Education - Clothworker's Arms, Crest and Supporters

I'm never very sure about describing coats of arms so have borrowed this description from the Clothworker's Company website. The site also describes the difference between the coat of arms and the crest and supporters, so we now know that the arms alone are on the arch above the entry to the court in yesterday's photographs.


The Clothworkers' arms were granted in 1530 by Thomas Benolt, Clarenceux King of Arms, two years after the foundation of the Company. They may be described as follows: sable a chevron ermine in chief two havettes argent and in base a teasel cob or (a black shield with an ermine fur chevron between two silver habicks above and a golden teasel head beneath). The silver habicks and the golden teasel represent essential tools for the clothworkers' craft, the finishing of woven woollen cloth. The habicks were the hooks used to attach the fabric to the forms on which it was stretched for teaselling. The teasels were used to raise the nap of the fabric prior to shearing.
The crest and supporters were granted in 1587 by Robert Cooke, Clarenceux King of Arms. They may be described as follows: crest - on a wreath argent and sable a mount vert, thereon a ram stantant or; mantling - sable doubled argent; supporters - on either side a griffin or pellety (the shield is surmounted by a helmet topped with a golden ram standing on a green hillock with a base of black and silver and draped with black mantling lined with silver. It is supported on either side by golden griffins with spots). The golden ram echoes the ideas of sheep supplying wool and so the ultimate source of the Company's wealth, the Golden Fleece of Greek mythology and perhaps a mild pun on the word 'ram' and the French word 'rame', meaning a clothworker's tenter frame. The mantling is in the Company's heraldic colours, black and white (or silver). The griffins, half eagle and half lion, are associated with the guardianship of treasure and the enactment of good deeds.

The Company's motto, 'My Trust is in God Alone' was adopted at an uncertain, though early, date. It is apparently not taken from the Bible, but expresses a common sentiment at the time of adoption (for example the anthem 'O Lord, in Thee is all my trust', ascribed to Thomas Tallis, popular in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries).

While the Tapestry was being made, Kate organised a series of professional embroiderers to run workshops and talks for the volunteers. Jane Dew came to speak about the Leek Embroideries, ran several workshops and agreed to work this coat of arms in goldwork. At the moment she seems to be helping other volunteers with work at Staircase House, Stockport.

The arms with crest and supporters on the wall of the Clothworker's Court, an awkward angle but there were skips and workmen in the way.

Education - Clothworker's Court

The craft of the Clothworker was the 'finishing' of woven cloth. The fuller's part was to cleanse and thicken the cloth when it came from the weaver including removing loose particles and raising the nap using teasel. The shearman then 'set' the cloth, cutting off the roughened fibres with broad shears.

I was over in Headingley yesterday so thought I would go to find the teasel on the building. In the first picture it's obscured by the arch, but it's a sunny picture of the Clothworker's Court from more or less the same angle as the representation on the Education panel.





Below are the three gables in the court, with what looks like an indigo plant on the left, teasel in the centre and madder root on the right.




There are other indicators on the building about its origins, including the Civic Trust plaque



and a wonderful plaque on the 1910 extension showing the size of the donation given by the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers.

Education - Clothworker's Court

One of the oldest of the University of Leeds, this is the building with the teasel in the previous post and is grade II listed.

Designed by Alfred Waterhouse, it was completed in 1879 and financed by the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers for the City of London, who were anxious to improve the scientific basis of their industry in this country after visiting the Paris International Exhibition of 1867.

The Clothworker's supported setting up the Yorkshire College of Science, which became simply the Yorkshire College when other subjects for study were added. University status was granted by Royal Charter in 1904.

Myra Turner embroidered this on printed fabric (8 hours).



For those who are not male and members of the Church of England and who want to know more about the history of their further education in this country read on..

In 1831, the Leeds School of Medicine was set up, serving the needs of the five medical institutions that had sprung up in the city. Then in 1874, the School was joined by the Yorkshire College of Science, intended to provide education for the children of middle-class industrialists and merchants. Financial support from local industry was crucial (there is a Clothworkers' Court at the University to this day).

The College of Science was modelled on Owens College, Manchester, established in 1851 as a non-sectarian alternative to Oxford and Cambridge, where religious tests were applied and those outside the Church of England were not allowed to receive degrees or were barred from entry outright. Owens College, like the earlier University College London, applied no such tests and was open to Protestant Dissenters, Catholics and Jews.

While religious tests for students at Oxford and Cambridge ceased in the 1850s, northern colleges continued to promote themselves as offering a distinct type of teaching. They took pride in the progressive and pragmatic nature of their scientific education; a field in which the ancient universities, with their focus on general and classical study, were felt to lag behind.

The Yorkshire College of Science began by teaching experimental physics, mathematics, geology, mining, chemistry and biology, and soon became well known as an international centre for the study of engineering and textile technology. When classics, modern literature and history went on offer a few years later, the Yorkshire College of Science became the Yorkshire College. In 1887, the College merged with the Leeds School of Medicine.

Leeds was given its first university in 1887 when the Yorkshire College joined the federal Victoria University on 3 November: the Victoria University had been established by royal charter in 1880; Owens College being at first the only member college. ^[23] Leeds now found itself in an educational union with close social cousins from Manchester and Liverpool.

Unlike Owens College, the Leeds section of the Victoria University had never barred women from its courses. However, it was not until special facilities were provided at the Day Training College in 1896 that women enrolled in significant numbers. The first female student to begin a course here was Lilias Annie Clark, who studied Modern Literature and Education.

The Victoria University was short-lived as the university locations in Manchester and Liverpool were keen to establish themselves as independent universities, unhappy with the practical difficulties posed by maintaining a federal arrangement across broad distances, and spurred by the granting of a charter to the University of Birmingham in 1900.

Following a Royal Charter and Act of Parliament in 1903, the newly formed University of Liverpool started the fragmentation of the Victoria University. The University of Leeds soon followed suit and was granted a royal charter as an independent body by King Edward VII in 1904.

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Textile and Industrial Heritage - Teasel

So important to the woollen industry of Leeds, teasel was included twice. This rendition is by MT Sanders, hand stitched on printed fabric.

Mr Sumner, from the Clothworker's Guild, provided this and many other images associated not only with Leeds textile industries but also with many of the other ancient guilds.

Trowbridge Museum's website has some diagrams showing teasel at work.

Does anyone out there know how the teasel was collected? Were fields of teasel grown? How often were the heads replaced in the machines? If nothing has been invented to replace them are they still being used? Some questions are answered here in a very informative paper, including the fact that the Romans used both teasel and hedgehog skins for the task.