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.

Education - Fuller's Teasel

Dipsacus fullonum ssp fullonum. Historically teasels have been used to bring up a lustrous polished nap or pile on certain woollen cloths before the final finishing process. This image was taken from the bas-relief on the Cloth Worker's Court Building at the University of Leeds.


And here they are ready for action at Armley Mills, apparently no mechanical invention has been found to match the teasel.


The image was manipulated in photoshop, printed on cloth and stitched by Elizabeth Thackrah.