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Background information on the two Painswick Mills
Article to Painswick Beacon
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Historic profile
Location: Gloucestershire
The Tithing
A tithing was an administrative division of land within the hierarchy of land divisions introduced by the Saxons, which formed the basis for law enforcement, through Manorial Courts, for several hundred years. Stroudend Tithing was part of the Manor of Painswick within Bisley Hundred.
The area within the boundary of Stroudend Tithing extends south from Bulls Cross Common along Wickridge towards Stroud between the Slad Brook in the east and the Painswick stream in the west, until their confluence with the River Frome in Stroud. Greenhouse Lane and the Bisley Path, an ancient packhorse trail, define its northern boundary.
A survey of the Tithing in 1820 by Fosbrook and Baker showed the fields other land divisions with details of land use, ownership and tenancies. The map also shows tracks, many of which are now merely footpaths, formerly used by packhorses transporting cloth to and from the mills.
The woollen cloth industry
In the early medieval period a large proportion of English wool was exported to Europe but as England established political independence as a nation, so new economic opportunities opened up; Stroudwater, as the Stroud valleys were collectively known, featured prominently in the early development of the woollen cloth industry.
The high quality felted cloth was in great demand both in Europe and throughout the world, as Britain’s trading empire expanded through the 17th and 18th centuries and it became necessary to import fine merino wool from Spain, Germany and later Australia to meet demand. Stroudwater became especially famous for the red cloth, known as Stroud scarlet, used for army uniforms.
The early clothiers controlled the whole production of cloth through a cottage industry. They would buy the wool and send it out to local workers for a number of processes, cleaning, spinning and weaving. The woven cloth was made into smooth felted cloth in the fulling mills by hammering the wet cloth. The cloth was mainly sold through agents or ‘factors’ in London and exported. These clothiers were self-made men, known as ‘the gentlemen clothiers’ who enjoyed conspicuous wealth, buying land and building large, fashionable houses.
The 19th century saw a great expansion of industrial activity and Great Britain became the workshop of the world; however the local cloth industry needed to modernise to remain competitive. The smaller mills in the valleys closed as the industry rationalised into larger premises where steam engines, fuelled by coal from the Forest of Dean brought by canal and later rail, could drive the new machinery needed for factory production.
Waterpower continued to be used for small industrial activities such as milling corn, woodturning and pin making until the early 20th century. As these premises became derelict, many were pulled down; however a number have been converted to homes and many of the adjoining mill owners’ houses and workers cottages remain.
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