Land lords, struggling to find labour to till their lands, converted arable to pasture, and great swathes of Norfolk, Suffolk, the Cotswolds and the Berkshire Downs became dominated by sheep.

The usual procedure was for wool to be packed in sacks and then exported to the continent for manufacturing into usable cloth. The tax on the wool partly financed England’s part in The Hundred Years War and was so important to the country’s prospects that even today, the Speaker of The House of Lords sits upon a woolsack when mediating the Lords’ business.

Steventon was not to be left behind. However, the rearing of sheep was not suited to the water-logged clays of the Steventon fields: these remained under the plough. The asset Steventon had was the Ginge brook, and it was this that gave the villagers a chance to take advantage of a gap in the market: the conversion of raw wool into a rough but practical cloth called Kersey. Clear running water was an essential prerequisite for this. The washing of sheep prior to sheering was essential.

Likewise, fulling also required a reliable supply of clean water. Freshly woven woollen cloth resembles sackcloth, with loosely bound threads retaining natural oil and grease. These ‘impurities’ were removed by scouring with water embellishing with fuller’s earth, stale urine or soap. Fuller’s Earth was a particularly effective agent in dissolving oils and unwanted pigments and indeed the whole process of fulling is named after it. Deposits could be found in the Vale of the White Horse south of Faringdon and perhaps significantly, Drayton. After mixing water and the cleaning agent together and trampling the cloth in the mixture by foot, wooden mallets pivoting on a wooden frame then pounded the cloth. This was a delicate skill as the cloth needed to be beaten sufficiently to ‘full’ it, but at the same time, without wearing any holes. It was this process, which became mechanised by harnessing the power of water mills.

The final process was to stretch, dry and measure the cloth: the frames used for this had a variety of names including racks and tenters, the latter gives rise to the phrase, hanging by tenterhooks. A catte was the measuring device to ensure the cloth size met the industry defined requirements.

The ulnage accounts for 1394 and 1395 record that the output of cloth in Berkshire was 1747 kerseys, a kersey being a coarse, narrow cloth woven from long wool and measuring eighteen yards by one yard. Of this output, 574 kerseys were produced in Steventon and 520 in the Hendreds: these villages accounted for over sixty per cent of the shire’s production. Put this into a wider context and the output looks distinctly impressive: in the 1390s, the entirety of the English and Welsh production stood at around 40,000 cloths, meaning the three villages accounted for 2.7% of the national total.

Reminders of the wool trade in Steventon can be found in street names such as Castle Street (named after the catte measuring device), Sheepwash Lane, and Mill Street. It was also in the time of the wool industry in Steventon that the residential focus of the village shifted from the banks of the Ginge to the drier, larger plots lining The Causeway. In a time of relative stagnation, Steventon was bucking the trend.

Of course, the powers of the land were quick to realise that the profits of the cloth trade were a handy object for taxation, and Richard II and his government took full advantage. Alongside this article is a copy of cloth tax returns dating from the reign of Richard II (1377 to 1399) and marked by red pen stars are the names of two Steventon residents: John Hopekyn and John Hatte. Fir Tree House in Milton Lane was built by a John Hopkyns around 1570, and in the church, there are memorials to six members of a Hopkins family marking their deaths from 1734 to 1809. Are these all one and the same family and a link back and to the wool trade and the prosperity it brought to Steventon?

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