Editor Denis Coggins

Soft back. 210x210mm. 88 pages. 14 colour plates, 56 B&W illustrations.

The Friends of The Bowes Museum 1996

During the first half of the 19^th century the small market town of Barnard Castle on the river Tees was the home of a flourishing carpet-weaving industry. This book is the result of an extensive research project on this important but forgotten industry. Joanna Hashagen, Jean Hemingway, Sarah Medlam, and Alan Wilkinson have each recorded aspects of the industry which also reveals a fascinating insight into the working lives of the weavers, their living conditions and the devastating effect of the cholera epidemic of 1849.

The carpets had no pile but were reversible and woven in colourful, geometric patterns. This is the first publication dedicated to this type of ‘flat woven’ carpet, first produced in Kidderminster and then in the North of England and Scotland, where they were known as ‘Scotch’ carpeting. In America they were called ‘ingrain’ carpets.

This book provides new information for anyone interested in textiles or design, industrial or social history in the 19^th century and complements a new display of these carpets in the Streatlam Galleries, which opened in March 2007.