Fleece to Fabric
Fleece to Fabric
1. Litsters
Litsters (or dyers) such as Adam of Spens (1447) and John Litster, who in 1498 was living in the Green next door to the Carmelite Friary, had a serious impact on the town's water supply.
Statutes from the 15th century onward show that both the loch and the common rivulets in the town were polluted by these craftsmen washing their produce. A statute of 1507 mentions that gutters which ran to and from their workhouses ought to be closed as they were having an impact on the town's water supply. It was also stipulated that the litsters should only wash their cloths in the burn that passed from the west end of the loch to the Denburn. It is possible too that the Aberdeen craft produced similar problems to those in London where there were complaints of foundations being rotted by the large amount of waste water produced through the repeated washing of cloth.
On 9 October 1496, red cloth was singled out for polluting the water supply. Interestingly, two types of red dye have been identified in cloth remains from medieval Aberdeen; one is from the plant madder, which can produce a brick red; and the other from the insect kermes. Both dyes, if used in Aberdeen, would have been imported with the kermes coming from the Mediterranean where it lives on the branches of a species of oak tree.
2. Spinners and Weavers
In 1222, Alexander II granted Aberdeen a charter confirming the existence of a merchant guild, with powers including the monopoly of making cloth. Among burgesses of the burgh named in the Council Registers are Thomas Johannis, weaver, (1399), Girkin Webster (1399) and David Castell, weaver (1591). It is sometimes implied that only the very coarse tabby cloth found on excavations was manufactured in Aberdeen for use as sacking, blankets and shrouds. However it is very probable that some of the higher quality textiles discovered were also locally made, rather than imported from Flanders.
The only weaving implements found in Aberdeen so far have belonged to an upright loom, which is usually associated with more primitive cloths. Similarly, archaeological remains have included spindle whorls for drop spinning, indicating cottage industry rather than professional craftwork at that stage of the cloth production process. Neither spinners nor weavers would in themselves have had a great impact on the environment, although they formed an integral part of an industry which undoubtedly did.
3. Waulkers
In 1512, the Council decreed that waulkers (or fullers) whose job it was to cleanse and thicken the cloth should not hang it to dry over the walls of St Nicholas Church or within the kirkyard. Fullers, like dyers and tanners, seem to have worked near the Loch, using the water and polluting it in the process. Amongst them, perhaps, John Broune in 1455 and Robert Swyntone in 1492. There is no direct archaeological evidence of the locations where fullers operated, but many of the pieces of fulled medieval cloth found on excavations in Aberdeen must have been through their hands.
4. Tailors
There is some evidence that the Aberdeen tailors, who in 1399 included Willelmus Blacberd and Willelmus Scissor, were formed into an association from at least the 15th century. This is partly because there was a strong will to prevent the encroachment of women into the craft. In the 18th century this stand was relaxed slightly and women were allowed to make some female garments, Aberdeen's tailors trade being the only one in Scotland to make such a concession.
Tailors themselves may not have had a large impact on the environment, but their relationship with farmers, dyers, leather workers, merchants and market traders linked them with a wider industry that did.
Tools once used by tailors, including shears and needles, have been found on excavations, as has a cloth seal which authenticated the cloth received from the merchant.
