Devon Wool Trade
I praise the Lord and ever shall. ‘ Tis the sheep hath paid for all
Journeying around England in 1698, from Cullompton, Celia Fiennes wrote.....
"From thence 10 mile to Exeter up hills and down as before till one attains those uppermost ridges of all which discovers the whole valley, then you sometimes go a mile or two on a Down till the brow of the hill begins in a descent on the other side;
this City appears to view a mile distant from one of those heights, and also the River Exe which runs to Topsham; where the ships comes up to the bar; this is 7 mile by water, from which they are attempting to make navigable to the town which will be of mighty advantage to have ships come up close to the town to take in their serges, which now they are forced to send to Topsham on horses by land which is about 4 miles by land; they had just agreed with a man that was to accomplish this work for which they were to give £5 or £6000, who had made a beginning on it. ' she also wrote that a stinking miasma hung over the valley of the Exe, caused no doubt by the fulling mills and the use of stale urine to cleanse the cloth.
excepts from my little book about the wool trade in Devon
written and illustrated by Annie Pomeroy 1998
Wool has been a part of the fabric of human society since before recorded history. Once ancient mankind began killing sheep to eat they soon discovered that the skin could keep them warm. Thus the relationship became a symbiotic in which Man got the best of it, unsurprisingly. The skin of dead sheep helped protect man from the elements, meat to feed him and fat made the light for his dwelling, and it was soon discovered that yarn made the fleece would provide the means to make cloth which was warm and water repellent and hardy even when wet. Even now, in the 21st century, we have never matched the qualities of wool for warmth and water resistance. There is no other material that has all its qualities although we have learned how to refine and improve wool cloth.
The first wool was rough and dark. It was plucked from the sheep and felted into hardy rough cloth. Gradually spinning and weaving were devised and the craft of cloth making began.
Gradually the production of wool cloth became an essential to every household. Then an export trade started and the early economy of England was built on the trade in raw wool. And continued for many centuries, right up until the late 19th century.
The importance of wool is reflected in the presence of the Woolsack upon which the Lord Chancellor in Parliament sits. It was introduced by King Edward III (1327-77) and is stuffed with English wool as a reminder of England's traditional source of wealth - the wool trade - as a sign of prosperity.
The landscape of England we see, and love, now has been created by generation upon generation of human toil and ingenuity. Scarcely a mile of the entire land is untouched by the hand of man and in Devonshire, the high rainfall and warm climate made it a rich and fertile place.
Initially the settlements were on the high moorland and Dartmoor had a relatively high of population throughout Stone Age and Iron Age. As the millennia passed the climate changed and became harsher on the uplands, less habitable, so the population ventured down into the wooded valleys to form new settlements usually beside a water source.
When the Romans conquered they established their military garrisons and linked them with long straight military supply roads. At garrison of Isca-Exeter, wool and tin was traded, Dartmoor having large deposits of alluvial tin, and this made Isca-Exeter a bustling place. When the Romans left Britain centuries later the country slid into economic darkness as all that they had created gradually fragmented.
The Saxons began to raid along the east and south coast, and despite the efforts of local warlords such as Alfred the Great of Wessex, they invaded. They were farmers and they settled and began using the open field system imported from their homeland, the flat farmlands of Saxony. This was the beginning of the field rotation system, worked by serfs and villiens for hundreds of years and familiar from every history lesson on Medieval England. It was not, however a method of farming particularly suited to Devon with its steep sided hills and deep valleys. However, once sheep were introduced and the production of wool began, this soon began to become an important economic resource.
Woollen and Worsted are two major classifications for wool yarns and fabrics.
The raw wool was produced in the area surrounding Exeter, in isolated farms and long houses. There the fleece was washed and the long fibres separated out to be combed, then short undercoat carded until it was ready for spinning. Early on, as already mentioned, the fleece was spun using a simple spindle and a distaff, a sort of forked tree branch, that held the fleece and allowed the spinner to draw out the fibres to spin. Later spinning wheels made the process quicker but the process was essentially the same. Once the yarn was ready it was sold on to the weaver who created the cloth on his large wooden loom.
Some yarn went into Exeter to the many weavers working there but much of it was taken to local weavers and the cloth was taken to the cloth market in Exeter for finishing
There are place names all across England which are based on the wool trade which have also became family names : Woolston, Wolston, Woolley, Wolsey, Woolfadisworthy; Shipley, Shepley, Sheppey, Shepperton, Shefford, Shifford, Shipton, Shepton, Rackfield, to name just a few.
Family names originating from the wool trade
Like many other trades, including that of the blacksmith, the importance in England of the wool trade can be seen in all kinds of expressions that have entered our language and family names. Here are a few of the occupations connected to wool that gave rise to family names.
The most obvious is Shepherd – who tended the sheep.
Pack/Packer/Packman / Lane/Laney/Lanier – who transported the fleeces;
Stapler/Staples , who bought the raw wool; Card/Carder/
Tozer/Towzer, Kemp/Kemper/Kempster -
they combed the wool;
Dyer/ Littester/Lister, dyed the wool;
Weaver/Webb/ Webber/Webster (German: Weber) all wove the fabric;
Fuller/Tuck/Tucker/Tuckerman, who treated the cloth, shrunk it and created a nap; also called Walkers
Shears, Shearer Sharman/ Shearman/ apart from the men who removed the fleeces , these were the men who used shears to remove the nap from woollen cloth to produce finer qualities of fabric;.
Clothier/Draper – sold the prepared the woollen cloth to the tailors and dress & coat makers;
Taylor / Cutter -who turned the wool into garments.
The Whole Art of Dyeing
Original French publication of 1669, translated and published in London 1705.How Stuffs must be Allomed, particularly for Reds ( Alum being a mordants)For every Pound of Stuff, hang Rain or running water over the fire adding one third part of the Starch or Bran water; put in 2 oz of alum, one ounce of Tartar, when it boils and froths, first skim it, then put in the Stuff, stir it very well about for an Hour, then take it out and rinse it.
The quantity of alum must always be double to that of Tartar.To Dye Madder RedTake 3 lb of Allom, two Pound and half of white Tartar, a quarter of a pound of Fenugreek, two quarts of Wheat bran, boil all in the copper, then put in the stuff and let it boil 2 hours and half, after which take it out, cool it very well and hang it out for one Night; then to dye it, take 7 pound of Madder, an ounce and a half of Aqua Fortis, a Pint of Wheat Bran, put them into the copper, stir them very well about, and when the stuff have been very well rinced in the dye, then wind it very swift upon a Roller and tumble it about the Copper for an Hour at least, taking care that the Fire keep it boiling hot; after which take it out and rince it.
To Dye Red
First take three Pound of Allom, two pound of Tartar, half a pint of Wheat Bran, in proportion to twenty three English yards of cloath, then put more water into the Copper, and add 6 Pound of good Madder and a glass full of Vinegar, let the Dye be hot and then put in the Cloath, stirring it about till it hath sufficiently imbibed the Red Colour, then rince it out, and you will find it of a beautiful red, always pre-supposing that the Cloath hath been first boiled three hours in Allom and Tartar.
Geneva Madder Red
Take 3 pound of Allom, one pound and half of Tartar, boil the stuff in it an hour and half, then pour off the Water and put fresh water into the kettle, make a liquor of ten pounds of Madder, four oz of Potashes, and some urine, and boil it off when it hath dissolved one night.
To Dye English Red
Take 3 pound of Allom, two pound of white wine tartar, 31/2 oz of Ceruse (White Lead), a pint of Wheaten Bran, and boil the Cloth in this liquor an Hour and a 1/2, and leave it to soak a whole Night in the suds, and after it is rinced out, take for every piece of cloth, six pound of good madder, two ounzes of Orlean, an ounce and half of Turmerick, two ounces of aqua satis, let the cloth remain three quarters of an Hour upon the roller, and you will have a good English red, then rince it out.
Bibliography. This work was never intended as a work of academic merit. I have consulted numerous references.
These include:
Lecture notes of Mr P Amery, delivered to Devonshire Association 1876. Handwritten notes kindly lent by Mrs Wendy Major.
The Book of the West. Vol I Devon S Baring Gould, Pubs; Methuen London 1899.
Agricultural Survey 18 19 century Charles Vancouver, Pubs; David & Charles, Newton Abbot Vol 1 1876
Ashburton and the woollen Trade. P.F.S Amery Transactions of the Devonshire Association Vol 8 18 76
Ashburton The Dartmoor Town, Francis Pilkington, Pubs; Devon Books 1989
Celia Fiennes Illustrated Travels of 1698, Pubs; Macdonald Press London 1986
Cradle of the Sea Dogs, Eric Delderfield, Pubs; Raleigh Press Devon 1951
Dartmoor Industrial Archaeology. H. Harris, Pubs; Peninsular Press, Devon, 1968
Dartmoor, a New Study. Ed. Crispin Hill, Pubs; David & Charles, Newton Abbot. 1971
Devon and its People. W.G Hoskins, Pubs; A Wheaton & co Exeter, 1899
Economic History of Devon. Bland, Brow and Fawney, Pubs; Bells & sons London 1914
England in the Late Middle Ages. A.R Meyers. Pubs; Penguin London 1979
English Medieval Towns, Colin Platt. Pubs; Book Club, London 1983
English Society in Early Middle Ages DM Stanton, Pubs; Penguin 1983
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History of Buckfast, Dom J Stevhan, Pubs; Burleigh Press, Bristol. 1970
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Old Innes and Taverns of Exeter. West County Studies Library
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The Wool Trade, Eileen Power Pubs; Oxford University Press 1941
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Tuckers Hall Exeter, Joyce Youings, Pubs The University of Exeter 1968
The History of the West Country woollen Cloth Industry. KB Ponting, Pubs; Macmillan Press 1962
The Devon Cloth Trade in the Eighteenth Century. Edit. S Chapman Devon & Cornwall Record Society Vol 23. Torquay 1979
The Medieval Machine J. Gimpel, (2nd edn, Pimlico, London 1992 repr.