Radstock W.I. were delighted to have Paul Myers as speaker at their meeting on Monday, 10th April. He gave us a fascinating insight into ‘The Story of Fabric’. Apart from his renowned civic duties in the area, Paul has been involved in the weaving business for many years, having trained in the Outer Hebrides.
Paul moved to the area completely by chance, looking to settle with his weaving business, Fern Bank Weavers. He explained that the community in which his family lived had been flooded in South Yorkshire, where they owned textile mills and the whole community of 1,700 people were eventually displaced due to the flooding. Paul talked us through the history of the weaving process from the early days of weaving in the Outer Hebrides to the more modern commercial practices.
In the early days, the cloth was woven by hand, to make clothes to keep people warm when they were exposed to the elements. Women were heavily involved in the weaving process in local communities and when the newly woven cloth was finished it was then soaked in urine. Then a group of women would beat the newly woven tweed against a table or similar surface to soften it. It was then washed and hung out to dry. Songs were sung whilst beating the cloth (Waulking).
We were given an insight into the complicated process of weaving, choosing the right yarn, how the threads were calculated for the finished cloth, how the looms were set up, colours chosen from the vast range available, the basic weaves used, how colours were set for patterns etc. Paul passed around many samples of different weaves and explained how they were made and these varied from the very soft traditional cloths to very fine linens. Paul also demonstrated how wool was spun on a small spinning wheel and how different sheep’s wool gave such diverse results.
We were all taken aback at how much work has to go into making a bolt of cloth from start to finish. Everyone enjoyed the evening and I think we all went away with a greater appreciation and understanding of fabric and how it’s produced. A big thank you to Paul for such an interesting evening.
I am not sure that my synopsis does justice to the amount of interesting information that Paul was able to impart!
We meet on the second Monday of the month at the main hall in Radstock Methodist Church from 7.15 p.m. to 9.45 p.m. Our next meeting will be on Monday, 8th May with our speaker, Hazel Williams – “A Voice in Verse”. New members are always welcome so please feel free to come along and join us as a visitor.
Jill Jordan