This page: A look at the history of our brightly coloured running kit

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 Cloth manufacture in the Stroud District ...  

Cloth manufacture was the first industry to develop around Stroud as the hills around Stroud were ideal for grazing sheep for wool. Two types of wool were produced.  Firstly, long fibre wool for worsted cloth which was exported to the continent.  And secondly, short fibre wool which was used for producing broadcloth.

The valleys provided an abundant supply of water needed for processing wool into cloth. Fulling mills were built on the  River Frome as early as the late 1300s and by the mid 1500s, fulling mills were widespread around Stroud.

By the 1600s, most people were employed in the cloth trade.  In the early 1600s, Stroud was still a relatively small settlement. In 1608, there were 19 clothiers, 76 weavers, 33 fullers and 3 dyers recorded in Stroud.

Stroud has a tradition of arts and crafts steeped in its history. It has an industrial past of textile production and design and it produced the famous Stroud Scarlet broad cloth.  This clothed the redcoat soldiers and made Stroud Scarlet the most famous colour in the world.

Stroud became well known for it's high quality cloth known as broadcloth. 'Stroud Scarlet' was a high quality broadcloth that was used for making uniforms.  This was in great demand for soldiers' uniforms during the Civil War, as is detailed in a letter from Charles I to Prince Rupert, 1642. Different types of cloth were exported to Turkey, North America and the Far East [Rudder 1779:61]

 CLOTH ...

STROUD TRADE CLOTH Close weave heavy trade-cloth which supports beadwork very well, 80 wool, 15 nylon, 5 other.  Called 0"ste:s in Cayuga, this is the preferred material for grave clothes in Longhouse funerals; the tradition of 18th Century trade goods has not been forgotten.  In the 1960's old women still used this for shawls, now the fringed Powwow style is in vogue.  Iroquois men once wore 1/2 and 1/2 blankets length of red Stroud sewn to a length of dark blue or black a style now frequently seen on the US Southern Plains. 5 feet (60") wide.