Woad

If you look at adverts for land available to rent or buy in the Fens in the mid-nineteenth century you frequently see an appeal to woad growers to occupy the land. This was because, as in many farms in 2025, the growing of wheat was perceived, correctly in some cases, as an unviable crop and the repeal of the Corn Laws that had protected price in 1845 was encouraging farmers to look at other crops including the more valuable ones such as chicory and woad. Farmers were looking at becoming processors. Farmers from other areas were entering the Fens as land became cultivated and as did entrepreneurs from the middle of England.

Woad growing is often considered historically only as a Fenland crop. This is inaccurate and comes about from the Fens being the last bastion of woad production. Indeed with land quality being a key issue, before the Fens were reclaimed central England was key as it was grown to service the dyers riding on the coat tails of the growing cloth manufacturers using increased mechanisation of spinning and weaving especially in Lancashire. Hence we see the value of woad increase in 1794 attracting more farming of it:

“Several extensive pieces of land at the foot of the Mendip Hills are laying into the culture of woad, a plant of which there is great consumption amongst the dyers and calico printers. Great quantities of woad were formerly imported from France. Within a few years past an advance of more than 25 per cent has taken place in the price of this article.”[1] War in Europe stimulated this further.

In the same way that you can see innovation and processes to add value to a crop in 2025 such as Naylor Farms of Moulton Seas End, Lincolnshire work to ensure value added to processed cabbage you saw farmers entering  the growing and processing of chicory and woad. This saw a transfer of ownership and tenancies to these entrepreneurs.

One of these entrepreneurs were Messrs. Edward Sharp and Co who established a significant woad business near Spalding:

“We notice (says a correspondent) the other day the extensive works on the premises of Messrs. Edw. Sharp and Co at their woad manufactory within a mile of Spalding. The lofty drying-sheds four stories high, steam-engine (of 8 horse power), with every necessary for carrying on an extensive business, will, we hear, in a fortnight from this time, finish their arduous duties for this season, having made in 14 or 15 weeks 120 or 130 tons of woad, of quality equal to any in the kingdom. We need not observe that woad is a valuable article used by dyers. It can be cultivated on only the very best land.”[2]

By the mid-19^th century the growing of woad in the Fens was at a scale that has never been seen in any other country[3] and the name of this industry remains to this day in the names of farms, roads and lanes. This is described in the Lincolnshire Chronicle of March 1851:

“Chicory and Woad – First, in the new order of things in the fens, is the culture of these two articles. There is mustard also. Bye and by, we may have flax, cotton and even [4]tobacco! Nothing is too difficult for the Englishman, when their energies are fairly put to the test. The Fens are not what they were. Who could have ever thought of seeing a single firm (Beasley and Sharp) in the heart of the Fens, employing 100 men, and causing the spending of from 1000l. to 1500l. in wages amongst them, from the month of October to January, in the culture of chicory alone. Much more is further expended in the mills. Another firm (Hoff & Co) at Holbeach we believe, are doing business on a similar scale. We may therefore, in due time, expect to see as many factories and large chimneys in the Fens as in the manufacturing districts.”

This last sentence was perhaps a little ambitious and it would be a further 100 years before the development of the food industry influenced the conversion of a market town, such as Spalding, into an industrial town, albeit, the food industry. But the scale of industry at this time was small, with local lime kilns or steam powered mills producing oils from seed.

But what is woad? Woad is a brassica in the same vein as mustard or rape. When growing it perhaps can be compared to spinach except for its blue green colour. The leaves could be cropped up to three times a year. Whilst it is a dye when processed it is not a dye in itself, but rather used to fix dies for various shades mostly of blue or indigo through to dark greens. Indeed it was stipulated by the Government that woad be used to fix the dye of police uniforms that created their distinctive shade. However, this hints at the cause in the decline in the use of woad as military uniforms began to use khaki. The use of woad as a fixing dye had ancient origins and was reintroduced to Britain by the various migrating cultures over time. By Elizabethan times it was subject to restrictions preventing it being grown within five miles of any market town and the royal palaces because of the unpleasant smell from the crop.

By 1911 the commercial production of woad had dwindled to three fenland producers and supply exceeded demand:

“For many years woad has only been grown in this district; now the cultivators of it have been reduced to three – Messrs. F. and G.F.C. Howard, at Parson Drove, Mr. G.L. Nussey at Algakirk and Mr. Greeves at Skirbeck – and there may be further depletion of the ranks before long.

Ald. Fitzalan Howard of Spalding, one of the three, told the Gentlemen’s Society the other day that for the first time for 150 years the work had been suspended this summer at his farm and the mill at Parson Drove. The reason is simply that the demand is not equal to the supply, and there are stocks to be worked off.

The industry received a shattering blow by the introduction of khaki as army clothing. Woad has not for many years been used for dyeing blue; it has failed to compete with indigo and coal tar and the method adopted by mediaeval dyers, who, used woad, and woad alone, has been lost, but it has been demonstrated at Parson Drove that fresh woad can still be made to yield indigo. It is now used only to fix the indigo in fabrics which are exposed to alternate rain and sun. The Government stipulate it for it in contracts for Navy and Post Office clothing, and it is essential in the police uniform. Formerly the Army assisted in keeping up a demand for woad, but blue is no longer used to any considerable extent to beautify Tommy Atkins. It is only necessary to dash the indigo with woad and the demand thereof is very small.

Woad growing has ceased to be remunerative, and is mainly continued for sentimental reasons – Ald. Howard and others are loath to end so ancient and interesting  an industry. The price at present is hardly a third of what it formerly was, and Ald Howard and Mr. G.L. Nussey are not making fortunes by woad cultivation.

There are as we have said, three woad growers in the country, but it is only at Parson Drove that the manufacture retains its primitive character. It is a most interesting survival.

For considerably over 100 years the name of Howard has been intimately associated with the growing of woad at Parson Drove. The great-grandfather of Ald. Fitzalan Howard, of Spalding, started the business which in due course passed to Ald. Howard’s father when he was only 15 years of age, and in 1868 he gave it up to Ald. Howard and his brother Mr. G.F.C. Howard.

Woad being cropped at Sutton St Edmund in the early 20th Century

There is no doubt , Ald. Howard continued, many years ago woad was used as a dye, but that ancient art of dyeing has been entirely lost – probably when indigo was introduced to England. Woad is the foundation of many colours in different degrees of shade. Indigo alone will not dye a fast colour, therefore the dyer is compelled to resort to the use of woad as a setter, especially when dyeing material from which the uniforms of railway officials, the constabulary etc., are made. If a coat has been well woaded, the strong, healthy smell of woad can be easily detected when the garment is put before the fire to dry.

Through the great change of fashion that has taken place in dress during the last sixty years the good old fast colours are not required, and the introduction of coal tar dyes has tended to cripple the ancient industry of woad growing.

‘Unfortunately for me and the other woad growers,’ said the Alderman, ‘the quantity used now is not half what it was 20 or 30 years ago. Trade is very bad, and we have most of last year’s crop in stock.’

The plants grown at Parson Drove resemble spinach, except in colour, which is a kind of blue green. The seed pods are flat and the seed is small, whilst the flower is of bright yellow.

The land most suitable to the production of woad, says Ald. Howard, is virgin soil- in fact, the

the plant can obtain a firm hold. The soil requires to be specially prepared, by way of ploughing , etc. Ald. Howard’s plan is to plough the land into widths of about 12 feet and roll and harrow the soil until a fine tilth has been obtained. Sowing commences about the middle of April and ends about the second week in May. The reason that the sowing does not all take place at the same time is on account of the difficulty that would occur when weeding was necessary, as well as gathering when fit.

The cropping, he went on to say, is usually finished about this time of year (November). As the woad is cropped it is put into baskets specially made, and emptied into heaps. It will not do to let the woad lie on the field and a cart, again specially constructed for the purpose, follows closely upon the heels of the croppers, who work on their knees and crop it off with their hands.

Speaking of the Mill and couching barns Mr. Howard said they had kept to the ancient structure, which is conical in shape and very primitive in appearance. It is constructed of timber and thatch. There is a stone floor, and in the floor are three wheels, 8ft. high, with iron bars, some 3 ft. in width, and worked by horses, one horse to each wheel.

Inside the woad mill

When the woad is taken into the mill it is gradually placed under the crushing wheels until the leaves are ground into a pulp and then thrown out of the mill into the couching barns, where it is made into balls of a certain size, and carried onto the ranges to dry.

Balls of woad drying on racks

When the work of cropping is finished ‘couching’ operations commence – preparing the woad for the use of the dyers. The balls of woad, if sufficiently dry – a fact which depends much upon the season – are again taken into the mill and ground into dust, and from thence into the couching barns again. In the event of the balls still retaining more moisture than necessary, they are broken into pieces in the couching barns, great care being essential owing to the risk of fermentation, followed by the disengagement of the ammonia. The operation in the barns consists chiefly of throwing the woad backwards and forwards every day with shovels, water being applied when necessary.

The task requires a certain amount of skill on the part of the woadman in charge, who must have all his wits about to prevent the couch getting too heavy or let it burn.

The different processes occupy about eight weeks. By the end of that time the product is expected to be in a fit condition for being put into hogsheads, which hold from 18 to 20 cwt. each. The woad is rammed into the hogsheads, after having been weighed in cwts. And consigned to the different markets, the chief of which are Leeds, Huddersfield, and other towns in Yorkshire, Devonshire, Cumberland, and occasionally to Scotland.

Many years ago a Howard woad mill was to be seen near Weston, and at that time the historic dye was grown at Spalding, Weston, Whaplode, Moulton, Gosberton, Long Sutton (in Woad Lane), Tydd St. Mary, and Sutton St. Edmunds, but in all probability the woad mill at Parson Drove will witness the death struggle of this ancient industry.

Professor R. Medola and Mr. Francis Darwin, write after a visit to the Parson Drove Mill as follows: ‘The primitive character of the manufacture makes it not only of interest as a lingering survival of an ancient rural industry, but the antiquarian and lover of folk-lore may derive instruction from the mode of construction of the rough sheds, and from the technicalities used by the workmen. Thus the term “couching” is used in a similar sense by maltsters, The sloping plank is called the “firm” and the tray on which the pulp is kneaded is known as the “balling-horse”. The balls were formerly dried on wattles known as “fleaks”, a term apparently identical with the word used for hurdles in Scotland;  but these are no longer used at Parson Drove.

The central circular shed, containing the rollers, is built of wooden planks and posts and thatched with a conicle roof; the lateral couching house is constructed of thick turf walls, with slabs arranged in a peculiar herring-bone form, and also roofed with thatch. The whole structure was evidently framed with a view to cheapness and simplicity, so as to be easily removable. In the palmy days of the industry the sheds were not permanent erections, but were moved about from one place to another, so as to be near the crops.

We content ourselves here of recording facts without comment or criticism. Any science that lurks behind this ancient manufacture has been found out empirically and handed down by tradition from a remote part. The imaginative person may indulge his fancy by carrying back the woad industry to that period when the early inhabitants of this country furnished that solitary scrap of personal information which is still the historical stock-in-trade of the average school boy.

We were told in former times the woad-men were limited to certain families and that they had traditional chants of their own; but these are passing into oblivion, and we were unable to ascertain the words.

The object of drying the pulp first, and then wetting it again before allowing it to ferment is not at first sight obvious nor could we learn why this practice has been found advantageous. The fermentation itself is no doubt a zymolytic decomposition of glucosides. The use of woad as a source of indigo is now very limited, being confined to some of the old fashioned Yorkshire dye-houses, where it is used in conjunction with indigo in the so-called ‘woad vat.’”[5]

The concept of woad chants is not  that fanciful as it would help the pace of any hard work that involved a repetitive process. Alan Lomax, the famous ethnomusicologist is famous for collecting such songs and recording them in America, what is lessor known is that he did the same in Britain, but no “woad chant” can be found in his archives either side of the Atlantic. The only woad song I have found is from a 1920’s book of scout songs set to the tune “Men of Harlech” called “The Woad Ode” re-enforcing the popular image of Ancient Britons dyed with woad.

The Woad Ode

Whenever a niche industry such as woad develops it has a benefit locally of the knowledge of process and the people in that area handing it down. This provides both an element of inherited job security and vulnerability as when the process or the product becomes obsolete the loss of livelihood and fortune can happen in a very short period. The loss of commerciality of a crop is not just affecting the farmer and the processor, but all those involved in the cultivation, transportation and shipping of that crop. You only need look at the shipping news of the time and woad was regularly being shipped on coasters from Wisbech to Liverpool and Leeds plus the packing and carriage of this to port.

It is perhaps a paradox in the fens and in farming generally that there is great innovation and adoption of the new, but at the same time a pull to retain and preserve the old even after it has lost its commerciality. In my experience there is often a pull that resists change  form those living off the land in whatever form. However, over time, one crop replaces another and the economies of those reliant upon it are hopefully restored.

[1] Stamford Mercury 1794

[2] Stamford Mercury Nov. 16 1849

[3] Whilst it was a staple of the European dyeing industry in France and Germany the scale of Fenland production was not matched in the Industrial Age.

[4] It should be noted that the growing of tobacco was forbidden in Britain as a measure to protect the excise duty that was earned from tobacco imports which was in excess of £10 million in 1911. I am mindful of the episode of Yes Minister that argues smokers lay down their lives for the benefit of the country.

[5] Spalding Guardian 18^th November 1911