John Wright Basketmaker

A traditional basketmaker shows how he makes a potato picker basket

John Wright of Onehouse, a village near Stowmarket, Suffolk, demonstrates the making of a familiar basket known as a 'potato picker'. He works with bare hands and sits of the floor at the lapboard. As he describes his work, he uses the specialist vocabulary of the craft: 'bodkin', 'brake', 'slewing', 'picking knife'.

This was filmed by the East Anglian Film Archive in the Boby Building at the Museum of East Anglian Life, Stowmarket, where the agricultural history of East Anglia is presented through exhibits and living history demonstrations.