Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford, Suffolk, a classic wool church
A wool church is an English church financed primarily by donations from rich merchants and farmers who had benefitted from the medieval wool trade, hoping to ensure a place in heaven due to their largesse.[1]
Wool churches are common in the Cotswolds and in the "wool towns" of upland East Anglia, where enormous profits from the wool business spurred construction of ever-grander edifices. A wool church was often built to replace a smaller or less imposing place of worship, in order to reflect the growing prosperity of the community in which it was situated. Many such building projects were undertaken by a small number of families in each village or town, who used the new church building to display their own wealth, status and faith. The building of wool churches largely ended with the English Reformation and the simultaneous decline of the wool trade between 1525 and 1600.
^"A Look at Some of the Historic Textile Hot Spots in the UK". Stuart Morris. Stuart Morris Co. UK. 2016. Sheep farmers became incredibly rich exporting the 'golden fleece' and, with religious orders owning many flocks, much of the money went into building churches. Rich merchants also wanted to ensure their safe passage to paradise and so would donate portions of their profits towards building these 'wool churches'.
A woolchurch is an English church financed primarily by donations from rich merchants and farmers who had benefitted from the medieval wool trade, hoping...
Revolution. Among the lasting monuments to the success of the trade are the 'woolchurches' of East Anglia and the Cotswolds; the London Worshipful Company of...
Reformed Church in 1972, this was Wooler Presbyterian Church.) St Ninian's Catholic Church (1856), Burnhouse Road, a Grade II listed building. Wooler Evangelical...
wealth in Suffolk wool towns is marked by the beauty of large churches known as woolchurches built from the prosperity of the wool trade: Long Melford’s...
breed or group of breeds of domestic sheep, characterised by very fine soft wool. It was established in Spain near the end of the Middle Ages, and was for...
largely helped to pay for the rebuilding of the parish church, a notable example of a woolchurch. During this time the wealth of the parish was increasing...
St. Laurence's parish church; effectively a woolchurch, it is the largest in Shropshire and a member of the Greater Churches Group. Despite the presence...
believed to have been funded by John Ashfield, a wool merchant, making St Mary's an example of a "woolchurch". In July 1549 the Vicar of Chipping Norton,...
it to the National Trust. The grand early perpendicular Cotswold woolchurch, Church of St James, with its medieval altar frontals (c. 1500), cope (c...
wool trade with the continent, with much of the money made from wool directed towards the building of churches. The most successful era for the wool trade...
lavishly constructed woolchurch of St Peter and St Paul, which stands on a hill at the top end of the main high street. The church, completed in 1525,...
and Oriental Orthodox Churches and is the patron saint of wool combers and of sufferers from ENT illnesses. In the Latin Church, his feast falls on 3...
A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest...
trade name for a scouring pad, used for cleaning dishes, and made from steel wool impregnated with soap. The concept was patented in 1913, at a time when aluminium...
are raised for fleeces, meat (lamb, hogget or mutton) and milk. A sheep's wool is the most widely used animal fiber, and is usually harvested by shearing...
profited from the wool trade funded the construction of many impressive woolchurches which stand in the Cotswolds to this day. Some old-time black "Cotswolds"...
the parish church in 1515–30, to create the large parish church, often referred to as the "Cathedral of the Cotswolds". Other woolchurches can be seen...
The Latin Church (Latin: Ecclesia Latina) is the largest autonomous (sui iuris) particular church within the Catholic Church, whose members constitute...
was, in a sense, the anti-Woolchurch. The program celebrating the 275th anniversary of the raising of the Old Ship Church in July 1956 described the...
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