Wrapping the Globe - Stroud’s best kept Secret! Digital Stroud

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The English East India Company and the Hudson's Bay Company bought Stroud broadcloths and Devonshire long ells for international trade. The cloth was also imported by individual merchants.

When the demand for South West broadcloths and long ells began to decline, the East India Company's trade helped to keep the makers in business. In 1831, Thomas Fox stated that

the East India Company's orders kept over 16,000 workers in employment
Thomas Fox, in a letter to fellow cloth maker, J. Fulford of Crediton Uffculme, 1831

Trading today

Stroud-based company, Milliken Woollen Speciality Products (WSP), still makes cloth. Based at Lodgemore Mill, it produces billiard cloth and tennis-ball felt. Reproduction tradecloth is made in the United States of America for Indigenous Peoples and historic re-enactors. The Crazy Crow Trading Post (www.crazycrow.com) sell red saved list Stroud cloth.

From January 2016, this website is managed by Stroud Local History Society

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