stuff warehouseman

[stanmapstone]

Stuffs. This term..may be applied to any woven textile,..but it more especially denotes those of worsted, made of long or ‘combing wool’... Stuffs are distinguished from other woollen cloths by the absence of any nap or pile.  CAULFEILD & SAWARD Dict. Needlework page 465.

Stan

[skimble]

Stan, thank you.

It seems that they must have been quite a call for it if you needed weavers and warehouseman designated just to work with stuff.

[charlotteCH]

That the dictionary referrs to stuff as the cloth for junior barristers' gowns makes sense. When a barrister becomes a QC, ie a senior barrister, he's said to "take silk" and has a different gown. And there is greater knowledge behind this comment tha just watching Rumpole!

And skimble, that there was a big use for "stuff" must have been so as my greatgrandfather who put in 1891 census " retired stuff merchant" as his occupation died in 1896 and left heaps on money.

charlotte

[skimble]

Well I have dug a bit deeper and apparently stuff weavers in Kidderminster were making carpets.  So my initial thought that 'stuff' wouldn't be very much was wrong.

Charlotte, it's good to hear your great grandfather made his money from it.  It's amazing what you find out.

[Josee]

Hi
Just caught up, thoroughly enjoyed this thread, on stuff (bad joke )
and I often wondered at why barristers 'took silk', now Iknow.

Cheers

jo

[skimble]

Well Jo, just to further your interest, stuff weavers also dealt with silk -

Stuff
[stuffyn; stuffe; stufe; stuf]
A term with a variety of meanings and usages. In the Dictionary Archive it appears primarily as a TEXTILE being the general term for WORSTEDS, but particularly those made from mixed fibres, usually worsted and SILK,

From: 'Strainer - Stuffer', Dictionary of Traded Goods and Commodities, 1550-1820 (2007). URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=58887. Date accessed: 08 March 2008.

[charlotteCH]

  That worsted has been mentioned fits with Bradford and thereabouts as I think it's correct to say that Bradford was[maybe still is?] a centre for worsted mills. Wakefield also and other parts of WRY.

Flax has also been mentioned- where would it have been grown?
Anyone any knowledge of this?

charlotte

[skimble]

Charlotte,
I've had a look but can only find it grown in northern Europe, nothing more specific.  Presumably it would have been grown locally but no idea's as to where.

[Josee]

The growing of flax seems to have been fairly well established in Northern Ireland see the link:
http://www.rootschat.com/links/02y6/. I'm not sure, but isnt there a flax growers directory/census available in NI with regard to flax growing?


and reading around other odd articles also in Scotland, New Zealand and possibly Australia, but wether this was for export or home use I couldn't find out.

jo


And just in.....


http://www.rootschat.com/links/02y7/  at Askrigg!