The history of British Wool
Sheep have grazed in Britain for thousands of years, providing one of our greatest natural resources - wool. The UK has more sheep breeds than any country in the world - over sixty different breeds cared for by more than forty thousand sheep farmers on hills and lowlands.
But where did it all begin? We take a more detailed look at the history and evolution of sheep and wool.
Prehistoric |
Primitive man clothes himself in wool from wild sheep. |
6000 BC |
Sheep domesticated in Europe. |
4000 BC |
Sheep introduced to the UK by Neolithic settlers. |
1900 BC |
Wool is spun and woven into cloth in Britain in the Bronze Age. |
55 BC |
Romans invade, bringing hornless, white-face sheep. |
700 AD |
Export of woollen fabrics to the continent. |
865 |
Danes invade, bringing horned black-face sheep. |
1066 |
Industry expands with Norman invasion. |
1100 |
Wool becomes the backbone and driving force of the economy and the largest flocks of sheep belong to abbeys and monasteries. |
1331 |
Edward III encourages Flemish master weavers to settle. |
1349 |
Black Death decimates the population, leading to increase of sheep flocks and not enough people to cultivate arable land. |
1500 |
England is largely a nation of sheep farmers and cloth manufacturers. |
1750 |
Industrial Revolution causes upheaval with new inventions to speed up the processes of spinning and weaving. |
1760 |
Robert Bakewell introduces selective breeding – his improved New Leicesters exist today as the Leicester Longwool. |
1770 |
Output of worsted from the West Riding of Yorkshire equals that of East Anglia. Manufacturing conurbation begins to take shape – Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield, Wakefield. |
1812 |
Luddite riots – equipment destroyed by organised bands of workers who feat they will lose their jobs. East Anglia, where opposition is most bitter, never recovers. Yorkshire thrives where machinery is more readily accepted. |
1847 |
Lancashire & Yorkshire railway stretches across the country from Liverpoole to Goole, providing outlets for exportation all over the world. Yorkshire thrives with local supplies of soft water, coal, sandstone and sheep. |
1939 |
Wool Control established so industry can provide clothing for the forces. |
1950 |
British Wool set up to collect, grade, sell and promote wool. |