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A tenterground, tenter ground or teneter-field was an area used for drying newly manufactured cloth after
''The London magazine; or, Gentleman's monthly intelligencer, Volume 25'', London, 1756, p.564
/ref>), and also covering large areas of
A tenterground, tenter ground or teneter-field was an area used for drying newly manufactured cloth after 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 elimin ...
. The wet cloth was hooked onto frames called "tenter
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 met ...
s" and stretched taut using " tenter hooks", so that the cloth would dry flat and square.
It is from this process that some have the expression " on tenterhooks", meaning in a state of nervous tension.
There were tentergrounds wherever cloth was made, and as a result the word "tenter" is found in place names throughout the United Kingdom and its empire, for example several streets in Spitalfields
Spitalfields is a district in the East End of London and within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The area is formed around Commercial Street (on the A1202 London Inner Ring Road) and includes the locale around Brick Lane, Christ Church ...
, London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
and Tenterfield House
Tenterfield House is a category B listed building in Dunbar Road, Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland. It was built in the 18th century as a two-storey private residence. A three-story wing with tower was added circa 1860. The house was used as ...
in Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland, which in turn gave its name to Tenterfield
Tenterfield is a regional town in New South Wales, Australia. At the , Tenterfield had a population of 4,066. Tenterfield's proximity to many regional centres and its position on the route between Sydney and Brisbane led to its development as a ...
in New South Wales, Australia.
London
The Spitalfields Tenterground was established in the 17th century byFlemish
Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium ...
weavers
Weaver or Weavers may refer to:
Activities
* A person who engages in weaving fabric
Animals
* Various birds of the family Ploceidae
* Crevice weaver spider family
* Orb-weaver spider family
* Weever (or weever-fish)
Arts and entertainment ...
, who were Huguenot
The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Bez ...
refugee
A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.
s fleeing religious persecution
Religious persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or a group of individuals as a response to their religious beliefs or affiliations or their lack thereof. The tendency of societies or groups within societies to alienate o ...
. Their weaving industry led to the area becoming a centre of the garment industry
Clothing industry or garment industry summarizes the types of trade and industry along the production and value chain of clothing and garments, starting with the textile industry (producers of cotton, wool, fur, and synthetic fibre), embellishm ...
(the rag trade
The textile industry is primarily concerned with the design, production and distribution of yarn, cloth and clothing. The raw material may be natural, or synthetic using products of the chemical industry.
Industry process
Cotton manufacturi ...
as it became known colloquially), with names such as Fashion Street
Fashion Street refers to a cluster of over 385 street side clothing shops on MG Road near Azad Maidan and is opposite to Bombay Gymkhana, in South Mumbai, India.
The market is located just opposite VSNL
Tata Communications Limited (pre ...
and Petticoat Lane
Petticoat Lane Market is a fashion and clothing market in Spitalfields, London. It consists of two adjacent street markets. Wentworth Street Market is open six days a week and Middlesex Street Market is open on Sunday only.
The modern market
...
still extant.
It was originally an area of open ground about 150 yards square, surrounded by the weavers' houses and workshops in White's Row, Wentworth Street, Bell Lane and Rose Lane (the last of which no longer exists).
By the 19th century, the Flemish weavers had dispersed, and in 1829 the Tenterground was developed for housing. From about 1850, it was populated by Dutch Jews
The history of the Jews in the Netherlands began largely in the 16th century when they began to settle in Amsterdam and other cities. It has continued to the present. During the occupation of the Netherlands by Nazi Germany in May 1940, the J ...
(see Chuts
Chuts is the name applied to Jews who immigrated to London from the Netherlands during the latter part of the 19th century. They typically came from Amsterdam and practised trades they had already learned there, most notably cigar-, cap- and sl ...
), to be joined later by Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
refugees fleeing persecution in eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, wh ...
(see pogrom
A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russian ...
).
During the early part of the 20th century, the Tenterground was largely demolished for redevelopment, but some old buildings remain in and around the area, including Flemish weavers' houses and an early Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
synagogue which was formerly a Huguenot chapel
A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common typ ...
. Another former Huguenot chapel is now a mosque
A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a Place of worship, place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers (sujud) ...
.
Rocque's 1746 map shows further tenter grounds between Bishopsgate and Moorfields, adjoining "Mr Witanoom's Vinegar Yard" (''i.e.'' Cornelius
Wittenoom/ref>), and also covering large areas of
Southwark
Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...
. Lower Moor Fields, east of Finsbury, connected to Long Alley northwards, was a cloth washing area with cloth pegged to the ground to be stretched and dried.
References
{{reflist Dutch-Jewish culture in the United Kingdom History of clothing Textiles Industrial history of London