The 1700s

A Short History of Sutton Benger; Part Five

The 1700s was the period when the first coffee shops and first newspapers appeared. And things were no different from now: the newspapers were full of articles about which celebrities had been seen, and where, and with who. We had our own celebrities here – the Longs of Draycot House. So it is no surprise to see the following article from August 1742:

… last Tuesday a considerable number of Clothiers from several Wiltshire clothing towns were with Sir Robert Long at Draycot House, to thank him for his service in Parliament, and for his assistance in promoting Wiltshire wool … and they were all elegantly entertained by him.

Wiltshire in the 1700s – before the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s – was a major centre for the clothing trade, with much of it made by families in their own homes. For example, the Fry family, who lived in the building that is now La Flambé, were ‘clothiers’ – this was a word for people who made cloth. One of the fields north of the High Street was called Rack Close, and this is where newly-made cloth was hung out in the open on racks to dry. Rack Close can be seen at No 9 on the following 1839 map.