The art of making spinning wheels is not something that we in Donegal readily associate with this part of the country but, not so many years ago, there was a master of this art living among us. That man was the late Frank Thompson of Stranorlar, dead this thirty years past, but who, during his lifetime, was a master of his craft and whose famed spinning wheels are still turning to this very day, not only at home in Donegal, but in many countries abroad.

This writer remembers meeting and talking with the late Frank at his humble thatched cottage at the top of Stranorlar. At that time, around 1960 Frank was then a hale and hearty eighty year old who loved nothing better than to sit at the hearth fire, smoking his pipe contentedly in the company of his daughters, Alacoque and Katie, still made his spinning wheels in his spare time.

Frank used to relate that making spinning wheels was an unusual occupation, particularly so for a man of his generation. It took a master craftsman to design and make a wheel and sadly today, the art has more or less died out in Ireland. Even at the grand old age of eighty, Frank was still making his beloved wheels while many other people who led an unexacting life and were his contemporaries, had been in retirement for thirty years.

Frank always said that his work was also his hobby and he could not have existed without it. He said at that time, "Since I was a boy I have never known what idleness was and I could not just sit around doing nothing. It stands to sense that a man who is in good health prefers to be doing something, if it were only to pass the time" : However the inclination to work, even for a man who was still vigorous at eighty years of age, would not have kept him busy if the orders for his wheels had not been coming in.

Anyone who visited Frank's tiny cluttered workshop in the era of thirty years ago, with its wheels in different stage of construction would have seen proof that he must have been one of the busiest craftsmen in the country. He worked single-handedly and because the craft was so highly skilled and hard to perfect, it was difficult to get any young man to take it up.

Frank Thompson started his trade relatively young and learned most of the tricks of the trade in the following fifty years. In that time span he turned out literally hundreds of wheels which found their way to many countries throughout the world.

Where did they all go and to what uses were they put? Before his death Frank commented that wheels which he made in his shop had been sent to the four corners of the world and he could hardly name all the countries that had people writing to him with orders. They had gone to Canada, America, Australia, all parts of England, Scotland and Ireland.

The strange thing about Frank Thompson was that he never served his time to the business. As a boy in his teens he worked for local building contractors for a while and then started as a body-builder for a man turning out horse-cars. Around this time, a good ninety years ago now, the spinning wheel was in fairly general use in the surrounding country districts, and Frank, from the first time he had seen one in operation, was fascinated by its precision . He often watched some of the old craftsmen making them. It was an intricate, tedious, highly skilled job that had to be painstakingly done to get the perfect article. In time, he had mastered all the secrets and soon was able to go into business on his own as one of the few full-time wheel makers in County Donegal. His reputation grew over the years and soon he had as many orders as he could cope with.

He was particularly proud to hear that a wheel which he booked all the way to Korea was to be the start of a weaving industry there and that his handiwork was still serving as a model for Cheju carpenters to copy in the mid 1960's. It is also interesting to note that in the 1960's a full sized spinning wheel in mahogany cost the princely sum of £11 while a miniature model sold for £6. Even towards the end of his long life, Frank Thompson could have an entire Spinning wheel ready in three full days.

Extract from Article by Noel Slevin: Finn Valley Voice - Sept. '97.