page_title: Woollen industry in Wales
section_title: Medieval period
hierarchical_section_title: Woollen industry in Wales / Medieval period
caption_attribution_description: English: Made by self
context_page_description: The woollen industry in Wales was at times the country's most important industry, though it often struggled to compete with the better-funded woollen mills in the north of England, and almost disappeared during the 20th century. There is continued demand for quality Welsh woollen products.
  Wool processing includes removing the fleece by shearing, classing the wool by quality, untangling, carding and spinning it into yarn, which may be knitted or woven into cloth, then finishing the cloth by fulling, napping and pressing.
  Spinning and weaving of sheep's wool dates to prehistoric times in Wales, but only became an important industry when Cistercian monasteries were established in the 12th century.
  Water-powered fulling mills to finish the cloth enabled rapid expansion of the industry in the 13th century, although spinning and weaving continued to be a cottage industry.
  In the early 16th century production shifted from south Wales to mid and north Wales. The Shrewsbury Drapers Company in England took a dominant role in distributing Welsh cloth.
context_section_description: In the Middle Ages sheep were probably kept mainly for their milk and wool rather than their meat.
  Sheep do not seem to have been important to the Welsh economy before the 12th century, when the first Cistercian monasteries were established in Wales.Tintern Abbey in the Wye valley was founded for monks of the Cistercian order by Walter FitzRichard, lord of Netherwent and Striguil, on 9 May 1131.
  All abbeys of the order were to be built in remote rural locations, and had to be simple and unadorned.
  The order expanded rapidly.
  Tintern was followed by Whitland (1140), its offshoot Strata Florida (1164), Strata Marcella (1170) in Powys Wenwynwyn, Cwmhir (1176) in Maelienydd, Llantarnam (1179) near Caerleon, Aberconwy (1186) in Gwynedd, Cymer (1198) in Merionethshire and Valle Crucis (1202) in Powys Fadog.
  The monks were granted extensive lands for sheep grazing and were the pioneers of the woollen industry in Wales.
  The invention of the water-powered fulling mill in the Later Middle Ages caused an industrial revolution in Wales.
  In the century that preceded the Black Death the monastic landowners and manorial lords built fulling mills in eastern Wales, with up to 80 operating before 1350.
  Sometimes a fulling mill and gristmill would share the same building or the same leat and mill pond.
  There would be a tenter yard outside the fulling mill where the cloth was stretched on frames.
  Woollen manufacturing became one of the main rural industries in Wales.
  Most Welsh cottages and farmhouses had a spinning wheel, almost always operated by women, and most parishes had carders, spinners, weavers and fullers.
  However, most of the production was for personal use rather than sale.
  The main centre of the new woollen industry was initially in south east Wales drawing on sheep from the monasteries of Margam, Neath and Tintern and the flocks of the Bohun family, which produced 18,500 fleeces in 1372.
  Fulling mills were later established elsewhere in Wales, particularly the north east and the Ceiriog valley.
  In 1380 the lordship of Ruthin in Denbighshire had 36 weavers.
  However, the period from 1350 to 1400 was difficult, with recurrences of the plague and heavy taxation to pay for the war with France.
  Between 1350 and 1500 an average of 50 fulling mills were operational. 
  The reduced number was due to the unsettled state of the country before, during and after the Glyndŵr Rising (1400–15).
  The quality of wool depended on the local breeds of sheep.
  In the 15th century south-east Wales produced particularly high quality wool. Margam in West Glamorgan and Tintern in Monmouthshire were noted for their excellent wool.
  According to Thomas Fuller's Church History, Wales specialized in manufacturing friezes.
  A frieze is a coarse woollen cloth that usually has a nap on one side. It was hard-wearing and well-suited for outer garments, and was popular with working men.
  Cloth was made in many places in Wales, particularly the south west and the northern and southern borderlands.
  In 1447 there was a guild of weavers and fullers in the lordship of Ruthin, and in the 1460s at least five fulling mills were operating in this location.
  The cloth was sold locally, in border town markets and in the yearly Bartholomew Fair in London.
  Welsh friezes were also exported from Welsh ports or from Bristol.
  In the early 16th century cloth for export was mainly produced in south Wales and shipped from the local ports.
  During that century there was a shift in production to mid-Wales and north Wales, and the woollen production was exported via Shrewsbury in Shropshire. 
  The Shrewsbury Drapers Company tightly controlled the trade.
  The Welsh cloth makers, who lacked capital, produced poor quality drapery for which there was relatively low demand.
caption: Medieval kingdoms of Wales
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