The Golden River: Continuing the Flow in Film
Selvedge Issue 131, Flow, carries Texture Museum conservator Sylvie De Coster's article The Golden River, a history of linen and flax production in Belgium between 1850 and 1950. Now we can bring part of that story to life with a rare companion.
De Coster has shared something we could not be more thrilled about: a 1930s film from their archive! Moving footage of flax cultivation from this era is vanishingly rare, so to be able to share this with our readers feels like a genuine find. Made to mark Belgium's centenary and later reissued with a voiceover, it captures farmers, retters and weavers at work in short silent fragments, separated by title cards, a rare living record of the Golden River in its prime.
The river in question is the Lys, and its waters made Kortrijk's flax famous. Retting there produced pale, fine fibre, prized by spinning mills across northern France and the UK, though the real skill lay with the hekkenier, whose judgement on timing and depth could make or ruin an entire harvest.
By 1913, the valley processed 120,000 tons of flax a year. British buyers nicknamed it the Golden River, chasing fortunes rather than any shimmer on the water. Mechanisation, war and synthetic fibres all threatened to end the trade, yet around fifty flax businesses still work the valley today.
Watch the film below, and to learn more about flax and its history in the Lys Valley, visit the TEXTURE Flax & River Lys Museum...
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Image Credits:
Lead: Flax (detail) by Marion Elliot. View the full panel in Selvedge Issue 131, Flow.
Movie: Courtesy of the Texture Museum Archives