Wealden Cloth Industry
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Wealden Cloth Industry
{{refimprove, date=December 2018 Cloth-making was, apart from iron-making, the other large-scale industry carried out on the Weald of Kent and Sussex in medieval times. The ready availability of wool from the sheep of the Romney Marsh, and the immigration from Flanders in the fourteenth century of cloth-workers – places like Cranbrook attracted hundreds of such skilled workers – ensured its place in Kentish industrial history. The industry spread along the Weald, and as far north as Maidstone. It was helped by the fact that Fuller's earth deposits existed between Boxley and Maidstone: it being an essential raw material for de-greasing the wool. At the time the export of it was forbidden, lest it help their rivals. Once the wool had been carded (to get rid of the tangles) and spun (both these processes could be done in the workpeople's own homes), it then required weaving. Since that process required looms and the space to do it, 'clothier's halls' were required. These were, ...
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Wealden Iron Industry
The Wealden iron industry was located in the Weald of south-eastern England. It was formerly an important industry, producing a large proportion of the bar iron made in England in the 16th century and most British cannon until about 1770. Ironmaking in the Weald used ironstone from various clay beds, and was fuelled by charcoal made from trees in the heavily wooded landscape. The industry in the Weald declined when ironmaking began to be fuelled by coke made from coal, which does not occur accessibly in the area. Resources Iron ore in the form of siderite, commonly known as iron stone or historically as mine, occurs in patches or bands in the Cretaceous clays of the Weald. Differing qualities of ore were extracted and mixed by experienced smelters to give the best results. Sites of opencast quarries survive from the pre-Roman and Roman eras, but medieval ore extraction was mainly done by digging a series of minepits about five metres in diameter and up to twelve metres deep ...
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Fulling
Fulling, also known as felting, tucking or walking ( Scots: ''waukin'', hence often spelled waulking in Scottish English), is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of woven or knitted cloth (particularly wool) to eliminate (lanoline) oils, dirt, and other impurities, and to make it shrink by friction and pressure. The work delivers a smooth, tightly finished fabric that is isolating and water repellent. Well known example are duffel cloth, first produced in Flanders in the 14th century and loden, produced in Austria from the 16th century on. The practice to do this by hand or feet died out with the introduction of machines during the industrial revolution. Process Fulling involves two processes: scouring and milling (thickening). Originally, fulling was carried out by the pounding of the woollen cloth with a club, or the fuller's feet or hands. In Scottish Gaelic tradition, this process was accompanied by waulking songs, which women sang to set th ...
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Sheep Wool
Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. As an animal fibre, wool consists of protein together with a small percentage of lipids. This makes it chemically quite distinct from cotton and other plant fibres, which are mainly cellulose. Characteristics Wool is produced by follicles which are small cells located in the skin. These follicles are located in the upper layer of the skin called the epidermis and push down into the second skin layer called the dermis as the wool fibers grow. Follicles can be classed as either primary or secondary follicles. Primary follicles produce three types of fiber: kemp, medullated fibers, and true wool fibers. Secondary follicles only produce true wool fibers. Medullated fibers share nearly identical characteristics to hair and are long but lack crimp ...
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History Of Clothing (Western Fashion)
The study of the history of clothing and textiles traces the development, use, and availability of clothing and textiles over human history. Clothing and textiles reflect the materials and technologies available in different civilizations at different times. The variety and distribution of clothing and textiles within a society reveal social customs and culture. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic and is a feature of most human societies. There has always been some disagreement among scientists on when humans began wearing clothes, but studies involving the evolution of body lice suggest it started sometime around 170,000 years ago. Anthropologists believe that animal skins and vegetation were adapted into coverings as protection from cold, heat, and rain, especially as humans migrated to new climates. Textile history is almost as old as human civilization, and as time has passed, the history of textile has been more enriched. Silk weaving was introdu ...
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History Of Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English 'Sūþsēaxe' ('South Saxons'), is a historic counties of England, historic county in South East England. Evidence from a fossil of Boxgrove Man (''Homo heidelbergensis'') shows that Sussex has been inhabited for at least 500,000 years. It is thought to be the oldest human fossil ever discovered in Britain. Near Pulborough, tools have been found that date from around 35,000 years ago and that are thought to be from either the last Neanderthals in northern Europe or pioneer populations of modern humans. On the South Downs lie Neolithic flint mines that date to around 4000BC, some of the earliest in Europe. The county is also rich in remains from the Bronze Age and Iron Age. Prior to Roman invasions it was occupied by a Belgic tribe called the Atrebates. Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus, Togibubnus ruled over much of Sussex when the Roman conquest of Britain began and formed most of the Roman canton of the Regni. The retreat of Roman forces in the 5 ...
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Medieval Kent
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and transitioned into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages. Population decline, counterurbanisation, the collapse of centralized authority, invasions, and mass migrations of tribes, which had begun in late antiquity, continued into the Early Middle Ages. The large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the 7th century, North Africa and the Middle East—most recently part of the Eastern R ...
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Tenterhook
Tenterhooks or tenter hooks are hooked nails in a device called a ''tenter''. Tenters were wooden frames which were used as far back as the 14th century in the process of making woollen cloth. The phrase "''on tenterhooks''" has become a metaphor for nervous anticipation. Cloth-making After a piece of cloth was woven, it still contained oil and dirt from the fleece. A craftsman called a fuller (also called a tucker or wa(u)lker, in Scots, from the word 'Walker', as used in most of the UK mainland), cleaned the woollen cloth in a fulling mill, and then had to dry it carefully, to prevent the woollen fabric from shrinking. To prevent this shrinkage, the fuller would place the wet cloth on a large wooden frame, called a tenter (), and leave it to dry outdoors. The lengths of wet cloth were stretched on the tenter using tenterhooks (hooked nails whose long shank was driven into the wood) all around the perimeter of the frame to which the cloth's edges ( selvedges) were fi ...
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Cloth Hall
A cloth hall or linen hall (german: Gewandhaus; pl, Sukiennice; french: Halle aux draps; nl, Lakenhal) is a historic building located in the centre of the main marketplace of a European town. Cloth halls were built from medieval times into the 18th century. A cloth hall contained trading stalls for the sale, particularly, of cloth but also of leather, wax, salt, and exotic imports such as silks and spices. Poland In Poland, the most famous existing cloth-hall building is Kraków's Cloth Hall (''Sukiennice''), rebuilt in 1555 in Renaissance style.The World's Best Squares
PPS website, Making Places, December 2005
The 14th-century Gothic cloth hall in

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Worshipful Company Of Clothworkers
The Worshipful Company of Clothworkers was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1528, formed by the amalgamation of its two predecessor companies, the Fullers (incorporated 1480) and the Shearmen (incorporated 1508). It succeeded to the position of the Shearmen's Company and thus ranks twelfth in the order of precedence of Livery Companies of the City of London. The original craft of the Clothworkers was the finishing of woven woollen cloth: fulling it to mat the fibres and remove the grease, drying it on tenter frames raising the nap with teasels ( Dipsacus) and shearing it to a uniform finish. The Ordinances of The Clothworkers' Company, first issued in 1532 and signed by Sir Thomas More, sought to regulate clothworking, to maintain standards and to protect approved practices. From the later Middle Ages, cloth production gradually moved away from London, a situation exacerbated by the Great Fire of London and the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. The charitabl ...
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Broadcloth
Broadcloth is a dense, plain woven cloth, historically made of wool. The defining characteristic of broadcloth is not its finished width but the fact that it was woven much wider (typically 50 to 75% wider than its finished width) and then heavily milled (traditionally the cloth was worked by heavy wooden trip hammers in hot soapy water) in order to shrink it to the required width. The effect of the milling process is to draw the yarns much closer together than could be achieved in the loom and allow the individual fibres of the wool to bind together in a felting process, which results in a dense, blind face cloth with a stiff drape which is highly weather-resistant, hard wearing and capable of taking a cut edge without the need for being hemmed. The manufacturing process originates from Flanders, the type of cloth was also made in Leiden and several parts of England at the end of the medieval period. The raw material was short staple wool, carded and spun into yarn and t ...
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Dipsacus
''Dipsacus'' is a genus of flowering plant in the family Caprifoliaceae. The members of this genus are known as teasel, teazel or teazle. The genus includes about 15 species of tall herbaceous biennial plants (rarely short-lived perennial plants) growing to tall. ''Dipsacus'' species are native to Europe, Asia and northern Africa. Etymology The genus name (''Dipsacus'') is derived from the Greek word for thirst (''dipsa'') and refers to the cup-like formation made where sessile leaves merge at the stem. The name ''teasel'' derives from words such as Old English ''tǣsl'', ''tǣsel''; relating to the verb "to tease" – the dried heads of the plant were once used in the textile industry to raise the nap on woolen cloth. Description Teasels are easily identified with their prickly stem and leaves, and the inflorescence of purple, dark pink, lavender or white flowers that form a head on the end of the stem(s). The inflorescence is ovoid, long and broad, with a basal whorl of ...
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Biddenden
Biddenden is a large, mostly agricultural and wooded village and civil parish in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. The village lies on the Weald of Kent, some north of Tenterden. It was a centre for the Wealden iron industry and also of clothmaking. The parish includes the hamlet of Woolpack Corner (). Origin of Name The place name of Biddenden is derived from the Kentish dialect of Old English, meaning "Bidda's woodland pasture". It is associated with a man called ''Bida,'' was originally ''Biddingden'' (c993) ''Bida'' + ''ing'' + ''denn'', eventually evolving into the current spelling. History All Saints Biddenden is the parish church, built mostly in the 13th century. There was likely an earlier Saxon church here. During the half-century reign of Edward III, Flemish clothworkers were settled in the area. The ready availability of raw materials led to the establishment of a flourishing textile industry for the production of broadcloth. Wealth from this industry buil ...
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