Trowbridge Museum :: Fun, Friendly and Free


contact \| visually impaired site \| home

Sunday, 14 March, 2010



	School Workshops An exciting way to learn more about cloth making and wool processes in one of our School Workshop visits. Click here for more



	Booking Info All the information you need about booking a School visit using one of our teachers packs. Click here for more

Woolstapler

English wool was supplied by a stapler, often working in London. The staple is the length of one fibre when pulled out of the fleece. Spanish wool, with a finer staple, was being sold by the 1680s and took over from English fleece.

Stumpy the Ryland Sheep in Trowbridge Museum

Wool Scourer

To clean it, the wool was washed by hand using water and either soap wort or urine, locally called sig. Baskets were used to hold the wet fleece, which was rinsed in flowing water – the local stream – and allowed to dry in the sun if possible. This process was done at the dyehouse by the 18th century.

Sig Carriers

Picker or Sorter

The raw fleece was sorted by hand into different classes of wool. The picker would assess the quality of the wool by looking at and feeling the staple ‘in the grease’. As it was picked over by hand, dirt and other vegetable matter (burrs) were removed or fell through the mesh supporting the fleece.