Fragment of Woollen Cloak: 13th century

The piece of coarse woollen textile is one of a very few examples of everyday clothes from Medieval Oxford, to have survived. It was found in a coffin on the site of the old St Budoc’s churchyard on the west side of the town, preserved because of persistently wet conditions. Fragments like this can tell us a great deal about clothing in Medieval Oxford: what type of sheep were common (dark-haired sheep, like Jacob’s sheep, were more common than long-wooled white ones as today), that spinning and weaving were done primarily at home, that ordinary people’s clothing was undyed and undecorated and every bit of the fabric was made use of in the design, without waste.

In Medieval times the Cotswold area to the west of Oxford was the centre of production of fine, thick wool of Cotswold sheep, exported as far afield as Italy.

© 1998 Oxfordshire Museum Service, Setúbal Museums and the Benaki Museum