Warping

Warping at a Witney mill, probably in the 1940s.

The thread that runs along the length of woven material is known as the 'warp'. The warp threads had to be measured out into the lengths needed for the job and wound on to the warp beam which was then attached to the back of the loom ready for weaving. The ancient method of warping by hand was known as 'wall warping', where pegs were pinned up on a wall-mounted wooden frame and the thread manually wound between them; the total distance between the pegs equalled the length of warp required.

'Section warping' was in use in the Witney blanket mills by the late Victorian period, which was designed by a man named Bywater around 1870. The warp was built up in sections on individual steel 'cheeses', the required number of which were then slotted together on a stand to create the warp beam. The warp yarn would often be saturated with a starch paste which protected the threads from the wear and tear of the shuttle moving back and forth across them during weaving.

Clare Sumner