This year our Annual Outing took place on Thursday 2nd July. We visited the 'Museum of Carpet' in Kidderminster. We were greeted by Roger Mathews who used to work in the carpet industry. He began by asking us if we knew the connection between Romsley and Kidderminster and the answer was the River Stour, which flows through both places. The river played a vital role in the dyeing process of the wool used in the carpets. He then read a poem which he had written entitled "The Stour".
Carpet manufacturing began on a small scale with the weavers working on small hand looms, on the top floor of their cottages, where the light was good. As carpets became popular huge factories were built and at one time Kidderminster became the largest carpet town in the world.
We had demonstrations of weaving on a hand loom, a Wilton Loom, which could only use five colours and the breathtakingly complicated Axminster Loom which used many colours. This loom was like a huge monster, threaded up from spools of yard with all the colours of an artist's palette. With a flick of a lever the loom leapt into life with a rhythmic roar and amazingly all that energy produced an exquisite piece of carpet, patterned with roses on a black background.
The carpet workers and engineers had such wonderful skills and endured terrible noisy and dusty conditions in the factories, to produce carpets which were exported all over the world. Sadly, in recent years, the industry in Kidderminster has declined with the fashion for plain, tufted carpets and bare wooden floors! In its hey-day, after the war, there were 35 factories but now there are only 4 or 5 remaining.
The Museum of Carpet was opened about three years ago, run mainly by volunteers, to record the 300 years of carpet heritage in Kidderminster. We all had a thoroughly interesting and enlightening visit and walking on a carpet will never be the same again.
The next meeting will be on Tuesday 22nd September at 7.30 p.m. in the Church Hall, when Paul Harding and Helen Lea will give a talk on "The Battle of Evesham". Everybody is welcome.
Pat Evans