Our Legal Heritage : 600-1776 King Aethelbert - King George IIIReilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage : 600-1776 King Aethelbert - King George III
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
The cloth was crafted by local weavers, dyers, and fullers. The
weaver lived in a cottage with few and narrow windows with little
furniture. He worked in the main, and sometimes the only, room.
First the raw wool was washed with water at the front door to
remove the grease. Then its fibers were disentangled and made fine
with hand cards with thistle teeth, usually by the children. Then
it was spun by a spinning wheel into thread, usually by the wife.
The threads forming the warp of the fabric were fastened parallel
on a double frame, of which the two ends rose and fell alternately
and were worked by two pedals. To make the weft, the weaver threw
a shuttle between them, from one hand to the other. Since one loom
could provide work for about six spinners, he had his wool spun by
other spinners in their cottages. Sometimes the master weaver had
an apprentice or workman working and living with him, who had free
board and lodging and an annual wage. Then a fuller made the cloth
thick and dense by washing, soaping, beating, and agitating it,
with the use of a community watermill which could be used by
anyone for a fixed payment. The cloth dried through the night on a
rack outside the cottage. The weaver then took his cloth, usually
only one piece, to the weekly market to sell. The weavers stood at
the market holding up their cloth. The cloth merchant who bought
the cloth then had it dyed or dressed according to his
requirements. Its surface could be raised with teazleheads and
cropped or sheared to make a nap. Some cloth was sold to tailors
to make into clothes. Often a weaver had a horse for travel, a cow
for milk, chickens for eggs, perhaps a few cattle, and some
grazing land. Butchers bought, slaughtered, and cut up animals to
sell as meat. Some was sold to cooks, who sold prepared foods. The
hide was bought by the tanner to make into leather. The leather
was sold to shoemakers and glovemakers. Millers bought harvested
grain to make into flour. Flour was sold to bakers to make into
breads. Wood was bought by carpenters and by coopers, who made
barrels, buckets, tubs, and pails. Tilers, oil-makers and rope-
makers also bought raw material to make into finished goods for
sale. Wheelwrights made ploughs, harrows, carts, and later wagons.
Smiths and locksmiths worked over their hot fires.
Games with dice were sometimes played. In winter, youths ice-
skated with bones fastened to their shoes. They propelled
themselves by striking the ice with staves shod with iron. On
summer holydays, they exercised in leaping, shooting with the bow,
wrestling, throwing stones, and darting a thrown spear. The
maidens danced with timbrels. Since at least 1133, children's toys
included dolls, drums, hobby horses, pop guns, trumpets, and
kites.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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