Kidderminster is of course known for carpets, along with Wilton and Axminister and a number of Yorkshire wool towns including Halifax. With the suffix 'minster', it was quite possibly established as a minster church as early as the arrival of St Augustine in 597 AD. Oddly, or perhaps not, Axminster is a similar name.
The town was well placed being near to Wales and the hard wearing wool of hill sheep and the growing population of the Black Country. Wool weavers turned their attention to floor covering. Wilton was a clear rival and Kidderminster man, John Broom determined not to let them get ahead, visited Belgium to learn the latest techniques. These he brought back together with a Belgian weaver and the town went from strength to strength. By 1800 there were 1,000 looms in the town with most weavers working from their own dwelling. The arrival of the canals in the 1770s gave the town vital access both to more distant markets and to fuel.
The progression of carpet making was a mix of the technical and economic. The raw material was wool but a carpet that made best use of the least material has an economic attraction. Then came the speed of weaving and effective mechanisation even in the small dwellings where most carpets were still made. Lastly came design and colour. Here we have the science of dyeing and the Jacquard technique which enabled the weaving of complex patterns by machine.
In time weavers were collected together in manufactories with machines powered by steam engines. Kidderminster was making half of the carpets made in England. The town’s businesses led the field. Brintons, which remains a major employer in the town, began in the late eighteenth century and were best known for the invention of the Brinton Jacquard gripper Axminster loom. There were then the companies that would join with Halifax carpet makers to form Carpets International which fell into receivership in 2003. A third company, Brockways, only set up in the 1930s, is still trading. Kidderminster has now lost most of its carpet industry to foreign competition.
In time cheaper materials were sought to make the less visible parts of the carpet. Jute was used to back certain carpets. I write in Vehicles to Vaccines how manmade fibres were brought into carpet making.
Now it is jute that is made into a variety of products by Jute Products Ltd some of which are still used in carpet making. Jute, as a natural sustainable material is seen to have great potential in a post plastics world.
In the Second World War, the Rover company managed a shadow factory in Drakelow Tunnels manufacturing aircraft parts. The tunnels later became a cold war bunker. In my auditing days, I recall visiting a hot water bottle manufacturing business in the town.
Further reading:
Ken Tomkinson and George Hall, Kidderminster since 1800 (Kidderminster: Kenneth Tomlinson, 1975)
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