Vol. XXVII—Part X. Oct., 1944—March, 1945.
THE
Essex Naturalist:
BEING THE
Journal of the Essex Field Club.
THE ESSEX WOOL TRADE.
By RUPERT COLES, B.A., Ph.D., M.Sc. (Econ.), M.Sc. (Agric).
(With 3 Text Figures.)
[Read 25th November, 1944.]
THE wool trade in England is usually held to have become
concentrated in certain districts in the early mediaeval
period. Prior to that time the making of woollen cloth was, of
course, a household occupation, and the spinning-wheel and
loom long remained in many households as testimony of this
once widespread art—indeed the word spinster is further
evidence that woollen-cloth-making was part of the household
duties of women. The localisation of the manufacture of woollen
cloth undoubtedly began with the closer contact of the country
with the Continent shortly before and after the Conquest. It
was stimulated in later centuries by the breaking down of the
feudal system, the rise of towns and the emergence of the merchant
class.
The wool trade in Essex had achieved some importance by
the close of the later mediaeval period and was concentrated in
the north-east of the county. This north-easterly localisation
of the trade and its growth in importance are often assumed to
be of comparatively late date—about 1600—owing to the arrival
of the Flemings in 1571 and the making of the "new draps" ;
the bays and says of the newer weavers ousting the manufacture
of the broadcloths and kersies. It is, however, held by the writer
that the rise of the industry in Essex occurred at a much earlier
date—before 1200—and that its emergence was therefore not
consequent upon the break-down of the feudal system which was
the case in many parts of the country.
It has been argued elsewhere by the writer that enclosures
began very early in parts of eastern Essex because of the nature
of the holdings.1 It is believed that the field system associated
1 Coles, R., Essex Naturalist, vol. xxvi, pp. 2-25.