Quote Originally Posted by Pleater View Post
The Singer company used to sell its machines on hire purchase terms - could it be that the distances between settlements and 'civilisation' in the Highlands prevented this, as it would be uneconomical for someone to go and collect a few pennies each week from an isolated hamlet?

My father's mother bought a Singer sewing machine at six pence a week when living in a village in Derbyshire in the 1920's. I believe that the collector came on his bicycle from the nearest railway station.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:
I think that was quite likely the case in the Highlands of the 1920s and 1930s, as well, Anne. Hasn't Singer only been around for 150 years or so, though? If that's true the kilt was long gone as an item of common daily wear by the time the machine was being flogged door-to-door under a hire-purchase plan.

Rex