#7 of 20 star objects - The Teasel Gig

The word 'teasing' derives from the teasel plant, a thistle like seed head, which gives you a good indication of #7 of our star objects purpose - The teasel gig.

The Teasel gig you can see in Trowbridge Museum today is one of the original objects displayed in the Museum from its opening in 1991, and is believed to have been accessioned was from Winterbotham, Stachan and Playne Ltd., Lodgemore Mills, Stroud, Gloucester 1989.

 

 Teasel gig being installed in Trowbridge Museum 1990

Since the Middle Ages, Europeans have used the dried teasel heads to raise the nap on woolen cloth. Teasing the wool creates a soft blended weave on the cloth; the cloth covering billiard and card tables is good example of the effect of teased wool.

Before the use of the Teasel gig men would stretch cloth over a frame, methodically brush the teasel hands across the surface of the wool, working from one end to the other, raising the nap by individual teasel hands. Since the nap did not raise evenly, after teasing the wool, another worker had to go back over the cloth and shear the fibres close to the surface so that the finished product had a smooth texture. The introduction of the teasel gig meant that numerous teasel hands were moving together in rotation, causing a more even texture much quicker and therefore a loss of jobs for all the men that had mastered the art for years before.

It is thought that England developed a machine form of the teasel frame as early as the sixteenth century, but Parliament forbade its use in order to protect the jobs of hand workers. However by the early nineteenth-century the teasel gig had been welcomed by most woolen mills in England. 

Local farmers embraced the use of the impressive machine as teasel heads wore out quite quickly with use, and to keep the gig functioning the mills needed constant supplies of replacements, meaning growing teasels could be quite profitable. In time though, wool manufacturers began to use fine combs with steel wires to raise the fibers, which are much stronger and do not wear.

Although, like much machinery used during the industrial revolution, the teasel gig caused much heart break and struggle for the lives of those whose were replaced by it, sitting in the Museum now it is a very impressive and honest looking machine, with its wooden structure adorned with teasels, keeping no secrets with all its cogs and workings clearly on display. 

Teasel gig on display in Trowbridge Museum