Richard Wilson’s Long Walk
For a detailed account of the rise of the Wool trade in West Yorkshire, please see the history section at this link.
The Woollen Industry in Ossett
To set the scene for Richard Wilson’s long walk, we should first look at the industry in which he worked. It is unclear when the woollen industry began in Ossett, but the northern towns, especially in Yorkshire, wove wool from very early days. Ossett, is only three miles from Wakefield, ten from Leeds and eleven from Bradford, situated in the heart of the West Riding woollen district.
Much English wool was shipped to Antwerp and Bruges, to the weavers there and was sold on to other clothiers all over northern Europe. However, W. Herbert Scott, includes the following information on the West Riding:
Although up to the time of Edward III (1327-1377) most of the wool from England was exported, the West Riding was a textile manufacturing area from earliest recorded times. Ancient documents indicate that there were cloth mills in Leeds and fulling mills in Leeds and Bradford as far back as the 12th century. At the close of the 14th century, there were four cloth mills in Leeds. At that point, however, Wakefield was a more important cloth centre. Wakefield was the third most important cloth centre in the West Riding in the late 1400s. In 1626 Charles I granted Leeds its first Royal Charter in recognition of the fact that the inhabitants for many years had skillfully exercised the art or mystery of making and working woollen broadcloth commonly known as “Northern Dozens”, to their perpetual praise and great increase of revenues of the Crown of England for the custom of the same cloths. At the time, Leeds, Halifax and Bradford were “three very populous and rich towns depending wholly on clothiers”.
“The West Riding of Yorkshire At the Opening of the Twentieth Century”; W.T. Pike
Note: A Northern Dozen was half the length of a Northern Cloth. The Dozen or half-piece measured between 12 and 13 yards long and 7 quarter yards wide (1.75 yards), weighing a minimum of 33 lb (pounds).
It’s also worth considering the value of the wool trade to the crown:
…in 1341 a government estimate was formed of the amount of wool or money which each county of England should pay to the crown, and the three Ridings of Yorkshire could afford to pay towards the first tax of 20,000 sacks of wool, then valued at £4 per sack…No other county came near to this amount.
From Charles Knight’s “Popular History of England”.
Wool Weaving in Ossett
In many cases, the wool trade would be a full time family business, with the wife spinning, the husband weaving and the children combing and carding. The woven cloth had to be finished by fulling, that is, pounding and matting the wet cloth to produce a nap on the material. Cloth might be sold to merchants dyed or un-dyed.
The inhabitants of Ossett, had therefore been employed in making broad woollen cloth for centuries. The inhabitants of Ossett, a village three miles from Wakefield, have been employed in making broad woollen cloth from time out of mind. In this year, the weavers, &c, employed in that trade, had to work fifteen hours every day for eight pence. A horn was blown at five o’clock in the morning, the time for beginning, and at eight at night, the time for leaving their work. The clothiers had to take their goods to Leeds to sell, and had to stand in Briggate in all sorts of weather.
(CW’s Note, the First Leeds White Cloth Hall was opened in 1771, solely for the sale of undyed cloth. Coloured cloth was still sold in Briggate until the Coloured Cloth Hall opened in 1758)
Mayall’s Annals of Yorkshire, 1734 – 1736
At one time Ossett could boast of well over a hundred small manufacturers – most of whom were handloom weavers who worked at home. Most Ossett houses had looms in them, and the township was said to be “musical with the sound of their working”. A manufacturer who had a small mill and employed from ten to twenty people was considered to be a man of significant worth.
When a person could buy a bag of wool and a bit of shoddy or mungo and had a family to assist him, he became a manufacturer.
“Shoddy” is the local name for rag-wool and “mungo” the name for mixed wool, cotton and linen fibres. These small manufacturers carried their pieces to Leeds; either on their heads or backs, or on the backs of donkeys and had to stand at the outdoor cloth market in all sorts of weather until their piece was sold, or carry it back home to try another day.
Frequently these humble people had to sell their pieces fresh from the loom in order to get supplies of money for the purchase of wool for the next piece…
…There was no standard guaranteed rate of wages as there is now, and when a certain manufacturer had an order in a time of depression, he called his men together and told them he could not accept the order unless they agreed to take 3 pence per string less. The men would hold a meeting in the fields and agree to the reduction rather than face a further period of idleness.
Wages were very low as compared with recent earnings. A fettler or woolyer would earn from 9s to 11s. a week, while, in the words of an old manufacturer, “them that piecened billy” – the youngsters – would earn 4s. 9d. a week working full time (about 15 hours a day). There were few work-people who averaged a pound a week.
The old hand loom system continued until the last of the Ossett handloom weavers passed away at the patriarchal age of ninety. The old order had given place to the power loom – an innovation that was long and sorely resented by the old weavers.
“The Town and Trade of Ossett” 1927
Richard Wilson’s long walk
Now at last we get to it!
About the year 1736, Richard Wilson, a clothier from Ossett, made two pieces of broadcloth. He carried one of them on his head to the cloth market in Leeds and sold it to a merchant. The merchant, being very pleased with his purchase, wanted to buy the other piece, so Richard walked back to Ossett to collect the second piece, carried it back to Leeds on his head and sold it, walking back to Ossett afterwards. He had walked about forty miles that day.
It would take about three hours to walk the 10 miles from Ossett to Leeds and the market hall opened at 6 am, so it was necessary to be there in good time to sell his bolt of cloth. The weight of a piece of broadcloth or “Northern Cloth” was about 66 lb (66 pounds = about 30 Kg) and measured between 23 and 25 yards in length and the cloth was 7 quarters of a yard wide (1.75 yards wide). The average height of a man in the 1730s was 5ft 4in. These men were, nevertheless, used to hard work and long hours. The following extract tells of how the market worked.
As soon as the bell is done ringing, the merchants and factors and buyers of all sorts, come down, and coming along all the spaces between rows of boards, they walk up the rows, and down the occasional direct. Some of them have their foreign letters of orders, with patterns seal’d in them, in their hands; and with these they match colours, holding them to the cloths as they agree to; when they see any cloths to their colours, or that suit their occasions, they reach over to the clothier and whisper, and in the fewest words imaginable, the price is stated; one asks, the other bids; and ’tis agree or not agree in a moment…If a Merchant has bidden a clothier a price, and he will not take it he (the clothier) may go after him to his house, and tell him (the merchant) he has considered of it, and is willing to let him have it; but they are not to make any new agreement for it, so as to remove the market from the street to the Merchant’s house.
Gentlemen Merchants: the Merchant Community in Leeds, 1700-1830 By Richard George Wilson
This Richard Wilson was my 6th Great Grand-uncle and would have been about 26 years old at the time of his long walk. Richard’s older brother, Robert Wilson, was my 6th great grandfather and was also a clothier. Richard and Robert Wilson were among Ossett people who founded the Green Chapel (later Ossett Congregational Church.) At this time, in the early part of the 18th century, Ossett had a population of about 2,000 and many were self-employed cloth weavers like Richard and Robert Wilson, or worked in family businesses or were employed in small mechanised mills.
© Christine Widdall updated 2019
