Textiles production has been an enormously important activity since early times. What we wear, and how we furnish our homes are two of the great preoccupations which unite us all. The textiles story also embraces wider histories: ideas of beauty and design, fashion and innovation, production and working practice, trade and retail.
This web-site invites you to explore these ideas by looking at textiles development in one English provincial city: the City of Norwich.
People are usually surprised to find out that Norwich had an important part to play in the textile world. Often described as England's second city, Norwich in its heyday has been described as ‘the chief seat of the chief manufacture of the realm’. In the 17th and 18th centuries ‘Norwich Stuffs’ were known throughout Europe and beyond. The Norwich Shawls of the 19th century were amongst the most beautiful and technically advanced fabrics of their age.
The early medieval cloth industry was based on the production of a variety of woollen and linen cloths. From the 16th century, Norwich specialised in light unfulled cloths, such as camlets. Success rested on the fusion of technical knowledge introduced by the Dutch, Flemish and Walloon settlers known as ‘Strangers’, and the expertise of the Norwich-born cloth workers. A fabulous range of cloths, many with exotic names like callimanco and tappisado, was developed and sold at home and abroad.
During the industrial revolution, the Norwich industry was eclipsed by cloths from areas better served to take advantage of cheap labour, power sources and good communications; such as the West Riding of Yorkshire. Norwich responded by re-inventing itself as a centre for making shawls, horsehairs and crapes, but its share of the trade gradually fell away.
The last cloth was made in Norwich in the late 1970s. Bomb damage, slum clearance and road schemes have destroyed much of the textiles landscape. But look more closely, and the legacy of textile might is unmistakable. We find traces of wealth generated in the City churches, public buildings and charities and in its stock of merchant and artisan housing. Above all, we find the lives of leading Norwich citizens over the centuries and story of textiles manufacture are closely inter-twined.
Hainsworth.co.uk
Hainsworth is a specialist textile company that has been an unrivalled market leader for over 225 years. In Tudor England, wool was an important commodity that signified power and influence. So much so that Queen Elizabeth I insisted nobility took their oaths of loyalty kneeling on a woollen sack. Today, the Woolsack remains at the heart of Britain’s democracy and is now the seat of the Lord Speaker in the House of Lords, the Upper House of Parliament in the United Kingdom. The Woolsack is covered in Hainsworth cloth.
Our ceremonial cloth has been at the heart of national pride, the world over, since before the Battle of Waterloo; our protective fabrics safeguard emergency services in the Middle East, Asia, Europe and North America; our interior fabrics furnish Royal palaces and homes throughout Europe and the Middle East; our snooker and pool cloth is undeniably the best in the world; and our award-winning innovation centre is an internationally recognised authority in the design and development of woven textiles.
From the time Abimelech William Hainsworth started manufacturing woollen cloth in Yorkshire, investing in our people and maintaining strong partnerships with customers and suppliers have been the cornerstones of our success. Hainsworth fabric has clothed royalty and the military for full-dress ceremonial occasions and has embellished and enriched the furnishings of palaces across the world.
Hainsworth also delivered the first inherently heat and flame-retardant fabrics in the UK and now protect emergency services and military personnel around the world from the damaging effects of fire. Hainsworth enables musicians, designers, tailors and world championship snooker players to reach the pinnacle of their professions.
Today, our challenge is to integrate the traditional qualities of craftsmanship with cutting edge innovation and product development to meet the needs of a growing and diverse global customer base. Our product patents, The Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation and the granting of our Royal Warrant, to supply HM The Queen, demonstrate our ability to deliver fabric to the highest possible standard. The ever changing needs of our apparel, technical and industrial, and interior fabric customers drive our commitment to maintaining the Hainsworth name as the benchmark in all textile manufacture.
Hainsworth supply authentic costume fabrics to Film & TV companies, Opera Houses and leading theatres worldwide.Selected for their quality, colour and authenticity our fabrics are used in costume design from traditional to modern and have been used in many recent films including Harry Potter, the Dark Knight and the musical Oliver.
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