430 
exceedingly that, in the Parish of St. Michael without the North 
Gate (comprising Broad and Walcot Streets) there were no less 
than 60 broad looms,” and undoubtedly there were then other 
looms within the City and in its southern suburb. 
On Gilmore’s map of 1694 are depicted at the “Ambry,” 
“ Bathwick Meddow,” &c., curious cross-barred structures, the 
largest series of these occupying what was later the “Town 
Acre,” the present site of Edgar Buildings and the open 
space at the top of Milsom Street. These were “ Cloth- 
Racks,’ very large wooden frames, on which the cloth made 
in Bath was exposed to the sun by the Clothiers after it had 
been dyed, the cloth being secured on these frames or racks 
by stitching, to prevent it from shrinking unequally as it dried. 
I am assured that such “Cloth-Racks” are very rarely met 
with on maps, and their presence in 1694 on so large a scale 
close to the City, is striking evidence of the continuance of the 
cloth manufacture locally, to a much later date than commonly 
accepted. In this connection it may be noted that the site of 
Milsom Street was originally known as ‘“ Rack Close.” 
To a collector tracing ‘Tokens in an adjoining County, we are 
indebted for evidence that Bath was then noted for a manufacture 
still carried on here, viz.—Organ building. In the Church 
Wardens accounts at Wimborne Minster, Dorset, occurs “‘ William 
Frampton and John Ansty, churchwardens, with the assistance of 
the parishioners did in the seaventeenth year (1665) of the reign 
of King Charles the Second, erect and set upp by Robert 
Hayward, of the Citty of Bath, co: Somersett, organ master, a 
payre of Organs in the church of Wimborne Minster, aforesayd, 
by indenture dated the tenth of September and the sixteenth 
year of the reign of King Charles the Second. A.D. 1664.” 
(Robert Hayward was on the Council in 1668, and soon after- 
wards elected an Alderman, and served as Mayor in 1682 and 
1694. He lived in Westgate Street, the house being shewn on 
the border of Gilmore’s map.) 
