Suffolk Threads Heritage Trail

8/11/2019 Suffolk Threads Heritage Trail

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ThreadsA celebration of theSuffolk Wool Towns

Bury St Edmunds

A glorious cathedral, the world’s

smallest pub, the only remaining

Georgian theatre in the land and the

beautiful Abbey Gardens adjacent

to Angel Hill, Bury St Edmunds has

plenty to shout about.

Clare & CavendishClare and Cavendish are two of those

rare, unspoilt villages that give visitors

a glimpse of old England.

Hadleigh

Legend has it that Guthrum, King of the

Danes, is buried in the grounds of St

Mary’s Church, just one of the historic

buildings that lend their antique charm

to Hadleigh, a bustling market town.

IpswichStunning regenerated waterfront

buzzing with cafés and restaurants,

beautiful parks, river cruises, multiple

museums and theatres.

LavenhamPerhaps the best way to make the most

of Lavenham is on foot. A number of

circular walks weave through the historic

lanes taking you on a journey through

Mediaeval England.

Long Melford With its two fabulous historic buildings

– Kentwell Hall and The National Trust’s

Melford Hall, of Beatrix Potter fame –

the beautiful village of Long Melford has

a rich and distinguished history, which

extends back to the booming

wool trade.

SudburySet in the meandering Stour Valley, an

area of outstanding beauty immortalised

by landscape painter John Constable,

the ancient market town of Sudbury

has a timeless charm that continues to

attract locals and visitors alike.

A small cluster of towns and villages in the heart of

Suffolk known as the Suffolk Wool Towns rapidly

became the jewel in the crown for Mediaeval

England’s booming textile trade. Their heady

success and global fame encouraged delegations

of Flemish weavers to flock to villages such as

Cavendish, Clare, Long Melford and Lavenham.

Perhaps even more significantly though, it also led

to the creation of a distinctly lavish local architecture

that endures today with Lavenham, home to a

multitude of exquisite listed buildings, proudly

bearing the lofty mantle of ‘England’s Best

Preserved Mediaeval Village’.

To celebrate the unique history of the Suffolk Wool

Towns, the Heritage Lottery funded project Suffolk

Threads weaves together a rich tapestry of events

that tell the fascinating story of this pivotal moment

in English history. These include guided walks in

Lavenham savouring the beautiful architecture and

historic sites that attract thousands of visitors each

year; a number of Heritage Open Days hosted by

The National Trust at the Guildhall of Corpus Christi

that include demonstrations of traditional spinning

and weaving techniques by the Lavenham Guild of

Spinners & Weavers; and the opportunity to explore

the online and printed Heritage Trail, which signposts

visitors to all the key places in the Suffolk Wool

Towns. We hope you enjoy the experience.

Babergh Hundred: In England

and Wales a hundred was the

division of a shire for administrative,

military and judicial purposes under

common law. In Saxon times,

a hundred had enough land for

a hundred households.

Bays: A fine and light

fabric which was lightly fulled

and raised.

Broadcloth: A plain and fairly

weighty fabric of medium quality,

measuring 28yd 28in long by 5ft 3in

wide. The main product of Suffolk

in the Middle Ages, exported as far

as Russia and the Middle East.

Cade's rebellion: Uprising against

the government of Henry VI led

by Jack Cade, an Irishman living

in Kent.

Carding: Combing the wool

Dozen: A cloth about 13 yards

long, either broad or narrow.

Fulling: The process of beating

cloth to clean and thicken it; done

either by human hands and feet,or by hammers at specially adapted

water-mills.

Hanseatic League: The League

was an economic alliance of

trading cities and their guilds that

dominated trade along the coast

of Northern Europe.

Kersey: Cloth of no standard

dimensions, possibly named after

the village of Kersey.

Shearmen: The experts who

cut the nap of the cloth.

Some useful definitions

1 Point of interest Route of walk Footpath Prominent building Woodland / greenopen space

Parking Additional route Water Built-up area Open country

Key to the maps

visitsuffolk.com/threads



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Chequer SquareJohn Baret, a mediaeval merchant, lived at Baret House

(in the corner). His house was used in 1463 as a Spinning

House – unusual, as this sort of work was usually carried

out in people’s own homes. Bury was famed for its coverlet

weaving and quite a lot of the weavers were described

as dornix (or darnick) weavers, from the Flemish word

for Tournay, which may have been used for hangings or

ecclesiastical vestments.

5 St Mary’s Church

One of the largest parish churches in the country and the

resting place of Mary Tudor, Queen of France, Duchess

of Suffolk and favourite sister of Henry VIII. St Mary’s is

renowned for its magnificent hammer-beam Angel roof

and is also home to the Chapel of the Suffolk and Royal

Anglian Regiments.

6 St Edmundsbury Cathedral

and Abbey Gardens

Suffolk’s only cathedral, with its stunning Millennium

tower, has been a church since the time of King Cnut in

the early 11th century. Since 1914, it has been the

Cathedral Church.

Stroll through the Abbey Gardens, with the ruins of the

11th century Benedictine abbey. Note the Norman tower

which houses the cathedral bells, and visit the churchyard

where Martha Gosnold is buried – daughter of explorer

Captain Gosnold who named Martha’s Vineyard in

her memory.

Cross Angel Hill and walk up Abbeygate Street to the Corn

Exchange, turning right along The Traverse. You may like to

visit Smith’s Row (see introduction).

Return to the car park via Cornhill and Brentgovel Street.

For leisure and shopping, Bury St Edmunds is a delight. Whether it’s small independent boutiques or

high street retailers, everything is within easy walking distance – and you’ll be hard pressed to find better

restaurants and cafés than those in Bury. Smiths Row, a leading contemporary craft gallery, boasts an

enviable range of affordable goodies, while neighbouring Moyse’s Hall Museum on The Cornhill provides

a fascinating insight into the past.

Book an evening at The Theatre Royal for a thespian treat, or perhaps take a tour of The Greene King

Brewery. You won’t stay anywhere more quintessentially English and charming than The Angel Hotel on

Angel Hill, where you can gaze at the cathedral's magnificent Millennium Gothic Lantern Tower from the

balcony. Bury St Edmunds is a rare treat.

The walk: By the end of the Middle Ages, Bury St Edmunds was

a major industrial town. However, the broadcloth from

which fortunes had been made gradually became less

fashionable as more fabrics were imported from the

continent using Flemish weavers. The industry in Bury St

Edmunds did not adapt, and was reduced to spinning yarn

for sale to the weavers of Norwich and North Essex.

1 St Andrew’s Street South

and Woolhall Street

Just past the turning to Woolhall Street, there is a boundary

plaque on the right for James Oakes (re-sited from an

earlier building near here), a famous yarn merchant in the

18th century who supplied the Norwich worsted weavers.

On this site he had combing sheds and wool warehouses.

Retrace your steps turning right into Woolhall Street.

The woolhall that stood here was demolished in 1828.

The Woolpack Inn once stood where Pizza Hut is now.

Turn right into Guildhall Street.

2 The Guildhall and 81 Guildhall Street

The Guildhall is possibly the oldest civic building in the

country, probably dating from the 12th century. Opposite,

81 Guildhall Street (now Ashton Graham, Solicitors) wasthe home and banking hall of James Oakes. The wings at

each end were built by Sir John Soane – the right-hand

wing was the banking hall, the left-hand the dining room.

To the right was the Green Dragon public house also

owned by Oakes – his workers handed back their hard-

earned cash in return for beer! Turn left into Churchgate

Street, then right into Whiting Street.

3 United Reform Church

The United Reform Church, once the Independent Chapel

dating from around 1705, was attended by a vibrant group

of dissenters, many of whom were involved in the wool

industry. Turn left into College Lane, cross over into Church

Walks, then cross the road into Tuns Lane and turn left.

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Trail DetailsDistance: 3.25 km / 2 milesDuration: 2-3 hoursParking: St Andrew’s Car Park

(near bus station)

© Crown Copyright. Licence No.100023395 2011visitsuffolk.com/threads



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14th century; formerly a much wider street, this was a

marshalling place for wool carters. Callis Street leads to

Common Street and the common.

4 High Street

Once called Heigh Row (and possibly forming the western

side of the early market), this street has many associations.

The Swan was known as ‘Quilters’ in the 14th century.

‘Gilberds’ was the former name of 7-13 High Street, a

15th century half-timbered mansion owned by William

Gilbert, the largest wool business in the 16th century.

Clare Parish Church was known as the wool church in

the 14th and 15th centuries. The Ancient House was

bought by the important clothier John Fenn.

5 Nethergate Street

This has 15th to 18th century associations – including the

houses of 15th century clothiers John Horold and John

Fenn, and tenements owned by 16th century clothier

John Martin. Nethergate House is a late 15th century

half-timbered house (altered in the 17th century) which

belonged to the Crosse family, important 17th century

clothiers – Francis Crosse was an important dissenter.

The house was later used as a school, and still later as

a hotel. The adjacent house, currently ‘Cloth House’,was probably a weaving shed; behind is a tenter’s yard.

White House was the home of late 17th century saymaker

Thomas Raymond, and Richmond House belonged to

18th century weaver William Hammond.

6 Clare Castle

Once owned by the immensely wealthy de Clare family,

who were among the largest landowners in the early

14th century, known to sell wool locally and to London.

The de Clares grazed their sheep on the common.

Clare, a wool village that lies on the north bank of the River Stour between Sudbury and Bury St Edmunds

in the South and Heart of Suffolk and voted BT Suffolk Village of the Year 2010, is infused with history and

traditional charm. Clare Castle Country Park, the 13th century Priory and Great Gothic Wool Church provide

a fascinating background for visitors to the village who will be spoilt for choice in terms of the excellent

guesthouses and B&Bs on offer, plus the range of restaurants and cafés.

Cavendish, with its three village pubs, iconic Suffolk Pink cottages and village green, is the perfect place to

stop for a picnic; it’s time to take a deep breath and be transported back to another age, a gentler age when

life moved at a different pace.

The walk:This walk links the historic towns of Clare and Cavendish,

both picture postcard Suffolk villages. The walk to

Cavendish is a gentle, undulating ramble following a

section of the long distance footpath, the Stour Valley

Path. There are delightful views of the countryside along

the route, refreshments are available at the half way point

at Houghton Hall, and Cavendish is truly beautiful – don’t

forget your camera! You return on the same route which in

the ever changing Suffolk light offers a different experience

every time.

During the centuries prosperous for the cloth trade, nearly

every important building in Clare had associations with the

cloth industry, from the selling of raw wool to the weaving

of broadcloth and later bays, says and linen, to the houses

of wealthy clothiers and mercers. The wealth of the town

is reflected in the impressive size of the 14th and 15th

century parish church of St Peter and St Paul.

1 Market Hill

The market dates to before Domesday – wool and

woollens were sold there from shops and stalls that once

filled the middle (these were pulled down in the 19th

century for redevelopment as a pig and poultry market).

Wool was also traded at local fairs, including the annual

Wentford Fair. The Old Bear & Crown was probably oncethe ‘new’ hall owned by William Gilbert and used for wool.

There are 17th century drapers’ and weavers’ shops at

1-2 and 6-8 Market Hill. Old Bank House was once the site

of two weavers’ cottages, pulled down in the 19th century.

2 12-16 Church Street

Owned by the Crispe family, this was the largest mid-17th

century bay and say making business with weaving rooms

at the rear. They issued tokens, including farthings coined

at Clare.

3 Callis Street

The name is said to be a corruption of Calais, the

compulsory port for all wool exports from the lateTrail DetailsDistance: 11 km / 7 milesDuration: 4-5 hoursParking: Clare Country Park

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Market House. In the 1450s, part of the market lands were

purchased for the building of the Guilds Halls. Following thereformation, these Halls were purchased for the town and

joined to the Market House. In 1851 part of the complex

was pulled down to build the New Town Hall, incorporating

the Grand Hall and a police station.

4 Deanery Tower

The brick Deanery Tower was built by the Rector, William

Pykenham, in the late 15th century as a gatehouse to the

mediaeval rectory.

5 St Mary’s Church

One of the largest parish churches in Suffolk, the first stone

church was built in around 1250, the tower being the last

obvious part. The flint and stone church was enlarged in

the 14th and 15th centuries. During the Commonwealth

period the church was stripped of its ornamentation, and

in the 19th century the exterior and interior of the church

were restored. The church clock, with its exterior bell,

has been in position since at least 1584.

6 Viscount Bayning’s House (now Abbott’s

Estate Agents, 46-48 High Street) The core of this house is an early hall house, the exterior

being pargeted and also having a leather faced one-

handed clock, probably from the building’s role as a

clockmaker’s in the 18th century. One of the rooms inside

this house has a heavily moulded ceiling and a wall painting

depicting Potifer’s wife rescuing Joseph from the well (open

to the public when the estate agents is open).

The flint and freestone parish church of St Mary’s houses the oldest bell in Suffolk that still marks the time,

and is home to the Hadleigh Choral Society, which performs a host of fantastic concerts throughout the year.

Hadleigh has a fascinating history reflected in over 250 listed buildings, from its fabulous rise to fortune during

the Middle Ages due to the burgeoning wool and silk trade, through to the establishment of The East Anglian

School of Painting and Drawing in the 1930s at Benton End, a rambling farmhouse on the edge of

the town, whose students included Lucian Freud and Maggi Hambling.

The Hadleigh Show, first held in 1840 and also known as ‘The May Show’, is one of the oldest and most

popular events of its kind in Suffolk; the perfect day out for all the family.

The walk:Records kept by the Stewards of the manor identify that,

by the early 1300s, around 37% of the population ofHadleigh was involved in the production of woollen cloth.

Hadleigh was run by the clothiers who, on making their

fortunes, moved out either to landed estates, or to trade

in the City of London. With the demise of the market for

the heavy woollen cloth produced in Hadleigh, the town

declined by the early 18th century into severe poverty.

This is a very gentle walk around Hadleigh. The Guildhall

complex in the heart of the town is visually impressive,

but do not miss the real hidden gem of this walk – the

mural in Viscount Bayning’s House showing Joseph being

thrown down a well! The walk includes a stroll alongside

the peaceful and pretty River Brett – the more adventurous

can walk up the hill behind the river for views of the town

or seek out the Hadleigh Railway Walk, a two mile walk to

Raydon and back.

1 The Row Chapel, George Street

William Pykenham left money for the building of

Almshouses in George Street, including a chapel already

on the site, dedicated to the Blessed Mary Magdalen and

to St Catherine. This chapel was refurbished in the late

19th century.

2 Toppesfield Bridge

Built in the 14th century and widened in 1812, said to be

the oldest working bridge in the county.

The next three buildings all lie in the centre of the

town in the churchyard:

3 The Guildhall complex

This comprises the Market House, Guilds Halls and

the Victorian New Town Hall. The buildi ng fronting the

churchyard is the Market House, probably built in the

1430s and either incorporating or replacing the originalTrail DetailsDistance: 3½ km / 2 milesDuration: 1-2 hoursParking: Magdalen Road Car Park

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3 Barn Street

Formerly known as Hockerells Street, its occupants

included some of the town’s wealthiest merchants;

only a few of their houses survive. William Jacob lived in

Molet House, once a magnificent structure four times its

current size.

Further down the hill is the Old Grammar School, dating

from the 15th century. One of the school’s most famous

pupils was John Constable.

4 Water Street

Water Street’s name derives from the open sewers which

once ran along it. Water was essential for washing fleece

and rinsing cloth. Around 1500 the cl oth merchants

diverted the water underground, demolishing most of the

buildings and building a series of brick-built culverts, which

still exist. The houses running al ong the south of Water

Street were rebuilt directly over them, a continuous row

of fine jettied buildings that reflected Lavenham’s wealth.

England’s finest mediaeval vil lage, Lavenham has plenty to recommend it. With truly wonderful places to stay,

excellent restaurants, pubs and cafés, and an enormous variety of galleries, boutiques and antique shops,

the greatest challenge is fitting everything in.

The Swan Hotel, whose history dates back to the 15th century, is an enchanting treat, its roaring log fires

and cosy interiors the perfect place to recharge the batteries. The Great House’s French restaurant has been

variously described as ‘cracking’ and 'the best restaurant in Suffolk' by national foodies.

Lavenham has an abundance of galleries. The Crooked Gallery, another splendid example of 15th century

architecture, offers a fascinating selection of paintings, ceramics and textiles, while other galleries specialise

in sculpture, stained glass, tapestry and contemporary art.

Perhaps the best way to make the most of Lavenham is on foot. A number of circular walks weave through

the historic lanes taking you on a journey to explore mediaeval England at its very best.

The walk: Lavenham specialised in a coarse, woad-dyed broadcloth

known as Lavenham Blewes, famous as far away as

Northern Russia. In 1524 it was England’s 14th richest town

yet, within a generation, its cloth industry had collapsed.

The walk follows the old railway line through a deep

cutting, returning along an adjacent footpath through

pretty countryside before heading to the church of

St Peter & St Paul.

1 Tenter Piece

A short distance from the church is Tenter Piece, an area

of ground with wooden frames upon which cloth would be

stretched ‘on tenterhooks’ to dry and be shaped.

2 The Market Place

Lavenham’s market charter was granted by Henry III

in 1257. In 1357 the lords of the manor acquired

freedom of tolls for Lavenham cloth merchants to trade

throughout England.

Little Hall, built in the 1390s for the Causton family of

clothiers, is one of the oldest timber-framed buildings in

the village and the only domestic mediaeval hall house

open to the public.

The market cross was a bequest from William Jacob,

a wealthy clothier.

The Guildhall of Corpus Christi is one of the finest

timber-framed buildings in Britain, built around 1530.

Lavenham 5 Lady Street

Lady Street has had several names - its current name

comes from the belief that Our Lady’s Guild Hall was

situated further down the street. It became known as the

Wool Hall in the 18th century and was partly demolished

in the early 20th century to be shipped to America; outcry

from village residents saved it and it is now part of The

Swan Hotel.

Further up is The Grove, which has at its core a fine timber-

framed building, thought to have been the ‘headhouse’ of

Thomas Spring III, Lavenham’s richest cloth merchant and

the wealthiest commoner outside London.

6 Church Street and the parish church of

St Peter & St Paul

There has been a church here since before Domesday,

but most of today’s structure was built between 1485 and

1525, funded chiefly by the de Vere and Spring families -

their emblems can be seen around the church.

Trail DetailsDistance: 5½ km / 3½ milesDuration: 3 hoursParking: The Cock Inn (or Prentice St)

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© Crown Copyright. Licence No.100023395 2011



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1441 was occupied by John Dyster, a weaver. The brick

façade with the name Cocoa-nut House and date 1881

was added in the 19th century when the building formed

part of an industrial site where coconut fibres were woveninto matting.

4 Melford Place

This stood opposite Chapel Green and was the home

of the Martyn family who were closely involved in the

mediaeval broadcloth industry and who built the Martyn

Chapel in the church. They remained Catholic after the

Reformation and built a private chapel at Melford Place,

which still survives.

5 Kings Farmhouse

(east side of Hall Street)

This mediaeval building was the home in the late 17th

century of John King, a wealthy sayweaver who employed

a number of people in his workshops behind the building.

Says were a lighter and cheaper type of cloth which

became important in the 16th and 17th centuries after

the earlier woollen broadcloth industry had collapsed.

6 Holy Trinity Church (top of Melford Green)

The church was rebuilt in the second half of the 15th

century and was funded mainly by bequests from local

people who had become wealthy as a result of the cloth

industry, and from the Clopton family at Kentwell Hall.

The names of many of the donors are inscribed around

the outside of the building.

Long Melford offers rich pickings for all the family seeking the perfect day out. Whether you fancy taking part

in a re-enactment at Kentwell Hall or visiting the National Trust’s Melford Hall; a meander through the antique

shops, Lovejoy-style; savouring the culinary delights of some of the best restaurants for miles; or perhaps

a spot of seriously indulgent retail therapy in its fabulous selection of independent boutiques, stylish and

sophisticated Long Melford is the envy of East Anglia. With a wide range of accommodation including hotels,

bed-and-breakfasts, guesthouses and campsites, Long Melford is an excellent place to make a holiday

of it and explore Suffolk Wool Towns in style.

The walk: This walk takes you out of town along Bull Lane to a

bridleway where you join the grassy Melford Walk, once a

railway line that carried passengers between Sudbury and

Bury St Edmunds. The walk returns through the centreof town before heading up to the magnificent Holy Trinity

Church, following a section of the long distance footpath –

the Stour Valley Path – through open fields to the impressive

Kentwell Hall, and returns past the picturesque turrets of

Melford Hall. Most of the buildings in Long Melford date from

the 15th and 16th centuries when the cloth industry was

at its height, but this is not always obvious as the timber

framing on many of them has been covered by a later brick

or plaster facade.

1 Bull Inn (east side of Hall Street)

This has been an inn since at least the 16th century

(possibly earlier) and in 1532, following the death of the

owner, John Chester, Mayor of Sudbury, the building was

sold to George Ray, a clothmaker.

2 Brook House (opposite Bull Inn)

This was built during the late 15th century and in 1495 was

the White Hart Inn. It was owned by John Barker, a wealthy

cloth merchant who also owned a dyehouse (where the

raw wool or cloth was dyed) which stood in the field behind

the inn. Both these buildings stood either side of the late

mediaeval market place. The earlier market place was at thesouth end of the village on Chapel Green which, as early as

1441, had become known as the ‘Oldmarket’.

3 Cocoa-nut House

(west side of Hall Street)

This mediaeval timber framed building with its characteristic

central hall and two crosswings (now divided into several

shops) is believed to date from the late 14th century and in

Trail DetailsDistance: 7½ km / 4½ milesDuration: 2-3 hoursParking: Anywhere along Hall Street

or opposite Melford Hall

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Sudbury

4 70-78 Cross Street The three cottages and the house on the right (75-78)

were acquired by Abraham Griggs, a say maker, in 1695.

He used the cottages as a factory, manufacturing lighter

fabrics – Royal Navy bunting made here may have fallen

into rebel hands in the War of Independence and been

used for the first ‘stars and stripes’. 70-74 were weavers’

cottages built in the late 1860s by the Kemps, local silk

manufacturers. Handloom weavers worked in the first floor

rooms with the large windows. Return along Cross Street

into Mill Hill, turn left to the Mill.

5 Mill Hotel

In the early mediaeval period fulling was done in open

pits on Fullingpit Meadows – later, mills used water-driven

hammers to beat the cloth. Turn right behind the mill along

the footpath above Fullingpit Meadows – land on the right

was once used as tenterfields. Pass the sluice gates, turn

right over the bridge and climb up to the church.

6 St Gregory’s Church

This 14th / early 15th century church owes much to the

wealthy Theobald family whose son, Simon of Sudbury,became Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor

of England before dying in the Peasants Revolt. John

Shorthose, a weaver, left money for benches in the North

aisle. The south chapel contains the tomb of clothier and

local benefactor Thomas Carter.

Leave the churchyard by the east gate, cross Gregory

Street, bear right into Church Walk and down Weavers

Lane, noting the early Victorian silk mill at the junction with

Gainsborough Street. Turn left to Market Hill.

Sudbury offers an excellent mix of fine inns and hotels, shops and cafés, combined with an equally splendid

range of cultural and sporting facilities.

Market Hill is home to a number of fine buildings including the old Corn Exchange. One of its many winding

lanes leads on to Gainsborough’s House, now a fascinating gallery and exhibition dedicated to the life and

work of Thomas Gainsborough and other artists. A trip down Quay Lane ends at the luminary Quay Theatre

and the Granary.

Mostly, though, just feast your senses on the beautiful setting. Not only was the Stour Valley home to

Constable and Gainsborough, the meadows around Sudbury are the oldest continuously grazed land in

England; an earthly paradise with its many footpaths and wonderful walks.

The walk:

By the early 14th century Sudbury was one of England’swealthiest towns, largely thanks to the woollen industry.

By the 15th century wealthy clothiers controlled the

making of woollen cloth, and spent some of their wealth

on building fine timber-framed houses, and rebuilding

and decorating churches.

By the 1520s religious conflicts disrupted continental

markets. However, Sudbury’s spinners and weavers turned

to producing lighter fabrics.

This walk leads you through the bustling town with its historic

buildings and ancient streets, into Sudbury Meadows.

Return along the wooded Valley Walk, a haven for wildlife.

1 St Peter’s Church and Market Hill

By the 15th century Market Hill was surrounded by timber-

framed merchants' houses – shop facades often conceal

original timber framework, for example 23-24 and 28. Bear

left into Friars Street.

2 Buzzards Hall – No 17 Friars Street

A 15th century merchant’s house, extensively remodelled in

the 17th century. Continue to Priory Gate – late 15th century

gatehouse of the Dominican Priory. Turn right into School

Street, left into Straw Lane, and right up Plough Lane to the

junction with Stour Street. Turning left you will see a row of

15th century timber-framed cloth merchants’ houses.

3 Salters Hall (far end of the row)

The timber studwork demonstrates its owner’s wealth. A fine

oriel window has delicate tracery and carvings of an elephant

and lion with St James the Less, patron saint of fullers – his

‘golf club’ is the stick used to beat the cloth. Continue down

Mill Hill, bearing left into Cross Street.

* If you wi sh to explore further, the dotted route takes you across the Sudbury Commonlands to Brundon with its ancient

hall and mediaeval fulling mill. Where the footpath divides, take the right fork and continue up between the lake and the hall.

Past the cottages, turn left onto Brundon Lane and then bear right to return along the Valley Walk.

Trail DetailsDistance: 5½ km / 3½ milesDuration: 2-3 hoursParking: Kingfisher Leisure Centre

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Suffolk’sCloth Industry: A History David Dymond

HaverhillIf you’ve enjoyed these walks, youmight want to also visit Haverhill,a weaving town and a centre of thewoollen industry in mediaeval times,but latterly more important for itssilk industry.

Dating back to pre-Roman times, Haverhill is one of

Suffolk’s oldest market towns and the second largest

in the Borough of St Edmundsbury. By the ti me of the

Domesday Book in 1086, it was already an established

market town – records of the market in the reigns of

Henry V and Henry VI show a significant trading centre

with shops and stalls selling meat, fish, cloth and lace.

The mediaeval town developed around Burton End.

During the later Middle Ages Haverhill prospered

as a weaving town and was a centre of the woollen

industry for several centuries. Weaver’s Row is a

row of weavers’ cottages, each 3 storeys high with

large windows on the first floor where the looms

were situated.

The town’s heritage includes the beautifully renovated

house called ‘Waggs’, once owned by the Lord of the

Manor (there is an urban myth that this was Anne of

Cleves’ House, although it is now believed that it was

so christened by an enterprising estate agent in the

1960s!). However, it i s true that on January 27th

1541 the Parsonage, lands and the right to appoint

clergy were granted to Henry VIII’s recently divorced

fourth wife.

By 1620, Haverhill had become well known as a

Puritan town – it produced many leading Puritan

preachers such as the Ward family (John, his sons

Samuel and Nathaniel and his grandson John),

the Faircloughs and the Scanderets. Haverhill in

Massachusetts was founded in 1640 by emigrants

from Suffolk.

In the mid to late 1600s a Wool House was built,

where wool was washed and prepared for the spinners

and weavers. By now the individual weaver had been

replaced by Masters who bought up their products

and marketed them wholesale, perhaps also supplying

woollen yarn to the weavers; the trade was now

becoming organised.

Names like Duddery Hill reflect an old established

clothing trade. A dud was a coarse woollen cloth

or shawl used by village people. The use of ‘duds’ for

clothes is derived from this word, but survives more in

America than Britain.

In June 1667 most of Haverhill was destroyed by a

fire which started at the Swan and quickly spread.

Little of the town remained and the parish church could

not be used again until 1670. Few records survive of

the post-fire period – however, the diaries, journals

and poems of two weaver brothers, Barnaby and John

Webb, paint a picture of a beautiful small town, full of

interesting characters and customs.

The town’s fortunes revived during the Industrial

Revolution with the establishment of new businesses,

including several silk factories. In 1828 Stephen Waltersbought a former tan yard in Haverhill Hamlet and built a

silk factory – each floor had a long weaving room and

enough room for around 16 looms. Another silk factory,

Vanners, now forms part of the Addis Brush factory.

Nowadays, Haverhill is defined by its bustling

town centre boasting a great range of local shops

complemented by major high street retailers, with the

market remaining a major attraction for the surrounding

villages and beyond. At the heart of the town is the

fabulous Haverhill Arts Centre, a popular haunt of

local artists and musicians. The Centre, which

doubles as a theatre and a cinema, provides a hub

for the ever-popular Haverhill Arts Festival, which

explodes with international, national and local talent

each June. Theatre, comedy, children’s shows, music

and dance – something for all ages and tastes.

Today many people regard Suffolk as an agricultural

county, and are surprised to learn that for six hundred

years south-western Suffolk, with the adjoining part

of Essex, was a major industrial region specialising

in the production of woollen cloth. The crucial period

for the emergence of this trade was the 13th century.

Already by 1200 the defended boroughs of Bury St

Edmunds and Sudbury were regarded as cloth-making

centres, and by 1300 the industry had spread to smaller

towns and surrounding rural parishes, where costs

were lower and commerce was less regulated. This

period also saw the adoption of the horizontal loom

which produced a tighter weave and demanded more

skill than the earlier upright version. The reasons for

industrial growth at this time are not easy to pin down,

and the persistent belief that Flemish weavers imported

the trade is a troublesome myth. Nor were the rivers of

the region especially ideal for driving fulling-mills. It has

been argued that textile industries tended to take root

in pastoral areas when population levels were high and

freely owned smallholdings were commonplace. These

were certainly useful preconditions for finding a labour

force wanting extra work, and they applied to Suffolk,

but other factors were needed to propel economic

‘lift-off’− like the density of pre-existing markets, pools

of expertise in major towns, the favourable attitudes of

principal landlords and, perhaps above all, the initiative

of key individuals. While this brief survey concentrates

on the woollen industry in south-west Suffolk, we must

point out in passing that the northern and eastern parts

of the county, and adjacent parts of Norfolk, grew hempand flax on a large scale to support another domestic

industry producing linen, sackcloth and canvas.

When the Crown levied a national tax in 1327, south-

west Suffolk displayed a noteworthy proportion of

occupational surnames clearly linked to the cloth-trade.

Names like Webb, Webster, Dyer and Fuller occurred

65 times in the county, but of those 43 per cent were

listed under the southern hundreds of Babergh and

Cosford. In the early 14th century, the town of Clare

with its excellent records showed striking economic

development, and Hadleigh was already the region’s

principal manufacturing centre. Yet, in spite of this

surge, the growth in the second half of the century was

even more remarkable, after the Black Death had killed

between a third and a half of the national population

during the period 1348-50.

Those who survived that great catastrophe in England

and abroad were relatively more prosperous, and

they created a buoyant demand for textiles and

clothing which had not previously existed. A tax on

looms showed that Sudbury’s weaving peaked in

the 1350s-60s. Around 1390, Hadleigh’s taxpayers

included eleven clothiers, seven fullers, six weavers,

five shearmen and three dyers. Around 1390 a London

merchant recorded the purchase of cloth worth the

large sum of £213 10s 8d from a Hadleigh draper

named John Kempston. Indeed, by this time Hadleigh

had become, in Mark Bailey’s words, ‘the most prolific

manufacturing centre in Suffolk’, and in 1398-99 nearby

Kersey, so often regarded as the archetypal English

village, boasted two highly significant industrial facilities:

an open-air cloth market and an adjacent cl oth-hall. By

the end of the century, Hadleigh, Lavenham, Kersey and

Bury St Edmunds were all prominent as centres

of production.

The characteristic textiles of the 14th century were the

‘dozen’; a cloth about 13 yards long which could be

broad or narrow; the ‘strait’ which was half the length

of a broadcloth and half its width, and the ‘kersey’,

which had no standard dimensions. (Peter Northeast

believed that kerseys were not named after the Suffolk

parish, but after an similar-sounding Arabic word for a

kind of head-dress.) Most of these fabrics were towards

the cheaper end of the market, and probably made

from local wools which were not of particularly high

quality. To sustain the industry, links had been built upwith merchants of Ipswich, Colchester and London,

three ports that exported most of Suffolk’s cloth. Local

producers increasingly depended on London merchants

for selling their cloth and supplying dyestuffs and other

essentials, and this trend was enhanced in 1395-96 by

the creation of the cloth-mart at Blackwell Hall, a few

yards from London’s Guildhall. The cloth exports of

Ipswich grew most noticeably during the 1430s, thanks

to its buoyant trade with merchants of the Hanseatic

League. However, growth was always at risk of bei ng

punctured by recession, and a major economic slump

hit the region from the 1440s to 1460s. At this time

Hadleigh suffered from chronic unemployment, and

was the main hotbed of protest in the eastern counties

during Cade’s rebellion of 1450.




Suffolk’s Cloth Industry: A History

and they probably relied more on equipment and

materials supplied by their employers, the ‘clothiers’ or

‘clothmakers’. These were the capitali sts and organisers

who provided the vital finance, paid the workers, set

them to their various tasks, delivered the raw materials

and collected the finished products. Thus, in his will of

1486, Thomas Spring II of Lavenham left 100 marks

(£66 13s 4d) to be distributed among ‘his spinners,

fullers and weavers’.

Some clothiers became very wealthy, millionaires by

today’s standards. In JCK Cornwall’s opinion, they

‘had no parallel outside London’. A classic example i s

William Forthe of Hadleigh whose business interests

were widespread throughout East Anglia and in

London. He was a member of five guilds in Hadleigh,

and became a merchant of the Staple of Calais. In the

late 1460s the leading clothier of Suffolk was John

Stanesby of Bildeston; over four years he organised themanufacture of 504 broadcloths and 6,760 straits, some

10 per cent of the county’s total output. In so doing he

employed twelve Italians to assist him. A better-known

example of a major clothier is Thomas Spring III of

Lavenham, who in the 1520s contributed over £800 to

the sumptuous rebuilding of the nave and tower of his

parish church. Like other top clothiers, he left in his will

a considerable sum of money (100 marks) for the repair

of local roads, thus conscientiously acknowledging that

his pack animals and carts had caused considerable

wear over the years. Yet on the other hand, as Amor

has shown, these ultra-wealthy individuals are quite

exceptional. The great majority of clothiers worked on

a smaller scale, sporadically and on a part-time basis;

they were ‘Jacks of all trades’ who pieced together a

living in various ways, and usually had some involvement

in farming.

Most cloth-making in this crucial period took place i n

the towns and vill ages of southern Suffolk, from Clare

in the west to East Bergholt in the east. By the 1460s

the leading centres in the county were Hadleigh and

Lavenham; Babergh had half of all clothiers mentioned

in ulnage accounts, and Cosford had a quarter.

Important outliers were also to be found in towns like

Ipswich, Needham Market, Stowmarket and Bury St

Edmunds. Within the cloth-making district, individual

places had their own specialities. Boxford had its own

‘fashion’ for finishing broadcloth; the Waldingfields

concentrated on narrow cloth; Glemsford had its own

undyed ‘whites’. Varieties of colours or dyes were even

greater. Lavenham was renowned for its blue broadcloth

(blue could come in three different shades known as

azure, plunket and brown-blue). Hadleigh was equally

celebrated for its straits in bright colours, especially

violet, and sent regular supplies to London. In return

it received advances of cash and necessary materials

such as woad and alum (a fixer of dye).

The so-called muster roll of Babergh Hundred, compiled

in 1522, lists those who owed military obligations to

the Crown, and incidentally gives their occupations

and assessed wealth. It shows that particular parishes

tended to have dominant occupations. Lavenham,

for example, had a marked concentration of clothiers:

out of a total of 120 clothiers in the whole Hundred, it

had 33. Moreover, a third of the town’s occupations

were related to cloth. By contrast, Boxford was

dominated by weavers, Melford by fullers and Nayland

by shearmen. Also in the 1520s, tax returns show that

prosperous Lavenham ranked as the 14th wealthiest

town in England (thanks largely to the wealth of the

Spring family). Hadleigh was 25th, Melford 39th and

Nayland 43rd. This industrialised district with its London

connections formed, in the words of Richard Britnell,

‘one of England’s most advanced mercantile networks’.

The ledger of Thomas Howell, a London merchant,

shows that between 1519-27 he bought fabrics in

Ipswich, Hadleigh, Bildeston, Boxford, Nayland andStoke by Nayland.

But after 1550, a new world dawned. The broadcloth

industry declined because of changes in fashion and

the shrinkage of traditional markets, and the number

of clothiers generally declined. The one exception

was Hadleigh which remained a vigorous centre

of broadcloth production: the names of at least 81

clothiers are known for that town in the period 1558-

1640. The main reason for the general decline was

that newer textiles were coming into fashion, fostered

Once the recession had passed, the later 15th and

early 16th centuries proved to be the most prosperous

period of all for the Suffolk cloth trade. This was truly

a boom time, and the wealth then generated has left

a clear mark on many of the region’s perpendicular

parish churches, guildhalls and ti mber-framed domestic

buildings. However, in this connection we must not

be seduced by guide books which talk so glibly of

‘wool churches’. The wealth created by this industry

came from cloth, not from wool itself. If we must use

such shorthand, it would be more accurate to speak

of ‘cloth churches’. But that too is to disregard the

economic contribution of local crafts, retailing of

all kinds and, above all , the farming which always

remained the basis of most people’s lives.

Ulnage accounts are important documentary sources in

the 15th century. The ulnager was a royally appointed

official responsible for putting a seal of approval oneach whole cloth in return for a ½d, and at the same

time levying a tax of 4d. The accounts are patchy in

survival, and the system needed extensive reform in

1465. Nevertheless they can be remarkably revealing

at parish level, because they list places, clothiers,

the number of cloths presented for sealing, and the

amounts of tax paid. Nicholas Amor has calculated

that, in the period 1465-69, the ulnager was presented

with over 20,000 cloths by 577 Suffolk clothiers. In

the year 1465-66 alone, Lavenham produced 990

cloths, Bildeston 812, Hadleigh 727, Bury St Edmunds

494, Melford 386 and Sudbury 312. These figures are

probably underestimates, but are sufficient to show, in

Bailey’s judgement, that ‘Suffolk had risen to become

England’s pre-eminent textile manufacturing county’.

In the following twelve years the trade concentrated

into the hands of fewer clothiers, and this was a trend

which went even further by the 1520s.

The local fabrics of this period are often called

the Old Draperies, to distinguish them from those

which became fashionable from the mid-16th

century onwards. They still included dozens, straitsand kerseys, with ‘vesses’ and ‘handywarps’, but

increasingly the main product was ‘broadcloth’, a

heavier material made of short-fibred wool imported

from limestone areas in, for example, Northamptonshire

and Lincolnshire. A broadcloth measured 28 yd 28 in

long by 5 ft 3 in wide, and in the early Tudor period

cost about £3. Its making demanded wide looms, each

operated by two people. The result was a textile of

middling quality which wore well, but could not equal

the finest English cloth or the most luxurious fabrics of

Flanders. Some broadcloth was intended for English

consumption, but most of it was exported to overseas

markets in the Baltic and Russia, south-western

France, Spain and the Mediterranean including North

Africa, Turkey and the Near East. To a remarkable

degree, Suffolk was part of a huge trading zone across

Europe and beyond. Inevitably, as happened earlier,

wars and diplomatic crises could disrupt the trade and

lead to slumps, and they in turn could lead to unrest and

even violence. In 1525 about 4,000 unemployed workers

from the Sudbury and Lavenham area rose i n protest,

and a major revolt was defused only by the prompt

intervention of the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk. Another

bad slump followed in 1528 during a trade war with

Burgundy, when clothiers threatened to lay off

their workers.

In making cloth, women and children usually spun the

yarn and men worked the looms. Subsidiary processesincluded wool-sorting, carding (combing) the raw wool,

shearing (expertly cutting the nap of the cloth) and

cloth-finishing. Such ‘out-work’ was done in people’s

own homes or in their outbuildings and yards. The

only processes in the trade which necessitated special

premises were fulling (cleaning the natural oils from the

wool) and dyeing either the wool or the cloth; both of

these demanded a reliable water supply, and in the

case of dye-houses the facilities were often shared.

The home-based character of the industry is the reason

why the mediaeval cloth trade has left very l ittle industrial

archaeology; too much is subsumed into the domestic

scene. For as long as they were self-employed, the

workers probably used their own equipment, some of

which (like spinning wheels and warping frames) was

relatively cheap. In the second half of the 15th century,

however, workers tended to become mere wage-earners,



Suffolk’s Cloth Industry: A History

done on special looms, and was mainly the province

of women. The final major development in Sudbury,

Melford and several other towns, beginning in the

1860s, was the making of matting from coconut fibre

imported from Sri Lanka and India. This was heavier

work done by men in purpose-built factories, using large

iron-framed looms and specially long shuttles. It also

involved dyeing in large vats, or bleaching with sulphuric

acid and lime. The main output was long rolls of matting

52 yards long. Other processes were still carried out at

home, such as the making of small domestic mats on

special frames, and the preparation of balls of yarn

by children.

These new industries, though quite localised, gave

welcome employment in several towns and rural

parishes in south-western Suffolk until the early part of

the 20th century. After the First World War, however,

the replacement industries were fatally undermined bychanging fashions and the introduction of new, cheaper

materials such as linoleum. Some businesses limped on

into the 1920s, but by 1930 most factories had closed.

Against the trend, Gurteens of Haverhill, who in 1865

employed over a thousand hands in making drabbetts

on steam-powered looms, continued weaving and only

ceased manufacturing a few years ago. Today the only

survivors are three firms that still weave silk in Sudbury;

their customers include National Trust properties, the

Houses of Parliament and the royal family. In 2004 a

local historian proudly described Sudbury as ‘the largest

silk manufacturing centre in Britain, if not in Europe’.

This is in stark contrast to other local towns, where

many factories belonging to the replacement industries

still survive as buildings, but are now converted into

houses, apartments or modern business premises.

Taking the broad view, the relative success of these

industrial ventures in the 19th and early-20th centuries,

with the plaiting of straw (to make hats) which was done

by large numbers of women and children, meant that

this part of Suffolk did not suffer so grievously from the

general impoverishment of rural England as it might

have done.

This brief survey should end on a human note. A weaver

of Bildeston called John Mauldons died in 1576, at an

unknown age. His probate inventory shows that he lived

in a modest house of four rooms, and had moveable

possessions worth the relatively low sum of £12. In his

chamber was a short length of broadcloth coloured

‘peucke’ (blue-black), but the weaving shop attached

to his house contained only a narrow loom and a linen

loom, with a cage for a tame bird. He could not, it

seems, have made the piece of broadcloth himself, but

got it from someone else. But whatever kinds of cloth

he wove, this was certainly not his only occupation, for

he also supported himself as a barber. His possessions

included a barber’s pot, four pairs of scissors, eight

razors, a comb and two mirrors. An additional five

cases for a barber and ‘certain instruments’ may imply

that he acted as a part-time surgeon as well, doing

tasks such as extracting teeth, lancing boils and setting

broken limbs. John was certainly literate for he owned

67 books, but many of them may only have been

pamphlets and broadsheets. The final surprise in the

inventory is ‘certain apparel for morris dancers and

other implements, with the bells’. He clearly belonged

to a local dancing troupe, and indeed as the person

who stored the equipment may have been their leader.

Although his date of birth is unknown, John Mauldons

surely lived during the turbulent events of the English

reformation, which affected Bildeston as they did all

English parish communities. It is therefore inconceivable

that this man was untouched by the religious

controversies of his day, especially as he was a reader.

He also lived at a ti me when the broadcloth industry

was declining and the New Draperies were taking root.

However much John had been afflicted by religious,financial and other anxieties, we can be sure that he

had worked to the sound of bird-song and enjoyed

much cheerful entertainment in the company of his

friends and neighbours.

by Dutch immigrants who fled to eastern England

to escape Spanish persecution. The so-called New

Draperies were more varied, lighter, brighter and

cheaper than the Old; they had a multitude of names

and were made of longer and coarser wool which was

readily available within the East Anglian region. They

also gave welcome full-time and part-time employment

to armies of wool-sorters, combers and spinners at a

time when the population was rising and the problem

of poverty was becoming desperate. The centres of

manufacture were Colchester, Braintree and Norwich,

but their ideas spread out to smaller towns and rural

areas. By the late 17th century, Sudbury was the

main centre of this trade in Suffolk and noted for its

‘says’ and ‘perpetuanas’. Nayland also concentrated

on ‘bays’ and says, and Hadleigh on bays, says and

‘Turkey ware’. The makers of these fabrics occupied

roughly the same parts of south-western Suffolk as

their predecessors, but they were fewer in number and

thinner on the ground.

The New Draperies never generated the same levels

of wealth as the broadcloth industry. Even so, many

local weavers and clothiers made a good living, like

John Tarver, a worsted weaver of Lavenham, whose

inventory was worth over £400 when he died in 1696:

attached to his house were workshops containing nine

looms, an arrangement which suggests an embryonic

factory. Thomas Reynoldes, a small clothier from

Stoke-by-Clare who died in 1576, employed at least

five spinners, two weavers, three fullers, one dyer and

one shearman. Most of them probably lived in and

around Stoke, but one of the fullers lived 18 miles away

at Sawston in Cambridgeshire. As before, this new

trade was subject to cyclical slumps. For example i n

the 1620s nearly 4,500 broadcloths worth £39,000

were left unsold in twenty Suffolk townships; this crisis

caused much hardship over several years.

After 1700, weaving continued in a few places

like Lavenham which was now specialising in

‘calimancoes’, and in Sudbury which produced says,‘crape’ and ‘bunting’. It declined, however, in the

region as a whole. Such employment as remained

was chiefly preparatory: sorting and combing the raw

wool and spinning it into yarn. In the 18th century

Suffolk supplied huge quantities of yarn to the weavers

of Norwich and Colchester, and as a consequence

woolcombing and spinning were frequently mentioned

in parish records, often in connection with poverty.

Hence too the interest in St Blaise, patron saint of

woolcombers, whose festival on 3rd February was

enthusiastically celebrated in Bury, Ipswich and

Lavenham. By the end of the century, the traditional

cloth industry had all but disappeared because local

craftsmen were no longer able to compete with the

machines and factories of northern England. The old

forms of domestic industry, which had served this part

of Suffolk for at least half a millennium, contracted

hugely within a couple of generations. Only in one or

two exceptional places did the tradition survive, as at

Sudbury which was still weaving silk and woollens at

the end of the 18th century.

This, however, was not the end of the story. In the 19th

century, because the population was rising fast and the

problems of unemployment and poverty were even more

pressing, it was recognised that south-western Suffolk

had under-employed people and reserves of industrial

expertise which could still be exploited economically.

Therefore so-called ‘replacement industries’ were

introduced, which usually combined home weaving with

purpose-built factories, and depended on raw materials

imported from distant parts of the world. The parish

authorities of Glemsford led the way by attracting silkmanufacturers from Spitalfields in London, where costs

were rising sharply. In the 1820s and 1830s factories for

silk-throwsting and silk-weaving were built in Sudbury,

Lavenham and other places, using raw silk brought from

China and India. By 1874 Sudbury, for example, had

nine mills manufacturing silks, velvets and satins, and

about 250 silk looms in the town and neighbourhood.

As in other parts of England, some weavers were

housed in specially built terraces with l ong first-floor

windows to admit plenty of daylight. In about 1830,

John Churchyard introduced the processing of horsehair

at Melford; it later spread to Lavenham, Glemsford and

Haverhill. The hair was imported from South America

and Siberia, and was converted into stuffing and

padding (for example in mattresses and crinolines) or

woven into various kinds of seating (for example in

railway carriages). The intricate and skilled weaving was

Staple of Calais: From

1314, the Crown required

all wool for export to be

traded at a designated

market called 'the staple'.

When Calais was conquered

by the English, a group of

traders was incorporated as

the Company of the Staple

at Calais.

Strait: Half the length and

width of a broadcloth.

Tenter (also taynter):

A wooden or metal frame for

stretching and drying cloth,

and to prevent shrinking;

the cloth was attached to

the frame by L-shaped nails

(tenterhooks).

Tokens: Inscribed metal

disks issued by shops

and businesses, in order

to stimulate trade when

coinage was in short supply.

The nominal value was

guaranteed against real

money or the value of goods.

Tournay (also Tournai,

Doornik): A commune in the

Belgian province of Hainaut

in the Hautes-Pyrénées

département of SW France.

Ulnager: A royally appointed

official responsible for putting

a seal of approval on each

whole cloth and levying a tax.

Wool Towns: Although wecolloquially refer to them as

'Wool' Towns, the correct

term is 'Cloth'; silk was also

an important contributor to

the county's prosperity

(see History section).

Worsted: A woollen fabric

based on long wool and

well-twisted yarn; named

after the village of Worstead

in north-east Norfolk.

More useful definitions





Choose Suffolk would like to thank the Heritage Lottery Fund for supporting the Suffolk Threads project.

Also grateful thanks to everyone involved with the project for their help, support and cooperation.

All maps are based on Ordnance Survey Copyright mapping. All rights reserved.Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown Copyright. Suffolk County Council Licence No.100023395 2011

© NTPL /John Millar/Paul Harris

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