The Cloth Industry
In its heyday Exeter’s success was founded on the
cloth trade, which employed about 60% of the city’s workforce. By
this period the principal kind of cloth produced was serge - light,
hard-wearing and brightly coloured woollen. In the words of the
traveller Celia Fiennes, who visited the city in 1698, the Exeter
serge trade ‘turned the most money of anything in England’. From
leaving the back of a sheep to the finished cloth the wool passed
through many hands. The early stages of the process - combing, spinning
it into yarn, then weaving the yarn into cloth - were conducted
principally in the small towns and countryside around the city.
The cloth was then carried to Exeter by packhorse. The city controlled
the finishing processes - fulling, then drying on racks (tenter
frames), burling (picking out the knots), shearing (cropping with
large shears to produce a smooth surface), pressing and finally
dyeing. |
Goldsmiths
Goldsmiths in Exeter, as elsewhere, principally
made articles of silver. Throughout the 17th century their output
was very restricted; they largely made silver spoons, but also supplied
a limited range of church plate. When more elaborate items were
bought locally they were supplied from elsewhere, principally from
London.
Following conflict between the Exeter and London
goldsmiths, an assay office was set up in Exeter in 1701; part of
the Blue Maids’ Hospital in Mary Arches Street (? formerly used
as the mint in the Great Recoinage) was set aside for the purpose.
Shortly afterwards the local goldsmith John Elston seems to have
brought London craftsmen, skilled in making complex objects, to
Exeter. His workshop was then able to produce much more sophisticated
products; it was very prolific. Works of very high quality were
produced until about 1750. |
Tin-Glazed Pottery
Tin-glazed pottery (sometimes known as maiolica,
faience or delftware) is earthenware whose lead glaze contains a
small proportion of tin — a costly ingredient. This causes the glaze
to turn white, and can be used with a range of metal oxides to produce
painted pottery. In the middle ages the production of tin-glazed
pottery had spread from the Islamic world, where it had been invented,
to Italy. After 1500 potters from Italy moved to Antwerp, then spread
to other towns in the Low Countries. There was a great growth in
the industry in the late 17th century, when new factories were set
up in various English and Dutch towns. |
