Grand Slam title, the first British man to win a Grand Slam since 1936 and the European Ryder Cup team's remarkable comeback to retain the trophy. Full details of these and our full range of commemoratives can be found on our Current Commemoratives page.

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September 2012
In May 2012 we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the making of Winslow Bobbins' first bobbin. There have been many changes in the intervening years but as we start another business year, thanks to our wonderful lace making customers in the UK and throughout the world, we are still going strong.

New Additions
As usual at this time of year there are a few additions to our line-up of bobbins.
For further information and pictures click on the appropriate links.

Firstly, we have introduced a new Christmas Charm set, a silver coloured tree and a new Special Spangled Bobbin range, Pavé set Rhinestones. These interesting Shamballa style Pavé Rhinestone head beads are covered with tiny rhinestones set closely together to give the appearance of a surface paved with stones.

For those of you who collect our 'Wise Owl' sayings, there are six new sayings added to the list which brings the total up to 156.

Current Commemoratives
Over the past few months we have had a few Christmas 2012 bobbins at the lace events we have attended. They have now been added to our Current Commemoratives range along with the New Year 2013 bobbin.

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Why are we not producing Olympic commemorative bobbins?
Unfortunately bureaucracy prevents us from producing any Olympic or Paralympic commemoratives.
We have long been aware of the Olympic Symbol etc. (Protection) Act 1995, but we are now also restricted by the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006.

The following extract is taken from the London 2012 site:
"All the official names, phrases, trade marks, logos and designs related to the 2012 Games and the Olympic and Paralympic Movements are protected by law in a variety of ways."
These include:- The Olympic and Paralympic symbols, the London 2012 Emblem, Mascots, the words 'London 2012' and the words 'Olympic', 'Olympiad', 'Olympian'….

Permission to use any of these names, phrases, trade marks, logos and designs is granted principally to official sponsors and licensees.
Certainly we could not afford to become an official sponsor or licensee, and if we went ahead and advertised and sold commemorative bobbins, both LOCOG and the IOC have much larger bank accounts than we do, if it came to a legal battle!

We are as sorry as many of you about this, but we cannot afford to take the risk of litigation.