Wiltshire and Somerset Woollen Mills

Wiltshire and Somerset Woollen Mills deals with the southern portion of the area in which the well-known West of England cloth was made. This was centred in the towns of Trowbridge, Bradford-on-Avon, and Fome, but extended to Malmesbury in the north, Salisbury in the south, and Shepton Mallet in the west. Introductory chapters deal generally with the development of the full-scale steam-driven factory from the fulling mill and the workshop, and there are sections on special types of building such as drying stoves and weavers' housing. An extensive gazetteer includes every fulling mill known to have been used after 1700, and all identified factory sites; each entry gives what is known of the ownership and use of the site, based on archive sources and newspaper files, and a description of surviving buildings.