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Worsted is a high-quality type of wool yarn, the fabric made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from Worstead, a village in the English county of Norfolk. That village, together with North Walsham and Aylsham, formed a manufacturing centre for yarn and cloth in the 12th century, when pasture enclosure and liming rendered the East Anglian soil too rich for the older agrarian sheep breeds. In the same period, many weavers from the County of Flanders moved to Norfolk. "Worsted" yarns/fabrics are distinct from woollens : the former is considered stronger, finer, smoother, and harder than the latter.
Carding is a mechanical process that disentangles, cleans and intermixes fibres to produce a continuous web or sliver suitable for subsequent processing. This is achieved by passing the fibres between differentially moving surfaces covered with "card clothing", a firm flexible material embedded with metal pins. It breaks up locks and unorganised clumps of fibre and then aligns the individual fibres to be parallel with each other. In preparing wool fibre for spinning, carding is the step that comes after teasing.
Trowbridge is the county town of Wiltshire, England; situated on the River Biss in the west of the county, close to the border with Somerset. The town lies 8 miles (13 km) south-east of Bath, 31 miles (50 km) south-west of Swindon and 20 miles (32 km) south-east of Bristol. The parish had a population of 37,169 in 2021.
Woolen or woollen is a type of yarn made from carded wool. Woolen yarn is soft, light, stretchy, and full of air. It is thus a good insulator, and makes a good knitting yarn. Woolen yarn is in contrast to worsted yarn, in which the fibers are combed to lie parallel rather than carded, producing a hard, strong yarn.
The spinning jenny is a multi-spindle spinning frame, and was one of the key developments in the industrialisation of textile manufacturing during the early Industrial Revolution. It was invented in 1764-1765 by James Hargreaves in Stan hill, Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire in England.
Flannel is a soft woven fabric, of varying fineness. Flannel was originally made from carded wool or worsted yarn, but is now often made from either wool, cotton, or synthetic fiber. Flannel is commonly used to make tartan clothing, blankets, bed sheets, and sleepwear.
Thomas Helliker, known as the Trowbridge Martyr, was a figure in early English trade union history who was hanged, aged 19, for his alleged role in machine-breaking at a Wiltshire woollen mill. His conviction has been challenged as controversial and faulty, and he is now regarded as a victim of anti-Luddite sentiment.
The River Biss is a small river in Wiltshire, England and is a tributary of the Bristol Avon. The name is of uncertain origin; it is claimed that the word is from the Old Norse bisa, meaning "to strive".
Tweed is a rough, woollen fabric, of a soft, open, flexible texture, resembling cheviot or homespun, but more closely woven. It is usually woven with a plain weave, twill or herringbone structure. Colour effects in the yarn may be obtained by mixing dyed wool before it is spun.
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 and then heavily milled 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.
Staverton is a village and civil parish in the west of the English county of Wiltshire, about 1.75 miles (2.82 km) north of the centre of Trowbridge and 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Bradford on Avon.
Blackwell Hall in the City of London was the centre for the wool and cloth trade in England from mediaeval times until the 19th century. Cloth manufacturers and clothiers from provincial England brought their material to Blackwell Hall to display and sell it to merchants and drapers.
Staverton Mill is an historic woollen mill and now a cereal factory on the River Avon in the village of Staverton near Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England.
The clothing culture of Ireland is an interesting aspect of the country. Irish clothes are generally very well-made and have a long history of significance attached to them. Aran jumpers were invented in the early 20th century. Irish Tweed is a woven fabric incorporating mutli-coloured neps - scraps of wool said originally to have been swept from the floor under the looms at the end of the day, and incorporated into the next day's weaving. In the past, much weaving was done in the home, with the fabric being delivered to a broker. Today, a few mills exist around Ireland which re-create this tweed in the traditional manner. Donegal is the heartland of Irish tweed and Donegal tweed is better known than other Irish tweeds.
Trowbridge Museum, in the town of Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England, is a centre for the history of West of England cloth production.
The medieval English wool trade was one of the most important factors in the medieval English economy. The medievalist John Munro notes that "[n]o form of manufacturing had a greater impact upon the economy and society of medieval Britain than did those industries producing cloths from various kinds of wool." The trade's liveliest period, 1250–1350, was 'an era when trade in wool had been the backbone and driving force in the English medieval economy'.
The Polebarn Hotel in Trowbridge, Wiltshire is a building of historical significance and is Grade II* listed on the Historic England Register. It was built in 1789 by John Clark, a local textile mill owner and clergyman. It passed through successive generations of the Clark family until it was sold by auction in about 1920 to Wiltshire County Council, who used it firstly for Children's Services and later as flats. The house became a hotel in 1978.
The textile industry became an important feature of 16th-century Safed, Ottoman Galilee, following an influx of Jewish immigration in late 15th and early 16th centuries. Run as a Jewish monopoly, textile manufacturing became the community's main source of income. The industry declined toward the end of the century.
The woollen industry in Wales was at times the country's most important industry, though it often struggled to compete with the better-funded woollen mills in the north of England, and almost disappeared during the 20th century. There is continued demand for quality Welsh woollen products.
Trefriw Woollen Mills is a woollen mill in the village of Trefriw, Conwy, in northern Wales, that has been operating since around 1825.
References
- ↑ Defoe, Daniel (2017-07-17). A Tour Thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain by Daniel Defoe - Delphi Classics (Illustrated). Delphi Classics. ISBN 978-1-78877-652-3.
- 1 2 Rogers, Kenneth Herbert (1984). The Book of Trowbridge: A History. Barracuda Books. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-86023-200-1.
- ↑ Burt, Roger (1970). Industry and Society in the South-West. University of Exeter. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-902414-02-0.
- 1 2 Bettey, J. H. (2014-06-17). Wessex from Ad1000. Routledge. p. 189. ISBN 978-1-317-87185-9.
- ↑ Rogers, Kenneth Herbert (1986). Warp and Weft: The Somerset and Wiltshire Woollen Industry. Barracuda. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-86023-264-3.
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