St Ives Rope Makers

Rope maker

Rope was a vital technology of the British Empire, enabling a small island nation to project global power. For rope makers, life depended on their surroundings. Some worked in the vast, echoing, quarter-mile brick halls of the Royal Naval Dockyard, while others laboured in open-air ropewalks in market towns like St Ives.

This article explores the scale of the naval industry and contrasts it with the intimate but essential craft of the rural artisan. It also traces the history of St Ives’ oldest business, S Robb and Son, which has traded continuously for over 200 years.

The Royal Naval Ropery

In the nineteenth-century Royal Navy, rope was a matter of national survival. A single first-rate ship of the line, such as HMS Victory, required over 31 miles of cordage. This demand made rope making one of Britain’s first truly industrial processes.

To secure a 3,000-ton ship in a gale, rope had to be produced in one continuous length, requiring vast buildings. The ropewalks at Chatham, Portsmouth, and Plymouth became some of Europe’s longest brick structures, often stretching over 1,100 feet. These were the high-tech hubs of their age.

Making rope for the Navy

Creating naval rope required a carefully choreographed process. Raw hemp, largely imported from Russia, was first hatcheled, pulled through metal spikes to remove tangles, creating thick clouds of dust.

The Ropery, Chatham Dockyard.

Spinners then walked backward along the ropewalk like the one at Chatham Dockyard, feeding hemp from bundles at their waists onto spinning hooks. A skilled spinner could produce up to 1,000 feet of yarn in one run. To prevent saltwater rot, the yarn was boiled in pine tar and passed through rollers. Finally, hundreds of yarns were twisted into strands and then into cables, with specialised wooden laying tops ensuring even tension and twist in large anchor cables.

Skills, pay and risks

Royal Dockyard trainees served a seven-year apprenticeship, trained to work out exact yarn requirements for specific circumferences. They maintained uniform thickness over hundreds of yards while walking backward.

As elite artisans, rope makers enjoyed job security and pensions. A skilled spinner earned 25–35 shillings a week, far more than a common labourer. However, the physical toll was severe. Inhaling hemp dust caused byssinosis (brown lung), exposure to boiling pitch led to chronic respiratory problems, and the repetitive work often resulted in lasting hip and leg issues.

Rural rope making

In a small agricultural town like St Ives, rope making was on a humbler scale. Although home to the UK’s second-largest livestock market after London’s Smithfield Market, the town lacked grand industrial buildings. Local ropers worked in open-air ropewalks, exposed to the weather. Damp air often prevented hemp from taking its essential twist.

Rope makers at Johnson's ropery, Pocklington, Yorkshire.

A rural rope maker emphasised bespoke craft over mass production. Much of their work involved hand-stitching cattle halters, horse tethers, and intricate harness parts, requiring splicing skills unknown to naval spinners. Many ropers were independent entrepreneurs, also producing flour sacks, leather bridles, and stack nets to protect hay from biting fen winds.

Income was volatile, tied to the harvest and local markets. Working outdoors in damp conditions often caused chronic rheumatism. While naval spinners suffered leg and hip issues, small scale ropers, working with delicate handcraft, more commonly developed arthritis.

Decline of the rope maker

Between 1870 and 1920, traditional rope making underwent a terminal shift. As the Royal Navy and merchant fleets moved from sail to steam, demand for miles of hemp cordage vanished. Thinner, stronger steel wire replaced natural fibres in maritime and industrial rigging, transforming an artisan craft into a metal engineering process and erasing centuries of hand-spinning skill.

The landscape changed as the iconic long ropewalk became obsolete. By the early twentieth century, compact vertical laying machines moved production from 1,000-foot brick halls and open rope fields into multi-story urban factories. Rural ropers could not compete with these high-speed mills.

The decline was completed by the synthetic revolution of the 1930s. Nylon and polypropylene offered lightweight, rot-proof alternatives. World War II cut traditional hemp supplies, speeding up the shift to chemical fibres. By the 1950s, the independent rope maker had vanished, surviving only in street names like Rope Walk.

S Robb and Son, St Ives

In the late 1700s, several Scottish weaving families, seeing no future for their craft around Dundee, moved south. Cottage weaving was highly skilled but couldn't compete with industrial machines, which unskilled, cheaper workers could operate more efficiently and  easily outproduce cottage weavers.

One relocated family was the Robbs, who settled in Houghton. Samuel Robb, born in 1793 to William and Mary Robb, moved to St Ives in 1814 to start rope making. He occupied premises in Back Street (today East Street) and laid out a 100-yard ropewalk at right angles to the street, later adding a 19-foot covered shed for shorter ropes.

S Robb & Son's ropewalk, 1880s.                         Robbs Walk, St Ives today.

The business prospered, and Samuel employed workers. In 1835 he advertised for a steady young man experienced in black work, preserving rope with Stockholm tar, a pine-based vegetable tar. The work was hot, sticky, and smelly, with intense fumes rising from the tar kettle, which coated clothes and skin.

Samuel had married Ann Finch at Houghton in 1819. Eight children followed, four aged from 8 to 15 still at home in 1841. Son George joined the business by 1851. George married Ann Rowland in 1854, opened a grocer’s shop on the Waits, and was elected parish constable. By 1861 they had three daughters aged between 2 and 5, with a 14-year-old servant. Samuel continued running the rope-making business with help from George, living in the house by the ropewalk with his wife Ann.

On Sunday 16 August 1868, Samuel died. Described as a real old toft who wore knee breeches, silk stockings, and silver buttons. Up to Friday he had been in full health, that morning feeling ill and gradually declining. His obituary noted he was much respected in the town.

From father to son

George took over the rope business but continued to live at and run the grocer’s shop on the Waits, though it was mainly managed by his wife Ann and their daughters. Eight children lived at home, aged from six months to fifteen years. George employed a man and three boys, including 14-year-old Charles Stocker.

By 1881, George and Ann had three more children, bringing the total to fourteen. Emma died in 1874 aged 17. On her gravestone in Broadleas Cemetery is also mentioned three children who died in their infancy. These children are unnamed. George’s occupation was listed as general shopkeeper and rope maker, with a man and three boys still employed, including his son Sam, aged 16.

With hemp and tar easily combustible, fire was a constant risk. In 1872, the fire engine responded after one of George’s boys threw an unextinguished match into hemp. The fire destroyed a shed and tools. Fortunately, the tar store and other flammable materials were spared.

In 1884, dense columns of smoke from Back Street caused a stir in town. Boiling tar had ignited, but Sam and another employee rolled barrels of Stockholm tar to safety, and the fire burned out without further damage.

In the 1885 Kelly's Directory, the firm was listed as Robb, Geo. rope and stack cloth maker, The Waits and East Street. George was a cheery old gent of very regular habit, visiting the Royal Oak each day at 11:00 am for half a pint of beer and returning by 11:10 am.

George Robb, 1899.

Most of the children had left home by 1891; only Sam, 26, and Alice, 20, remained. George, aged 67, relied increasingly on Sam in the rope-making business. Sam married Sophia Culpin in 1892. Their first child, Jessie, died in 1898 aged three. Sophia was pregnant at the time, and George William (known as Bill) was born five months later.

George Sr. died in 1899 aged 75. His obituary described him as a sound business man ... of sturdy judgement, of strict integrity, and of great business tact and shrewdness ... esteemed, respected and trusted. To read the full obituary, click here.

Sam took over the business, which had diversified beyond rope and twine to include tarpaulins, rick covers, sacks, and bags. Bill began learning the trade in 1914, starting at the bottom and working up, as his father and grandfather had, until he could perform every task.

Sophia, Bill & Sam Robb, St Ives, 1903.

First World War

The business lost five of its eight men to the armed forces. In 1916, Sam gained exemption for Lawrence Franks from military service, the only remaining maker of hemp rope for agricultural use in Huntingdonshire. Three months later Sam claimed exemption for Joseph Abbott, indispensable in making waterproof sheets for agricultural machinery. In 1916, Sam’s son Bill joined the Royal Flying Corps aged 18. In 1917, the firm provided ropes for Ingle Holt Island’s bathing place, costing £3 5s (£200 today).

Only two of the five employees who went to war returned safely. In 1917, Joseph Lister was killed in action by a sniper and is named on St Ives War Memorial but has no known grave. He left behind a wife and four children. His brother Richard was also killed in action in 1916, with no known grave, leaving behind a wife and two children. He is also named on St Ives War Memorial. To read the life stories of both brothers, click here. Another employee was killed, and one returned disabled.

Mechanise or die

Before the First World War, rope making at Robb's remained unchanged for a century. A rope maker, with a wad of hemp around his waist, spun fibres into yarns as he walked backwards down the ropewalk, a boy at the other end turning a large wooden wheel. The yarns were next twisted into strands, then into rope. The rope maker walked 20 miles a day backwards. The rough rope was washed, coated with sago flour paste, parafin wax, and finally polished to a smooth finish.

S Robb & Son ropewalk, East Street, St Ives.

After returning from war, Bill convinced his father that mechanisation was essential for the firm’s survival. This led to the replacement of boys on the ropewalk with electric motors. In 1921, Bill was a rope maker and saddler.

In 1924, there was strong opposition when St Ives Town Council decided to buy Stanley House for their new offices. A Ratepayers’ Association formed to oppose the purchase, but the purchase went ahead with Government approval. The Ratepayers’ Association increased its membership, and in November 1925, four Town Councillor positions were up for grabs. Three existing Councillors, including the current Mayor, stood again, while the Ratepayers’ Association put up four candidates, including Sam Robb. Sam won with 760 votes, and the other three Ratepayers’ Association candidates were also elected. None of the existing Councillors retained their positions. Sam’s popularity in St Ives led to his appointment as Mayor in 1928.

Gladys, Betty & Bill Robb, St Ives, 1927

Sophia passed away in 1934 at the age of 70. By 1939, Sam, aged 64, was a part-acting senior partner living alone at the East Street premises. Bill resided at 11 Cromwell Terrace with his wife, Gladys (née Harrison), whom he married in 1922, and their daughters, Elizabeth (Betty) (14) and Elaine (8). Bill’s occupation was rope and waterproof cover manufacturer for agricultural purposes, partner, and manager.

There was another fire in 1944, this time more severe. All of St Ives was lit up and the blaze could be seen for miles around. The workshop was gutted and much machinery lost. Fortunately, the stores, containing several hundred pounds worth of equipment and raw materials, suffered minimal damage. The estimated losses amounted to £600 (£24,000 today).

Sam died in 1946 at the age of 76. Bill inherited the business and followed in his father’s footsteps, serving as Mayor of St Ives from 1947 to 1949.

In 1948, Bill and Gladys moved to a new bungalow, West Darwood, near the ropewalk. Bill expanded the business, supplying products to other businesses across England. He also opened a shop at The Cross, facing down Bridge Street, selling toys, gifts, sports and leather goods, camping equipment and fishing tackle.

Presentation to Walter Bell in 1961 after 50 years service.
Back from left: Ron Houghton, Fred Thurmott, Bill Clark, George Clark, Dolly Bell.
Front from left: Ingle Woolstenholmes, Bill Robb & grandson George, Betty Yeandle, Walter Bell, Minnie Adams, Ruby Cooper.

It took time to build skills in their small team, so it was wise for S Robb and Son to retain workers by treating them well. Walter Bell, employed by the firm at age 13 in 1911, completed 50 years of service in 1960 and received a gold watch.

Last of the Robbs

When Bill died in 1962 aged 63, his obituary said he was One of St Ives' noblest sons ... approachable and sympathetic ... a big man with a big heart, generous in so many ways.

For the first time in almost 150 years, there was no son to take over. The business was sold to Edward Ilott, who then sold it to David Sells. In 1984, Ray Whitby took over and specialised in custom waterproof coverings. The firm moved to New Road in 1989, and again in 2012 to its current location at 11 St Ives Enterprise Centre, Caxton Road, St Ives.

In 2020, Ray Whitby partnered with Jill Kelly. Ray clearly loved what he did. He was working part-time right up to three days before he died in 2024.

Jill continues to run the business with one full-time employee and calls in part-time workers for rush orders. She continues to specialise in custom waterproof coverings for boats, camping, caravanning, and cars. Jill carries on the name of S Robb and Son, a St Ives business that has been continuously in existence for over 200 years.

Thank you to Jill Kelly of S Robb and Son, and to the Norris Museum, for some of the information in this article.