Manufacture of Lavenham blue cloth in medieval times

In my last post, I showed you some of the beautiful buildings in Lavenham. These were financed using wealth generated from the wool trade during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

There are many areas in the UK where, at some point in their history, the economy has been based on the textile trade. Yorkshire has a long association with wool, as does Ireland with linen. During the industrial revolution, the cotton-weaving industry developed in Lancashire. In my region, the East Midlands, Leicestershire prospered by making stockings on knitting frames, Nottinghamshire from making cotton lace and Derbyshire from silk spinning and weaving. The Isle of Harris is still known for its tweed cloth woven on treadle looms, and the Shetland Islands for Fair Isle knitting.

Lavenham’s woolly speciality was a woollen woven fabric known as ‘Lavenham Blue’. We found out about its manufacture during a visit to The Guildhall which houses a local history museum.

The wool trade in Lavenham, and the surrounding area, was at its height well before the industrial revolution, so there were no factories. Most of the processes took place in workers’ homes. What gave Lavenham an advantage was a well-organised industry. The wool merchants or ‘clothiers’ bought raw wool and paid the various craftspeople to process it. They also organised the sale and transport of the finished cloth; the bulk of the cloth was exported! It is the clothiers who became rich and financed the building of the church, four guild halls and many houses.

Production of ‘Lavenham Blue’ started with raw wool. this was washed to remove grease and debris. Then the fibres were graded by length – the shorter fibres were used. These were carded, which lines up the fibres ready for spinning. The fibre was spun using a distaff and a spindle – spinning wheels were not common yet!

The yarn was dyed before spinning (the origin of the phrase ‘dyed in the wool’); most of it was dyed blue using woad. Dying took place in ‘dye houses’. These were specialised places located next to streams as dying requires plenty of water.

The dyed yarn was woven on looms, either in the weavers’ or clothiers’ houses. I detect parallels with the later framework knitting industry here.

Three more processes were needed to produce cloth ready for sale. Fulling, which thickens cloth, was another water-intensive process, so ‘fulling mills’ were also located next to streams. The process involved soaking the cloth in a solution of ammonia salts (found in urine) and Fuller’s earth (a special clay), which actually cleaned the cloth. Then the cloth was beaten, probably with a large wooden hammer powered by a waterwheel. Finally, the cloth was washed ready for the next process.

The thickened cloth was taken to a tenterground where it was entered. The cloth was stretched taut on wooden frames and held in place using tenterhooks (the origin of the phrase ‘on tenterhooks’). It was then left to dry. This squared up the fabric and flattened it. Finally, the cloth was finished by being brushed with teasels to raise the nap, which was then cropped.

The wool industry in Lavenham declined when Dutch weavers, who settled nearby, produced new types of cheaper cloth. Lavenham residents carried on wool trading and spinning, but these were less profitable. Later a new industry developed – weaving horsehair. This cloth has a beautiful glossy shine.

Nowadays, Lavenham has an unusual number of woolly shops. These include Cafe Knit, which is both a yarn shop and a cafe – a perfect combination, I think. We had already eaten at another lovely cafe, so we just looked at the lovely yarn. We also found Elizabeth Gash Knitwear who sell their own designs for knitwear and ‘Spirit of the Andes’ where you can buy knitwear produced in Peru and Bolivia.