ARTS&CRAFTS
days,with the weaver sitting in frontRobin Mitchell
of the loom and “shedding” (openingdemonstrating
one of the the correct sequence of warp threads),
recent weaving with his wife and another helper
machines at “picking” (passing a baton carrying
Gigg Mill in the weft thread through the opened
Nailsworth
“shed”). If the weaver was making ten
foot broad cloth, this process was
extremely time consuming.
In 1733 a weaver in Lancashire,
John Kay, invented the flying shuttle.
It was an ingenious long shuttle,
shaped like an off-centre narrowboat.
The shuttle’s lopsidedness meant that
it leant into the warp threads and that
the weaver could now work alone,
pulling a string which sent the shuttle
flying from one side of the loom to
the other.
At Gigg Mill the trust has an
idiosyncratic loom of this sort, which
dates from 1850 and was
painstakingly restored by trust
members after being stored in a
garage for 20 years.
Cast-iron looms were introduced in
the mid- to late-19th century and the
Weaving Shed contains a powered
loom of the sort that was used by
large manufacturers such as
Strachan’s between the 1890s and the
1950s.These machines meant that the
speed of weaving went up from six
picks a minute in the early days of
cottage weaving,to 60 picks a minute
after the invention of the flying
shuttle,and then doubled to 120 picks
a minute on a motorised loom.
Technology has developed at warp
speed since then and nowadays the
weft thread is fired through the shed
with a tiny jet of water,at a speed of
800 picks a minute.
Outside the shed, local textile artist
Jane Ford has created a garden of dye
plants,in what was once an area
overgrown with nettles of triffid
proportions.Now there are two neat
raised beds which contain plants such
as wode,which produces a yellow dye;
flax, which yields blue; madder,which
has a reddish root; and teasel whichWarp&Weft
produces the prickly seed heads that
weavers used to fluffup the surface of
their cloth.Words by Anna Parry
With skilled textile engineers RobinPicture by Sarah Standing
Mitchell and Terry Eldridge on hand
to explain this very local and practicalThe Stroudwater Textile Trust hasF THE warp is vision and
history to visitors, the Weaving Shedrecently added to their collection of millsdetermination and the
looks set to become a popularwith the new Weaving Shed at Gigg Mill.
addition to the Stroudwater TextileIn this smallish building in NailsworthIweft is skill and
Trust’s collection of living museums ofTrust volunteers take visitors on aapplication you end up with a
the textile industry.practical journey through theseries of mills where visitors
development of the loom. Gigg Mill Nailsworth is open on certain
The first step is demonstrated by table-can experience,and even try Saturday mornings.Group bookings and
top looms on which the visitor can helptheir hand at,the weaving school visits can also be arranged. For further
to weave a length of cloth. These looms information please telephone 01453
are scaled down versions of the loomstechniques that made the 766273.
that were used in most cottages up untilFive Valleys cloth industry so
the mid-eighteenth century.important.
Weaving was a slow process in those
44 COTSWOLDESSENCE September - November 2008 Inspiring life in the Cotswolds
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