Hidden Histories: Suffolk's wool trade

During the 15th century Suffolk was incredibly wealthy because of the woollen cloth it produced. Places like Lavenham were so rich it paid more tax than big cities like York and Lincoln. In fact, at its height, it was the 14th wealthiest settlement in the country. And it was a similar yarn of success in towns like Long Melford, Sudbury, Bury St Edmunds and Clare.

The wooltrade started as a cottage industry – with lots of people spinning, weaving and dying. Making cloth was a hard job with long laborious hours. The women and children usually spun the yarn and the men worked on the looms. As the industry grew cloth merchants and clothiers started to take control of the process and it began to grow very quickly.

Between 1450 and 1530 the trade became stronger and richer. Suffolk lords used their influence to acquire freedom of tolls for local cloth merchants allowing them to move freely around the country and increase their wealth. Nearly every house in the wool towns and villages was either trading or making woollen cloth.

By the fifteenth century, not only was England producing enough cloth for its own use, materials were also being sold abroad. Working in their tiny cottages the weavers and their families transformed the raw wool into fine cloth, which would eventually end up for sale at the markets of Bristol, Gloucester, Norwich and all over Europe and Russia.

And as the towns grew in wealth, so they grew in size. The merchants built fine houses, grand guildhalls, and enormous churches – giving us the magnificent architecture we see in the wool towns of today.

But this success was short lived. By the 16th century the Suffolk cloth industry has almost completely depleted. Henry VIII’s wars on the continent interrupted trade.

There was also the arrival of the Dutch clothiers who brought fresh, lighter fabrics, which proved more popular than traditional heavier woollens. The crash was dramatic and permanent. Suffolk’s wool towns went from some of the country’s wealthiest settlements, to some of the poorest.

The decline continued throughout the 17th century, at which point only about 20% of Suffolk people were employed in textiles, compared with 90% at its peak. Finally the industrial revolution created the new loom factories up north and marked the end for the Suffolk industry.

But the wooltrade has left a lasting legacy. There are many local surnames linked with the industry. So if you’re a Mr Weaver, Mrs Dyer or Miss Fuller, the chances are your ancestors were in the business. Expressions like ‘on tenter hooks’, ‘pulling the wool over someone’s eyes’ or ‘dyed in the wool’ also come from the clothier past.

But the most beautiful legacy is the towns and villages across Suffolk. It took centuries for these settlements to recover from the industry’s crash. For years, no one could afford to rebuild or modernise the buildings, thus preserving the towns in their medieval state.

Every pretty house and medieval detail admired today is a testament to the rich tapestry of Suffolk’s wooltrade.

Click below to watch a report by Tanya Mercer: