Laces are not made in the same way as cord, the older type normally have an outer tube of very fine interwoven threads surrounding a fairly soft core, the ends are clamped, formerly with a metal end - these days using a plastic glue and shrink wrap tube.

Flat laces are simpler, and are a thin woven braid, but again are not the same as cordage.

There was a fairly widespread corset industry in the Midlands, along with shoe and boot making, which might have been sufficient to maintain the making of laces for both these products close at hand.

When I lived in Leicestershire I worked for Allied Lyons at 'Symingtons Soups', and another branch of the family had owned 'The Corset Factory' in the town centre. I saw an old film on TV fairly recently, there were hundreds of films of everyday work and play discovered and conserved almost my accident, and the workers leaving the Corset Factory was one of them.

Anne the Pleater