BEER LACE
The big controversy about lace in East Devon is what name to give it. Beer always insists it should be called Beer Lace, whereas Honiton (pronounced Hunitun, many "o"s in Beer are pronounced as a "u") insists that it is Honiton Lace. Lace was made in many of the surrounding villages, but Beer's claim is based on the fact that it was Beer where the Huguenot refugees settled when they introduce the skill of pillow lace to the area and Beer is where the Lace Shoppe used to be (it is now a restaurant in lower Fore Street). This was the major point of collection for trade and retail lace.  Honiton's name has been attached to the lace as it was the staging post on the main road (A303) to London, where most of the lace was ultimately sold. The local ladies made lace to supplement the family income in times of poverty. It was taught to all girls at Beer Primary School right up until the 1970's. There is still a class held in the village by May Wakley.

May was born in Restorick's Court in 1912. Her Aunt Caroline (Bartlett), who lived there would sit all day by the window making lace and that was her only means of living. The house was of local flint with a slate roof where the Beach Court flats are now, just below the boat builder's yard that used to be behind Joyce Paddy's at the bottom of The Meadows hill. They considered themselves lucky as they shared a outside flush toilet with only 4 other houses and had a stand pipe for water not far from their front door. This was in the days when Beer was divided at The Cross into up street and down street. However, May had an Aunt who lived up street as well and so she had access to both halves without suffering the worst of the prejudices. When she was 5 or 6 she can remember being asked on several occasions to go up to Miss Newton's (where the Mariners' Hall is now) with a piece of lace to bring back some tea or sugar. This would be wrapped up in a screw of newspaper and gives some idea of the work that had to be put into scraping a living together in those days in Beer, but the best of the lace was always taken to Mrs. Allen who owned the Lace Shoppe. In the 1920's she left Restorick's Court and lived in Gravel Cottages, which were thatched then. Originally a one-up-one-down, by now it was two-up-two-down. She had to share the back bedroom with her brother where the roof was so low that you could only stand up in the doorway.

She learnt lace at school as did all the Beer girls in those days, and although too young at first, she kept on to the teacher until eventually, just before the age of 8, she was allowed to join the older girls and learn to make Beer Lace. The lace classes were held in the Music Room in Berry Hill. It was part of the Beer Primary School curriculum up until very recently. It was eventually stopped under the headmastership of Mr Ashby. Later in life May was asked by the county lace class inspector if she would like to take the class. She declined and suggested Mrs. G. Restorick, but was herself eventually persuaded to teach, which she has continued to do up until the present.

She was commissioned by Princess Marguerita of Yugoslavia to make a lace picture for the Royal wedding of Charles and Diana, 17 of May's pupils took part in its production. It incorporated the Prince's plume of feathers, the date and a border all around. Delphin Franklin and May went to Buckingham Palace to hand it in, they didn't meet anyone famous, but they did get a royal cup of tea. May also made a present of 25 tiny motifs for Prince William's birth.

Before May's time Beer had made part of the flounce for Queen Victoria's wedding dress. Made in Beer with contributions from neighbouring villages, the flounce was returned to Beer in the 1980's for a special one off display in the Church. My wife, Carol, was one of the many volunteers who spent a night in the Church to guard it, because the insurance company would only give cover if it was attended 24hrs a day.