2009

Axminster Carpets Ltd launches Swaledale, the first carbon neutral carpet.

2000

Identifying the need to move with the changing demands of the consumer, the carpet manufacturers across the world offer a huge variety of diverse carpet ranges.  Increasing fashion for plains.

1995

Fully patterned tufted carpets produced in England.

1950 to 1970

Tufted carpet limited to plan yarn effects but gradually printing white carpet improved.

1940 to 1950

Tufted carpets developed in USA from candlewick weaving techniques.

1930

Decline in Tapestry carpet in favour of huge increase in Gripper Axminster especially for "Seamless Squares".

1927

David Crabtree, loom builders since 1853, start to export wide Gripper looms, three yards or three metres wide. 10 ft 6in introduced in 1932.

1905

Brintons produce carpet from first power driven wide loom. 15 ft wide. (4.57m)

1896

Donegal hand made factory set up and still in operation. (1997)

1890

Brintons develop Gripper Axminster (also from Halcyon Skinner of Yonkers) with efficiency advantages over traditional Spool. Later the two techniques were combined in Spool-Gripper.

1880

William Gray of Ayr develops seamless Kidder carpets

1878

Spool Axminster, invented by Halcyon Skinner in America, introduced into England by Tomkinson and Adam in Kidderminster.  Morris opened hand knotting factory Hammersmith.

1862

Alfred Stoddard, an American, took over the tapestry factory of Ronalds at Elderslie, near Glasgow, to make carpets. By 1867 he was selling 75% in America.

1852

William Grosvenor built steam driven factory in Green Street, Kidderminster, where the company still occupies in a listed building.

1839

Erasmus Bigelow in America invents power loom to make double ingrain and sold it to Scottish and English manufacturers who installed steam power. In 1851 he introduced a steam powered Brussels loom at the Great Exhibition and demonstrated it at Hoobrook in Kidderminster.

1837

James works with Quigley to perfect the Chenille Axminster loom. Chenille expanded to meet demand for large seamless patterned carpets at an economic price.

1832

Whytock invents method to print yarn and then weave it into flat fabric with design incorporated. Tapestry Carpet Loom. Start of Henry Widnell Stewart Ltd in Edinburgh.  Whytock leases Tapestry Carpet Loom rights to Crossley.

1750 to 1850

Industrial development in England. Population increase from 7 million to 18 million. End of cottage industries. Industrial revolution brought textile inventions by Hargreaves, Arkwright, Crompton. Cartwright and Watt's steam engine.

1824

Three ply fabric commenced in Kilmarnock.
In America, hand knotted rugs and rag rugs made plus imports from England. In 1791 Sprague opens carpet factory in Philadelphia and 1825 mill opened in Massachusetts.

1810

Decline in fine hand made carpets due to Napoleonic War and competition from machine made. More looms introduced in Kidderminster, Yorkshire and Scotland.

1803

Crossley Carpets start in Halifax

1801

Jacquard invents method of presenting different coloured yarn to weaving face. Revolutionises patterned fabric

1790

Whitty makes carpet for Throne Room at Carlton House and Brighton Pavilion and supplied £1000 carpet to Sultan of Turkey. It became the fashion to match carpets to ceilings, a trend that is still followed by today's equivalent of Whitty's factory, Axminster Carpets.

1770 to 1790

Hand made carpet making flourished and attracted designers such as the Adam Brothers and Laverton.

1770

Brintons, previously cloth makers, started making carpets.

1756 to 1759

Royal Society of Arts presented premiums for finest carpets. Won by Whitty three times and Passavant once.

1755

Moore opened in Moorfield and Whitty opened in Axminster closing in 1835 and looms moved to Wilton. Original hand knotted looms still in operation at Wilton until 1957

1749

Dufossy developed method to cut loops of Brussels weave to make a nap. This became known as Wilton carpet.

1750

Peter Parisot sets up carpet weaving in Paddington with two Savonerie weavers, under patronage of Duke of Cumberland. He moved to larger premises near the Golden Lion Inn in Fulham. In 1755 the factory was brought by Passavant who moved plant to Exeter.

1735

Pearsall & Broome set up in Kidderminster making reversible double (Kidder) cloth. The last "Kidder" loom was dismantled in 1936. In 1745 Broome brings weavers from Tournai to Kidderminster.

1720

Earl of Pembroke persuades weavers from Savonerie factory to work in Wilton and teach locals to make Brussels carpet. (Legend has it that the Duke smuggled the weavers out of France in wine barrels).

1685

Huguenot weavers flee France and start weaving in Wilton. Wilton carpet weavers receive Royal Charter in 1699.

1655

Carpet factory built at Wilton

1619

Inventory on Naworth Castle mentions Kidderminster Fote Cloths ("Seven carpets of Kitterminster Stuff").

1596

Pierre DuPont sets up weaving carpets in Palais Royal Paris and moves in 1620 to soap works "Savonerie"

1586

Ardebil carpet made by Maksud the Keshani.

1580

Aubusson carpet centre set up in Beauvair

1570

Verulam carpet made for Elizabeth 1st

1540

Cardinal Wolsey imports Turkie rugs to England

1550

Carpet knotting exhibited by Richard Hickey

1537

Robert Rothe imports weavers from the East to make rug on his estate in Kilkenny

1000 AD

Marco Polo confirms rug making in Central Anatolia. From there the technique spread through the Caucasus, Turkomania, Persia, Meshed, Herat, Kabul, India and Kashmir.

Traders took rugs to Samarkand, Bokhara, Tashkent, Sinkiang and Peking and the craft swept through Tunisia, Biskra, Bou Saada, Marakesh and Fez.

464 BC

A Pazyryk woven rug, dated to 464BC was discovered in an ice filled tomb in Outer Mongolia in 1960.

It has all the characteristics of a modern Persian or Anatolian with a pile and Ghiordes knot.

1480 BC

An ancient Egyptian fresco depicting a handloom was discovered in 1953

6000 BC

Evidence has been found of goats and sheep being sheared for wool and hair and the fibres being spun and woven.