INDUSTRIES 



The spinning was usually done by women and 

 children, while the men tended the sheep or 

 tilled the land. The 'especially good turf 

 of the county fed an ' incredible number ' of 

 sheep, as writer after writer reiterates, and the 

 wool produced was ' fine to an extreme,' '' and 

 much coveted by clothiers,'* being in esteem for 

 broadcloths. '° The industry was first attracted 

 to this district by 'the infinite numbers of sheep,' 

 but owing to the agricultural changes, and to the 

 extent of the manufacture, wool had to be ob- 

 tained from all parts of England and occasionally 

 from Ireland, though no reliance could be placed 

 on the supply from the latter source. Wool 

 imported from Spain was, as its name ' Spanish 

 medley ' implied, mixed with the British wool to 

 make the broadcloth. 



In 1725 the industry was flourishing and in- 

 creasing; and though a check was given to the 

 trade by the war on the continent from 1742-8, 

 by the Seven Years' War, 1756-63, and by the 

 energy of the French, who had succeeded in 

 capturing the trade in the East,'' the ' making 

 and vending fine serge and felling sheep, of 

 which they have great quantities,' " continued to 

 be sources by which the county was much en- 

 riched. The making of serge seems to have 

 been independent of the neighbouring counties, 

 and to have stayed longer in the county. 

 Although it could be described as not very 

 considerable in 1 751,'' and although the 'fine 

 serge ' had become ' linsey woolsey at about 

 14^. a yard' in 1754,'' it was still flourishing 

 in 1761,''^ and until late in the eighteenth 

 century. 



This apparent contradiction usually holds good 

 of any Dorset industry. The whole industrial 

 population is inconsiderable, and the number of 

 men and women engaged in any one industry 

 would scarcely be enough to run a big Lancashire 

 factory, but the industries are in a healthy and 

 sound condition, and are far more important than 

 mere numbers would seem to warrant. 



The most graphic and detailed account of the 

 woollen industry, as it was carried on in North 

 Dorset in 1725, is that given by Defoe,"" and 

 though he has been called the greatest conceiv- 

 able liar, his facts about Dorset are corroborated 

 by all the standard historians, and his descriptions 

 can be vouched for by eye-witnesses in cases 

 where the custom has come down to the present 

 day. The only exception to this is his account 

 of Bridport, as before mentioned. 



" Defoe, Tour through Great Brit. (1725), 42. 



'* Description Engl, and Wales (1769), zll. 



" Tour through IVestem Counties (1807), 16. 



" Tour through Great Brit. (6th ed. 1761). 



" Cox, Magna Brit. 554. 



" Postlethwayt, Diet, of Trade (175 i). 



'" Pococke, Travels (1754), ii, 146. 



'" Tour through Great Brit. (6th ed. 1761). 



"Ibid. (1725). 



The whole plain, embracing Somerset, Wilt- 

 shire, North Dorset, and Gloucestershire, was at 

 that time busied in weaving wool. 



One of the effects of the diminution of the 

 demand for woollen goods was that the industry 

 gradually contracted in its area, and was no 

 longer carried on in this county. 



Dorset sheep in the middle of the eighteenth 

 century were still famed as some of the largest 

 and finest brought ' to Smithfield Market both 

 for flesh and wool,' and 'surprising quantities 

 of wool ' ^1 were still produced, but the wool 

 was carried into Somerset and Devonshire,^^ and 

 less and less was woven in Dorset. In 1769 Sher- 

 borne had altogether given up competing in the 

 weaving of medley cloths,^' but the rest of the 

 county had a ' considerable manufacture ^* of 

 woollen goods, though it is stated to be less than 

 it had been in preceding years." From this date 

 onwards this industry is usually mentioned as one 

 of the vanished glories of Dorset, though cloth 

 is given as one of the products of the county in 

 1780.2' 



In 1678 wool kerseys" were one of the chief 

 commodities of this shire."* Dorset cloth in 

 1689 was priced at 6s. per yard.^' 



A Dorset woollen manufacture which flourished 

 in the eighteenth century at Shaftesbury and 

 Sturminster was that of swanskin, a coarse white 

 cloth largely utilized for soldiers' clothing, and 

 for that of the Newfoundland fishermen. Stur- 

 minster had 1,200 persons engaged in the 

 industry in 1793, the output from the town 

 being from 4,000 to 5,000 pieces of 35 yds. 

 each per annum.'" The cost of the material was 

 from IS. 6d. to 2s. per yard.'' In 181 2 Stourton 

 Caundle had a manufactory of swanskin made 

 from lambswool.'^ By 1823 the trade of Stur- 

 minster in this commodity, so long specially 

 associated with the town, was ' annihilated.* '' 



" Description of Engl, and Wales {lyGq), 248. 



" Postlethwayt, Diet, of Trade (i 75 1). 



^ Engl. Displayed {\-j6ci), 65. 



" Like other western and southern cloth-making 

 centres Sherborne owed the decadence of its woollen 

 manufacture to the development of the trade in the 

 north ; Hutchins, Hist. Dors, ii, 366. 



"•Engl. Displayed {i-j6()), 65. 



" ^ Brief Description of Engl, and Wales (i 780). 



" Kersey, a coarse, narrow, woollen cloth ; Dillon, 

 Fairholt's Costume in Engl, ii, 264. Of this fabric 

 Professor Rogers writes : — ' It was early naturalized in 

 England, and widely manufactured, especially in the 

 west of England ' ; Agric. and Prices in Engl, v, 576. 



" England'' s Remarques (1678), 40. 



" Rogers, Agric. and Prices in Engl, v, 573. 



"Claridge, Agric. of Dors. 39. Macpherson in his 

 Annals of Commerce, iv, App. 4, alludes to the existence 

 at Sturminster in 1805 of 'a manufactory of baize 

 called swanskin.' 



" Claridge, Agric. of Dors. 39, 



" Stevenson, Agric. of Dors. 450. 



"Pigot, Z)/>. (1823), 276. 



361 



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