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.
Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft, woof, or filling. The method in which these threads are interwoven affects the characteristics of the cloth. Cloth is usually woven on a loom, a device that holds the warp threads in place while filling threads are woven through them. A fabric band that meets this definition of cloth can also be made using other methods, including tablet weaving, back strap loom, or other techniques that can be done without looms.
Hadleigh is an ancient market town and civil parish in South Suffolk, East Anglia, situated, next to the River Brett, between the larger towns of Sudbury and Ipswich. It had a population of 8,253 at the 2011 census. The headquarters of Babergh District Council were located in the town until 2017.
A wool church is an English church financed primarily by donations from rich merchants and farmers who had benefitted from the medieval wool trade, hoping to ensure a place in heaven due to their largesse.
Clare is a market town on the north bank of the River Stour in Suffolk, England. Clare is in southwest Suffolk, 14 miles (23 km) from Bury St Edmunds and 9 miles (14 km) from Sudbury. Clare won Village of the Year in 2010 and Anglia in Bloom award for Best Large Village 2011 for its floral displays in 2011. In March 2015, The Sunday Times and Zoopla placed Clare amongst the top 50 UK rural locations, having "period properties and rich history without the chocolate-box perfection – and the coach trips".
Nayland is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Nayland-with-Wissington, in the Babergh district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It is in the Stour Valley on the Suffolk side of the border between Suffolk and Essex. In 2011 the built-up area had a population of 938.
Lavenham is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in the Babergh district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It is noted for its Guildhall, Little Hall, 15th-century church, half-timbered medieval cottages and circular walks. In the medieval period it was among the twenty wealthiest settlements in England.
Long Melford, colloquially and historically also referred to as Melford, is a large village and civil parish in the Babergh district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It is on Suffolk's border with Essex, which is marked by the River Stour, 3 miles (4.8 km) from Sudbury, approximately 16 miles (26 km) from Colchester and 14 miles (23 km) from Bury St Edmunds. It is one of Suffolk's "wool towns" and is a former market town. The parish also includes the hamlets of Bridge Street and Cuckoo Tye.
Bildeston is a village and civil parish in the Babergh district of Suffolk, England. Located around 5 miles (8 km) north of Hadleigh, in 2005 it had a population of 960, increasing to 1,054 at the 2011 Census.
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.
Kersey is a kind of coarse woollen cloth that was an important component of the textile trade in Medieval England.
The Long Melford–Bury St Edmunds branch line was a railway between Long Melford on the Stour Valley Railway and Bury St Edmunds on the Ipswich to Ely Line. The line opened on 9 August 1865 and closed to passengers on 10 April 1961 and freight on 19 April 1965.
Wixoe is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. Located on the northern bank of the River Stour, two miles south-east of Haverhill, in 2005 its population was 140. It consists largely of Victorian cottages along a narrow lane. There is a church of 12th-century origin, St Leonard's, much restored in the 1880s. It was recorded in the Domesday Book, at 600 acres one of the smallest parishes in the hundred of Risbridge. There are some 13 listed buildings, including a 19th-century bridge and a water mill.
The Spring family is a Suffolk gentry family that has been involved in the politics and economy of East Anglia since the 15th century, as well as holding large estates in Ireland from the 16th century.
Thomas Spring of Lavenham in Suffolk, was an English cloth merchant. He consolidated his father's business to become one of the most successful in the booming wool trade of the period and was one of the richest men in England. He has been described as the most important figure of the early Tudor cloth industry.
St Peter and St Paul's Church, Lavenham is a Grade I listed parish church in the Church of England in Lavenham, Suffolk. It is a notable wool church and regarded as one of the finest examples of Late Perpendicular Gothic architecture in England.
Lavenham Guildhall is a timber-framed municipal building in Lavenham, Suffolk, England. It is Grade I listed.
St Peter and St Paul's Church, Clare is a Grade I listed parish church in the Church of England in Clare, Suffolk. It is one of the largest and most beautiful in East Anglia, described as a "large and handsome church... within a spacious churchyard", and is included by Simon Jenkins in his 2009 book England's Thousand Best Churches, where he awards it three stars.
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 Shrewsbury Drapers Company was a trade organisation founded in 1462 in the town of Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The members were wholesale dealers in wool and later woollen cloth. The Company dominated the trade in Welsh cloth and in 1566 was given a regional monopoly in the Welsh Wool trade. In the seventeenth century the trade had difficulties particularly during the English Civil war and then further declined in the eighteenth century with the industrialisation of cloth production and the improvement of transport infrastructure. This made it practical for merchants from Liverpool and elsewhere to travel into Wales and purchase cloth directly from the producers. The Reform Acts of the early nineteenth century took away the power of the trade guilds and the trade ceased. Since that time the Shrewsbury Drapers Company has survived and continues as a charity that runs almshouses in Shrewsbury.
