Willeying

Willeying at an Early's mill, 1898.

Once the right blend of wool had been made up it was 'willeyed'. The willeying machine opened up or pulled apart the wool fibres and prepared it for carding. It was called a 'willey' or 'willow' probably because the process was originally carried out with cylinders made of willow basket work.

The wool was generally first fed into the 'shake willey' which shook the wool while cylinders fitted with iron spikes beat and roughly opened it out. This got rid of much of the dust and dirt (known as 'nips') which were then blown away by a fan. This process was used particularly for wool blends which were very dusty, wool that was greasy or dirty would cause the dust to stick both to the wool and to the machine and so was not always put through this initial stage.

The wool was then fed to the second willeying machine or 'teazer' (known in Witney as a 'Fearnought') which had its cylinders closely set with smaller curved teeth that opened out the wool fibres even more. Wool oil was applied to the wool to prevent the fibres being broken up by the carding machine and to help lubricate them for spinning.

Clare Sumner