156 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
tenterfield was the place in which the partially made cloth was
stretched out in process of manufacture. The word is held to
be of some age and an examination of several old maps of the
county revealed a number of instances where the name occurred.
From the map it will be seen that these occur in an area stretching
from Shalford and Braintree, through Coggeshall, to Colchester,
with an isolated instance near Maldon. This distribution is
significant when considered in relation to the area circumscribed
by the "woollen" monasteries and the heaths of which mention
has been made. It seems clear that the localisation of the
wool trade in this north-east area was an early accomplishment.
Other evidence is, however, available to support the theory
of an early concentration of the trade in the north-east of the
County. At the beginning of the fourteenth century (1304),
White records the landing at Harwich of a number of Flemish
clothmakers, who proceeded to engage in their trade throughout
this area, close to the "woollen" monasteries (Fig. 3.)4 Later
we hear of their activities still nearer Coggeshall and Colchester,
and in the Domesday of Gyppewyz (fourteenth century), the
cloths of Colchester, Coggeshall and Maldon are particularly
mentioned. Finally, by the middle of the sixteenth century,
the monasteries had been dissolved, but the lay wool-traders
had become firmly established in their place. The foreign
weavers and the natives had by this time built up a high and well
guarded reputation, which is evidenced by the several documents
now appearing relating to market quarrels and regulations.
The Essex woollen trade appears to have been a thriving
industry, so thriving indeed, as to cause some embarrassment
to the government. The several successive settlements of weavers
in the many villages adjacent to the area resulted in the labourers
leaving agriculture for the more profitable work at the loom.
The disturbance of the government is apparent in the measures
taken to attempt to prevent the continuance of this tendency.
By the close of the sixteenth century, one is able to gather
some very definite information regarding the numbers and
whereabouts of those engaged in the wool trade. This in-
formation can be extracted from extant State Papers of Elizabeth's
reign,5 the Red Book of Colchester and Moen's Baptisms.
From the information garnered from these several sources, it
is clear that Colchester was the most important town in the
trade. With the recent additions of Flemings in 1571, the town
had about 1,500 souls connected with the woollen industry.
4 S.P.D. Eliz. cxc. 2., and S.P.D. Eliz. cxliv. 63.
(Signatories etc. of Petition of 1590).
5 White, J., History and Gazetteer of Essex, p. 69.