34 
The Sheep Stock of Gloucestershire. 
At Chipping Campden lived William Grevel, ancestor of the 
houses of Warwick and Willoughby de Broke, whose fame 
was such that his epitaph, dated 1401, describes him as “the 
flower of the wool merchants of all England.” Fairford, we 
are told by Leland, “ never flourished before the coming of the 
Tames on to it.” To John Tame, a prince of wool merchants, 
it owes its church and its famous windows. At Northleach 
we find the Celys, and interesting evidence of its importance 
as a centre of the wool trade is to be found in the “ Cely 
Letters,” dating from 1475-1488, recently published by the 
Royal Historical Society. The Celys were an important 
family of wool merchants with a business house in Mark 
Lane ; they dealt almost exclusively in Cotswold wool, and 
Northleach is the town in that district most frequently 
mentioned as being visited by them. One son appears to 
have been permanently established on the Continent — either 
at Calais, where the recognised mart for English produce was at 
that time fixed, or at Bruges — while another would often be in 
Gloucestershire, buying the wool or superintending the packing. 
We have therefore proof that at this time an expox-t ti'ade 
was carried on in English wool, and the relative value of 
Cotswold and of other wools will be seen in the following 
table : — 1 
Date 
Cotswold 
Average 'Wool 
& 
s. 
d. 
& 
s. 
d. 
1380 
0 
9 
4 
0 
6 
5 per tod. 
1421 
0 
13 
1 
0 
7 
51 
1 452 
0 
7 
0 
0 
4 
3* 
1456 
0 
9 
4 
0 
4 
3* (1451-1460) „ 
1552 
1 
10 
0 
0 
15 
9 (1551-1560) „ 
1592 
1 
10 
0 
1 
0 
0 (1583-1600) „ 
1661 
1 
8 
0 
Spanish Wool 3 
4 
0 „ 
1779 
1 
4 
10* 
Hereford ,, 
3 
14 
1836 
2 
5 
0 
1840 
3 
10 
0 
1870 
2 
0 
0-2 
5 0 
2 
0 
0-2 5 0 
1906 
1 
8 
0-1 
15 0 
1 
8 
0-1 16 0 
We 
may form an idea of the 
relative values of farm 
duce at the earlier dates from the fact that from 1260 till 1540 
wheat was sold at an average price of 5s. 11|<7. per quarter, 
while from 1495 till 1770 the average prices of various articles 
of diet were as follows : — butter 1 d., cheese \d., meat \d. 
per lb., bread f d. the four-pound loaf. 2 
In the 16th century Michael Drayton (1561-1631) wrote : — 
“ The sheep our Wold doth breed 
(The simplest though it seem) shall our description need, 
And Shepheard-like the Muse thus of that kind doth speak. 
1 Cp. Victoria County Hist., Gloucestershire. 
2 Thorold Rogers. Work and Wages, pp. 1 and 119. 
