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A History of the Cotswold Sheep
Today there is not much more than a ton or two of Cotswold fleece-
year. It is long-
(For comparison Merino is mid 60's plus, Lincoln about mid 30's). Until recently,
Cotswold wool was for many years lumped in with other English lustre-
mainly for carpets and industrial cloths.
During the early 1980's Cotswold Woollen Weavers recognised its potential and revived
its use. In particular, the natural lustre and the clarity with which it accepts dye made the
wool ideal for loose-
range of dramatic block-
to see both the processes involved and the products.
Cotswold Woollen Weavers' activities have been coincident with a renewed interest in
the Cotswold breed, so this is a good time for re-
historical pedigree of Cotswold wool has been ignored as irrelevant.
But it was not always so. The Cotswolds are indelibly marked with the history of the
Cotswold sheep and its fleece. But it is a puzzling, clouded history. When Aldous Huxley
nearly said that facts begin as heresies and end as superstitions, he might have been
thinking of the Cotswold sheep. For although the great Wool Churches stand four-
in many a Cotswold village, as solid testimony to the power and wealth of the medieval
merchants who endowed them, not much can be said with certainty about the wool which
the Cotswold sheep provided. There is certainly a lot of superstition: even a bogus
derivation of the very word Cotswold (sheep cot on the wold, or open hillside) has been
widely used to puff the influence of wool in the area.
Certainly wool has long been an important English commodity, and the Cotswolds an
important source for it. 500 years ago wise men agreed that half the wealth of England
rides on the back of the sheep -
the Saracens. The Lord Chancellor sits in The House of Lords to this day on a sack
stuffed with wool to show the pre-
in this country's affairs. The medieval weavers of 12th century Flanders happily sang:
The best wool in Europe is English
and the best wool in England is Cotswold
But what sort of wool was it that they prized so highly?
There is evidence that the Romans brought sheep with them as they battled northwards,
and perhaps they introduced them to the Cotswold hills around the important Roman
settlement at Corinium, the modern Cirencester. They would have valued these sheep for
their milk and for their fleece: shivering Southern European mercenary soldiers needed
warm winter coats. There is further evidence, based mostly on scanty skeletal remains,
that these Roman imports were the ancestors of the great flocks of Medieval Cotswolds -
and indeed of all the English long-
The temptation is to look at a Cotswold sheep today, to sink one's hand in its thick
lustrous long-
years to those early Roman farmers. The problem is that for most of the intervening years
virtually nothing is known for sure. Shepherds reasonably enough have rarely thought it
sensible to spend their time writing down descriptions of their flocks: the first book in
English entirely about sheep was not published until 1749 (Ellis -
Guide), and the first comprehensive resumé of English wool not until 1809 (Luccock -
Essay on Wool). But by then, the early 19th century, the heyday of the Cotswold sheep
was over. And of course, woollen cloth gets worn out, and is attacked by moth and
mould: there is very little extant medieval woollen cloth available for analysis.
During the Early Medieval centuries England was a relatively underpopulated country,
with plenty of rolling hill-
their fleece. Perhaps 500,000 sheep roamed the Cotswolds, and most of their wool was
exported to Flanders and Lombardy; more densely populated countries which could not
spare land for wool growing. Thousands upon thousands of pack-
wool-
crossed the river at Radcot and proceeded southwards to Southampton, or saw their loads
shipped on barges to London. The continental weavers paid royally for the wool, the
Cotswold merchants grew rich and built their churches, and the English crown paid its
way with the taxes levied on the trade.
But was this Golden Fleece (the Cotswold sheep was long known as The Lion of the
Cotswolds) the long, heavy, lashy wool that the modern Cotswold bears, or something
shorter, softer and more like the Ryeland wool from Herefordshire which was equally
important to the medieval weavers?
There are memorial brasses in Northleach church which show what look like newly
shorn Cotswolds just like those which crop the grass today, and some commentators
suggest the Cotswold was always a big, long-
that sage Gervase Markham to this effect). But others suggest that the wool was once
much softer: Michael Drayton, writing at the end of the 16th century suggests that
Cotswold wool was very fine: it comes very near that of Spain, for from it a thread may
be drawn as fine as silk.
This Spanish comparison is important, because one conundrum revolves around the
export -
particularly by Edward IV but up to 1425 when the export was banned as part of the
increasingly draconian network of laws to safeguard the interests of the burgeoning
English wool-
and it is inconceivable that English, and specifically Cotswold sheep, could have been so
fine as to be worth cross-
Cotswolds were different from merinos: long-
alternative cloths.
Until the late 19th century, and advanced mechanical innovation, it was not possible to
spin worsted yarn from short fibre. The wool from which worsted yarn was spun had to
be combed by hand to eliminate short hair (noils) and to align every fibre parallel to the
direction of the yarn. Then tight, flat yarn could be spun and tough, sleek cloth could be
woven: quite different from the spongy, less sophisticated cloths which could be woven
from yarn woollen spun from shorter merino and down-
Cotswold sheep were shorter and softer fleeced than they are today, but their wool was
still lustrous and strong enough to be ideal for worsted spinning. If nothing else,
Cotswold fleece could provide Spanish soldiers with tough, resilient serge uniforms, and
nobles with flowing, draping cloaks to wear over their shirts of soft, fluffy merino.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, the rising clatter of loom-
around Stroud presaged England's transition from raw-
cloth manufacturer. So complete was this change that the crown eventually forbade the
export of fleece altogether, and it remained illegal until 1824. Although, gradually, vast
amounts of wool began to be imported from the wide open spaces of Australia and South
Africa (ideal for extensive sheep-
wools (including Cotswold) which helped establish England's superiority as a woollen
textile manufacturer.
To some extent this issue of the nature of Cotswold wool is one of semantics: as William
Marshall wrote, after he rode the Cotswold hills at the end of the 18th century, the
Cotswold is a breed which has been prevalent on these hills, [since] time immemorial: it
has been improved, but has not changed. (During the Improving Years of the 18th
century, the Cotswold certainly increased in size as shepherds learnt new husbandry
techniques.) Or as Ezra Carman wrote disarmingly in 1892, as he strove to sum up the
evidence of three hundred years of literature about Cotswold fleece: It is difficult to
reconcile these opinions, nor indeed is it necessary; the Cotswolds beyond the memory of
our day have long been a long-
So, superstitions and all, in this volatile world perhaps it is acceptable, even necessary
that there are these noble, mythic links with the past. If this be so then The Golden
Fleece, which might have provided uniforms for the Roman legions, paid for the
Crusades, clothed 18th century Europe with West of England Broadcloth and today
makes splendid block-
Long live the Lion of The Cotswolds.
Select Bibliography
The bibliography of English wool and woollen textiles is vast. Here are a few of the more
interesting sources and historical reviews of the literature. Many of these books contain
more detailed bibliographies.
(Bath & W of E Society) Letters and Papers... abridged reports Bath 1802 et seq
Bischoff, J Woollen and Worsted Manufactures London 1842
Carman, E. Sheep Industry of the United States Washington (USA) 1892
Ellis, W. A Complete System... The Shepherd's Sure Guide London 1749
Kerridge, Eric Textile Manufactures in Early Modern England Manchester 1985
Luccock, J. An Essay on Wool London 1809
Marshall, W. The Rural Economy of Gloucestershire London 1794
McMurtrie, W. Examination of Wools Washington (USA) 1886
(Michigan State Board of Agriculture) The Cotswold... Lansing (USA) 1865
Murphy, J. The Art of Weaving Glasgow 1827
Ryder, M.L. Sheep & Man London 1983
Smith, J. Memoirs of Wool London 1747
Trow-
Youatt, W. Sheep, their breeds... London 1837