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About 300 years later the buildings were converted into
cottages for weavers who weaved cloth for
fulling at the nearby
Mill. The water mills constructed for this purposes were known as
fulling mills and for centuries the surrounding area resounded to
the hammering of the fulling stocks as they prepared the cloth. The
picture below (right) is the Fulling Mill across the River Alre in
Alresford,
England. It dates back to
the 13th century. Now a private house, it was saved from
demolition in 1951. It had become derelict
in the 19th century when the cloth industry established large
mechanised mills. Fulling is the process of removing oils from wool,
while at the same time softening and thickening the cloth. Before
mechanised fulling mills were introduced in the medieval period the
process was done by hand and feet using urine (ammonia) to remove
the oils. You can see how this was done in the upper video right.
In Scotland fulling is known as waulking, again using urine
during the process. A tradition of singing developed around the
work. Here is a group from Argyll, Scotland singing in Gaelic
while fulling the cloth. After fulling (or waulking) the cloth was stretched on frames known as tenters, where it was held in place by tenterhooks. It is from
this process that the phrase 'on tenterhooks' is derived, meaning to be held in suspense.
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