Hundreds of years ago, the glovemakers of the Yorkshire Dales were known as the most skilled knitters in the land.

In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, both women and men in the sheep-farming areas of the Dales were fast, prolific wool spinners, and the families of wealthier yeoman farmers were as much part of the industry as working-class cottagers. Villages such as Dent, Aysgarth and Bainbridge were hotbeds of the trade, and larger-scale businesses were set up at Yore Mill at Aysgarth and Farfield Mill in Sedbergh, buildings which are still standing today.

The gloves they made – alongside other woollen garments such as socks – became recognisable for their complex designs and for the unique tradition of the owner’s initials and dates being sewn into the fabric, and today a few surviving examples of the craft are on display in the Dales Countryside Museum at Hawes.

On May 20, the museum is hosting an all-day event in honour of these knitters, featuring talks and workshops. Among the stories to be told are that of Dent woman Margaret Thwaites, imprisoned for decades in The Retreat mental asylum in York, where she continued to knit. Three experts will be hosting the sessions, which are aimed at knitters, textiles experts and history enthusiasts.

Yore Mill at Aysgarth was once a woollen mill where gloves and stockings made all over the Dales were processed

Knitting writer and researcher Angharad Thomas will be joined by designers and historians Ann Kingstone and Penelope Hemingway.

The hand-knitting tradition developed in the Dales because of the area’s remoteness. Woollen mills became ‘middlemen’ to commission and then collect to transport to market the gloves and stockings made by local artisans.

Eventually, the trade died out as machine techniques advanced – by the late 19th century, the labour was seen as backbreaking and dull when a sock machine could knit a stocking in half an hour.

"In earlier periods, men and women knitted, but as roads into the Dales improved, men were made fun of by outsiders, and so slowly men stopped knitting,” said Penelope Hemingway.

The event at the Dales Countryside Museum costs £50 per person and tickets must be pre-booked. There is a choice of workshops running throughout the day.

The history of the Yorkshire Dales glovemakers - whose knitting skills and thriving trade were decimated by roads and ridicule