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Welsh Woollen Indusrty and Welsh Woollen Blanket new article content ... Wales has a long tradition of textile manufacture, from the Middle Ages until the mid-nineteenth century woollen manufacturing was among the most important of Welsh industries and was certainly the most wide spread rural industry in Wales. Welsh cloth was initially woven to meet the needs of a local market with wool from local sheep.

In the Middle Ages woollen manufacturing was particularly important in the county of Pembroke, where natives and Flemish immigrants spun yarn and wove cloth in their cottages and farmhouses. At that time manufacturing cloth was little more than a domestic pursuit, and the people of Wales worked the wool of local sheep to provide themselves with blankets and rugs, tweeds and flannel. By the end of the sixteenth century the demand for Welsh cloth had fallen away to such an extent that the industry almost disappeared from South West Wales. But as the industry in that area declined, it caught on rapidly in the old counties of Montgomery, Merioneth and south Denbigh. A canal was constructed in 1821 to take flannel to England, allowing cargo to be sent from Newtown to Industrial Lancashire. Montgomeryshire could have developed into one of the most important textile manufacturing districts in Britain if the roads, railways and canals around it had not led eastwards into the heart of the Lancashire textile industry and if coal supplies had been nearer, Newtown could truly have lived up to its name of ‘the Leeds of Wales’. As it was the manufacturers of Montgomeryshire made a serious mistake when power looms became common. They tried to compete with the textile manufacturers of northern England by building huge, steam-driven mills that produced flannel similar to that fashioned by the looms of Rochdale and Huddersfield. By 1860 the industry was in difficulty – bankruptcy and unemployment was rife. By the end of the nineteenth century the woollen industry was almost dead, and Newtown returned to being a small market town.

As the industry declined in mid and north Wales, the Teifi Valley in West Wales became the new heart of the nation’s woollen industry. When the railway reached Pencader in 1864 and Newcastle Emlyn in 1895, it provided the means of taking the produce of the industry to its main market in the industrial valleys of South Wales. By 1895 the three counties of Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire – boasted as many as 325 woollen mills. By 1900, the Dre-fach Felindre area was home to 52 mills in full production. During World War One the Welsh Woollen Industry was employed in the war effort producing blankets and uniforms for the armed forces. Welsh grey homespun known as Brethyn Llywd uniforms was produced for the new Welsh Army Corps formed during the war; the cloth was commissioned by the war office to give a nationalistic distinction to the new recruits. After the war there was a steady decline in the Welsh Woollen Industry the war office sold all its surplus woollen cloth cheaply and along with the great depression of the 1920s and thirties forced many mills into bankruptcy and some suspicious fires at mills across Wales.

Today there are only 12 woollen mills left in Wales. With the current trend of shabby chic and sustainable living Welsh wool is seeing a rise in fortunes particularly in blanket production. The Welsh woollen blanket is the icon of the woollen industry with many different patterns and colures. Mills would have had unique designs and guarded their designs but with the passing of time and the weavers themselves these designs have been copied many times. Most of the Welsh woollen mills were small in comparison to the English mills and were run as family business, the designs would be created by the weaver with little or no records kept. With the decline of the Welsh woollen industry from the beginning of the twentieth century most of the old small rural mills are no longer in living memory therefore to state that a particular small mill produced a particular pattern, with no records as proof is a very dangerous precedent to set without labels or proven providence.

Welsh Blankets would have formed a part of the bottom draw for Welsh brides and a traditional wedding present in Wales was a pair of Welsh blankets. The blankets would have travelled many miles and to different countries with people moving great distances during the Industrial revolution looking for work but wanting to keep a small piece of home with them. Welsh Blankets add to the aesthetic of a room, looking attractive by day and providing warmth at night.

Narrow width blankets are the earliest blanket these were made on a single loom and consisted of two narrow widths and then hand sewn together to form a larger blanket. Single loom blankets of this type were the norm before the turn of the twentieth century although, with the introduction of the double loom, many blankets dating from the early twentieth century were constructed in one section. However, many of the smaller mills, as well as individual weavers, did not convert to wider looms and, as a result, narrow-loom blankets continued to be produced in significant quantities during the 1920s and 30s and even later.

Plain, un-dyed, natural wool blankets were the most common examples, and often featured bold, vertical stripes in black, navy or brown on a natural cream background. Plaids were also immensely popular and, during the nineteenth century, usually featured strong, dark colours against a natural cream background. Mill owners liked to mix coloured yarns and, although some colour combinations were subtle and pleasing on the eye, some were quite garish. Synthetic dyes were introduced after 1855, but many of the smaller mills continued the use of natural dyes well into the 20th century. The natural dyes were made from madder and cochineal for reds, woad and indigo for blues, and various berries and lichens for other shades. Later blankets tended to include more colours.

Welsh Tapestry is the term applied to double woven cloth blankets, producing a pattern on both sides that is reversible. examples of welsh tapestry blankets survive from the eighteenth century and a pattern book from 1775 by William Jones of Holt in Denbighshire shows many different examples of tapestry patterns. Double cloth was first used to make blankets, but its success as a product for sale to tourists in the nineteen sixties led to its use as clothing, placemats, coasters, bookmarkers, tea cozies, purses, handbags and spectacle cases. Because of the hardwearing quality of the double cloth weave they have also been used as reversible rugs and carpeting.

Honeycomb blankets are a mixture of bright and soft colours. As the name implies the surface is woven to produce deep square waffle effect giving the blanket a honeycomb appearance. This type of weave produces a blanket that is warm and light. Carthenni is a woven blanket or quilt used as a heavy bed covering. A Carthenni comes in many designs and patterns from a check pattern created by a number of dominant colours on a pastel background to the tapestry and geometric designs with bright colours. A true Carthenni has a twisted fringed on all four sides and is made to cover the whole bed.

With the current resurgence of Welsh blankets for a decorative home-style item there is much interest in old blankets and the designs patterns. Old blankets have become very popular for interior designers and feature heavily in interior design magazines. They are used as throws and bed coverings in modern homes with many high end textile designers and students researching old patterns for inspiration in their new designs.

The National Wool Museum holds the national flat textile collection and one of the best collections of Welsh Woollen blankets with documented providence dating back to the 1850s from large double cloth tapestry blankets that are now very collectable to plain white single utility blankets from the WWII. A large part of the blanket collection are from mills that long ago ceased production from across Wales and show the different designs and patters that were popular in these areas. A highlight of the blanket collection is the Caernarfon Blankets; these blankets were produced on Jacquard looms that can make complicated designs and pictures. The blankets show two pictures one with Caernarfon Castle with the words CYMRU FU (Wales Then) and a picture of Aberystwyth University with the words CYMRU FYDD (Wales Now). These blankets are thought to have been first made in the 1860s and last produced for the investiture of Prince Charles in 1969. A recent donation to the museum is an earlier example of the blanket featuring two images of the castle. Woven by hand, it also contains a critical spelling error - Anglicising the name to Carnarvon. At the National Wool Museum located in the historic former Cambrian Mills Dre-fach Felindre, you can see craftspeople using historical machinery from across Wales doing the whole process from fleece to fabric. The picturesque village of Dre-fach Felindre in the beautiful Teifi valley was once the centre of the thriving Welsh Woollen Industry, earning the nickname 'The Huddersfield of Wales'. Shirts and shawls, blankets and bedcovers, woollen stockings and socks were all made here, and sold in the surrounding countryside, the industrial areas of Wales and to the rest of the world.