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

Welcome to the Wrapping the Globe Presentation

The Stroud District is world-famous for the production of high quality woollen cloth. This was traded internationally.  So were other European-made woollen cloths.

Exeter-based conservator, Morwena Stephens, researched tradecloths from the South West of England.  An exhibition in 2006 at the Museum in the Park was based on her work with contributions from the other partner organisations.  It looked at:

  • Cloth making
    Its history, how it was made and its properties.
  • The ways in which tradecloth has been used by communities around the world.
    The cloth was exported to North America and Asia.  It was used to make and decorate clothing and other items.

There is more information about Stroud's cloth industry in Working In Stroud

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

Click on the menu below to visit each Wrapping the Globe section:

Introduction  |   Stroud and Devon Tradecloth  |   Making the Cloth  |   Was the West best?  |   Trading across the Globe