CovSoc member Peter James shares an important part of Coventry’s history.
Woven wool fabric from the loom is fairly open and rough. The Fulling process results in closer fibres making the cloth thicker, more stable and soft. A mixture of water, stale urine, a type of clay known as Fullers earth, heat and pressure was used. From the tenth century pressure was supplied by people walking on the cloth. Eventually automation was introduced by using a mill wheel to operate stocks (hammers) to pound the cloth.
In Coventry the Walkers & Fullers Guild was originally part of the Shearmen & Tailors Guild formed in the 1390s. It became independent in 1547 with records dating from 1475. The guilds held Mystery Plays. One which has survived is the Shearmen & Tailors Pageant :- From the Annunciation to the Slaughter of the Innocents. The play features the music of the Coventry Carol. The author is unknown but the oldest known text is attributed to Robert Croo in 1534. In 1661 there were 167 inns in Coventry and 15 of them were used by the Fullers Guild for meetings & feasts. After 1850 a Fullers Room was allocated in St Mary’s Guild Hall.
In the medieval period most of the water mills in Coventry were corn mills. Fulling took place at New Mill on Swanswell Pool, Earls Mill, Abbot’s Mill and at Priors Orchard Mill. Most of the local fulling mills were in Warwickshire, especially at Stoneleigh close to where the River Sherbourne, River Sowe & River Avon all meet. In fact in 1586 there were 13 fullers from Stoneleigh in the Coventry Fullers Guild.
After fulling was completed wet cloth was stretched on tenter frames. The cloth was held in position using tenter hooks. The frames were in open fields.
In Coventry in 1829 one field near to Priors Orchard Mill was described as “Tenter Close situate lying and being at Swanswell near to the said city of Coventry according to a survey thereof two acres, two roods and two perches or thereabouts ………”
One of the earliest appearances of the phrase “on tenter hooks” was in 1690. In the General History of Europe periodical was the following paragraph “The mischief is they will not meet again these two years, so that all business must hang on tenterhooks til then”.