Witney is famous as David Cameron’s constituency from 2001 to 2016 but three hundred years earlier Witney was synonymous with blankets.
An abundance of sheep, grazing on oolitic limestone, seem to be the main reason but Lavenham could have just as easily developed into a centre for woollens. However, East Anglian sheep farmers could sell their fleeces to Flemish weavers so didn’t have to do the knitting themselves.
Witney Blanket Hall was built in 1721 as the HQ of the Company of Witney Blanket Weavers and the principal public hall in the town. The Company was granted a charter by Queen Anne in 1711. This was not honorific. Some Witney weavers sold under-size and under-weight blankets. In 1709 a group of upstanding weavers denounced some of their fellows whom:
… for their Private Lucre have Confounded the sizes there formerly made, and not made the Antient Lengths Breadths or Weights But have so Deceitfully and Slightly worked the same that the Value is only in shew, So that the Credit this Great and beneficial Trade hath obtain’d both at home and Abroad is by this means very much Lessened.
For centuries Witney wove heavy, well-milled cloths used for coats. As late as 1814 Lord Sherborne wrote:
Mr Early, I want a warm great coat very much and I should like one of a light warm Witney Blanketting and a light brown colour; the last I had was so heavy I could not wear it. I should like to know the width and price. If you will execute this commission I will send you a brace of Hares.
Following Lord S’s lead I bought a Master-Weaver’s scarf as a present, while musing on the damage duvets and synthetic fleeces have inflicted on Witney’s trade. Meanwhile the streets were populated with cadets selling poppies. The Corn Exchange, built in 1863, was decorated well enough to attract a flock of photographers, including me.
We made a recce to St Mary the Virgin on Church Green. Pevsner opines: “the total effect of the exterior is magnificent, but the interior is bleak … “
However, I was taken by this charming memorial which set me thinking about the conjugal pleasures Jane’s uxorious husband found so agreeable.
