Wet and Dry

I've never been to Trowbridge, but I've made a discovery and I'd like to see it with my own eyes somewhen. In a rather scruffy-looking area close to the rail station, there is an old textile mill, beside the river Biss - which I'm sure used to power it - that has been redeveloped into up-market housing. If you have half a million to spare, Savills will sell you a 3-bed 'terrace' (on a 997 year lease) within it. They call it 'Clarks Mill'; the Clark family were the owners, but its historic name was Studley Mills

In one of the agent's pictures you can see a part of a brick building behind the mill. This is called 'Handle House' and the river actually flows below it. The strange name is a description of its function: it was a building to which the mill employees took 'handles' to dry. 'Handles' was the name given to the wooden frames into which teasel heads were packed to create the tools used for 'teasing' woolen cloth, to raise a 'nap' that was subsequently trimmed off. This is the final step in the process of 'fulling', and Studley Mills was a 'fulling mill' - cleaning, felting and drying the cloth to produce a waterproof fabric

'Teasing' wet cloth makes the teasels wet and less effective, so they have to be exchanged for dry ones. The 'handles' of teasel were taken to a specially-constructed 'handle house' for drying. This is a brick building with many gaps left in the brickwork, to allow air to flow through the building and speed the drying. There are some good pictures of the building here and here. At one time there must have been hundreds, if not thousands, in the country. As far as I can discover, this is one of only two remaining in their original location

Teasels were once a major commercial crop in England - a field of flowering teasels must have been a beautiful sight. One of the main areas of production was the Somerset levels - not far from Trowbridge. It was a long time before technology was able to fully replace teasels, and commercial production continued well into the 20th century. It is a biennial, so committing to growing it was a significant cash-flow risk for a farmer - especially as the price was volatile. Some farmers defrayed the risk by letting fields to specialist teasel growers. Teasel harvesting by hand was a miserable business, requiring full protective clothing in summer heat (sounds a bit like beekeeping!)

Teasel is Dipsacus fullonum - 'fullonum' referring to its use in fulling. Confusingly, a superior cultivar was developed for fulling, and given its own species name, Dipsacus sativus. With the end of commercial growing, it is not clear that this any longer exists as a separate species here, but the original native species is still with us

The sports commentator on the radio described today as 'leaden skies'. That's about right - the entire day threatened rain, but never quite delivered until after dark. Never wet but never dry. An outdoor photograph demanded something with extreme contrast, and the teasels in the apiary obliged