SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



the country districts. A certain amount of weaving had indeed always gone 

 on in the villages. In the twelfth century the abbot of Winchcombe had a 

 fulling-mill at Clively. 1 As far back as Edward I the tenants of Hawkes- 

 bury used to pay fines for leave to full their cloth elsewhere than at the lord's 

 mill.* Several weavers, one dyer, and one fulling-mill are mentioned in the 

 Gloucester Chartulary. 8 In 1353 there was a ' Hugh the Walker,' or Fuller, 

 at Cheltenham,* and by the reign of Henry V, as we have seen, there were 

 weavers there. Whether the Flemings, who did so much for the cloth 

 industry in the towns, also settled in the country we do not know ; but the 

 name 'Fleming' occurs more than once at and near Temple Guiting. 1 Possibly 

 foreign workmen were introduced there by the Templars, who had built 

 two fulling-mills in the neighbouring hamlet of Barton by 1185.' Probably 

 most villages did some amount of weaving, for pieces of cloth seem to have been 

 articles to be found in many houses. In 1418 the theft of a yard of cloth 

 worth 3-f. 4//. led to a highly entertaining quarrel at Hawkesbury. 7 In 1399 

 * cloth of blanket ' was sold at about 2s. 6d. a yard at Cheltenham. 8 In the 

 reign of Edward IV the fulling-mill at Hawkesbury was a valuable part of the 

 lord's estate.' At Bisley a fulling-mill and messuage were let for 1 2s. per annum 

 in H39, 10 while Chalford Mill and tenements paid i6j. rent in the reign of 

 Richard III. By 1485 the owner of this fulling-mill was unpopular, be- 

 cause of his prosperity, his new methods, or some other reason unknown, for 

 he was attacked by a crowd of malefactors, * vi et armis, viz. with swords, 

 sticks, bows and arrows, scythes, jakkes, armour, &c., with intent to murder 

 him, so that he was many times affrighted and disturbed, and was robbed of 

 three Sherman Sherys, worth 30^.'" In 1515 the same mill and lands were 

 let for 3 6s. Sd. a year. 



Under Henry VIII fulling-mills also existed in considerable numbers at 

 Kingswood, one being let for the high rent of 8 i/." In 1532 a gig-mill 

 and a fulling-mill at Cam were leased for twenty-one years to Alice, wife of 

 John Tyndale. It was beginning, in fact, to be realized that the valleys 

 about Stroud possessed superior facilities for the weaving and dyeing of cloth. 

 In 1557 this development of the west received remarkable recognition in 

 ' an Act touching the making of woollen cloth,' whereby an effort was made 

 to confine the manufacture to the towns, the only favourable exceptions 

 being a few specified districts, which included ' any towns or villages near 

 the river Stroud in the county of Gloucester, where cloths have been made 

 for twenty years past.' In an Act of 1565-6 this grace was again extended 

 to ' the parts of Gloucestershire about Frome Water, Kingswood Water and 

 Stroud Water.' " 



Though its progress is marked by the grumblings common to English 

 manufacturers of every age, the Cotswold woollen industry was evidently 



1 LanJbte, \, 195. ' Ct. R. portf. 175, No. 41. 



Vol. iii. 4 Ct. R. portf. 175, No. 25, m. 7. 



' First at Little Utryngton, in Guiting, in 1328. C.C.C. Bursary Books, 21, pp. 3-5 ; 22, p. 139. 



Dugdale, Man. (ed. 1661), ii, 529. 



' The thief, declaring he ' would sooner mortify than stand to answer in court,' fled, leaving his cloak 

 behind him. Ct. R. portf. 175, No. 50, m. 3. ' Mins. Accts. bdle. 852, No. 2. 



Ct. R. portf. 175, No. 55. " Ibid. No. to, m. 6. 



" C.C.C. Bursary Books, 22, pp. 401-23. These shears were probably used for shearing off the nap, 

 which was part of the process of finishing cloth. 



" Rentals and Su.v. portf. 7, No. 70. " John Smith, Mem. fWool, pp. 70-9. 



'57 



