Growers of
woad, a plant indigenous to Britain that contains low concentrations of indigo, furiously opposed use of logwood extract.
They point out that
woad production can provide farmers with a new source of income at a time when returns from traditional sources are plunging.
In return the ships would take back casks of Toulouse
woad, a dye vital until the growth of the indigo trade after 1498, when the Portuguese reached India.(7)
Woad from Toulouse, or else from the other main centres of production in Picardy or Thuringia, was one of many commodities traded in by Gilbert Maghfeld, Chaucer's creditor.(8)
The Castros became identified in Burgos with the importation into Spain of English woolen cloth; the Bernuys made fortunes from the blue dyestuff,
woad, which they purchased in Toulouse and sold in Spain, and indeed they served as the revivers of the Toulouse
woad industry in the absence of local entrepreneurs; the Quintanaduenas family exported Spanish wool to a developing market in Rouen and then shipped Rouen's woolen and linen cloth, as well as miscellaneous other products, to many locations, including Spain and the New World.
In Ancient Britain, the Picts used a plant called
woad to dye themselves which colour?
It has many claims to fame including the little-known fact that the famous blue tunics of Napoleon's 'Grande Armee' were once produced here by using its
woad or pastel.
Sara explained the background to the project: "In medieval times, when the house was built, Coventry was a centre for the weaving trade and the city was best known for its fine
woad dyed blue cloth, 'Coventry Blue.'.
We might not bathe in milk while torching cigars with tenners but we won't be painted in
woad and living in caves either.
Here's gentian violet, the
woad of the ancient Britons.
There was a time when it was less a case of 'first choose your (possibly virtual) colour palette' as 'first venture yonder in search of the plant called
Woad, gather ye some leaves, tear and steep well, and lo!