In 1500 south Suffolk produced more woollen cloth than any other county. As many as 4000 people were engaged as spinners, weavers, fullers, dyers and shearmen. Lavenham was home to more wealthy cloth-makers than anywhere else in the country. Nick will explain how the industry grew and what we can learn from studying the medieval wool trade, cloth production and finishing, and the rise of the clothier. He will illustrate his talk with images of medieval documents, photographs and graphs which are based on his own original research.
Nicholas Amor is Snr Fellow at the Universities of East Anglia and Suffolk, School of Social Sciences and Humanities. He is past Chair (current General Secretary) of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology & History, and is author of several books, including the one that this talk is based on.
