1st August 2019
We can never quite believe the achievements of William Morris. The multifaceted man achieved more than most in many lifetimes and had a range of talents. When reading about Morris for all these years, it’s clear to see that he took such a keen interest in such a variety of crafts and arts – but then not only that, he took it further to practice and practice until he perfected the art. He did of course have an unbelievable amount of natural talent, but by working at the crafts with such passion, he was able to master the arts.
One such venture was his work at Merton Abbey. Now, we know that Morris was determined to push back against the mass industrialisation that was occurring at the time. The return to traditional craftsmanship was part of this – he dreaded the people losing that skill and relying on machines. Merton Abbey Mills takes it’s name from Merton Priory; one of the most important monasteries of the middle ages. The abbey was on the River Wandle, so textile mills were attracted to the property and area by 1600 due to the water power but also importantly, because of the properties the water possessed. The water had a special balance of a chalk stream which was suitable to textile creation for washing, dyeing and printing. In fact; by 1792, the river was actually one of the hardest working rivers in Europe as various print works moved to the banks.
It’s important to mention the industry at the time – the textile industry in the UK was booming. The British Empire was expanding, as was the population and therefore the demand for textiles (cotton) increasing with it. The Pennines in particular saw a real boom in trade. The good thing about this is that it really improved the standard and quality of living within the UK and those areas. Prior to industrialisation, many families had been working in the domestic system and so there was a ready supply of both talented weavers and spinners.
It was no different in Wandle Valley and it attracted workers from all over the UK to the hive of activity. We still print and manufacture all our products in the UK, but it’s really unfortunate that so many don’t; simply due to cost. There are still mills in Britain and it’s important we use them so we don’t lose that heritage!
Morris moved his prints to Merton Abbey in 1881 and remained there until 1888. It was here he created multiple iconic designs – including Strawberry Thief and Brother Rabbit. The conditions on the River Wandle were completely perfect for his needs and textiles.
His interest in socialism intensified during this period and he acted upon them which is really key. For his workers, he really treated them fairly. It’s known that he payed his workers above the average wage, supplied a library to use for education and provided a healthy and very importantly safe workplace. The apprentice boys were even given accommodation whilst they learnt the craft, Morris knew the importance of educating the next generation to keep the crafts alive and in practice.
Many of our very favourite designs were produced there – including Willow Bough, one of our all time best loved designs.
Posted in News by Laura
Happy first day of Spring 🌷what’s your favourite thing about spring? 🌱 Ours is of course all the stunning flowers blooming all around us 🪴 To get 15% off our website to bring some florals indoors, use code; SPRING at checkout on our website 🤍
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Our fat quarters are ideal for quilting or patchwork projects, in all our licensed William Morris designs we also sell them in bundles 🌿 Our website has 15% off everything at the moment with code; SPRING 🌷
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A bit of a different one today, and we’re very amateur so don’t zoom in on our planting too much, but isn’t spring lovely tidying up the greenhouse ready to plant in? 🌱 Next up is getting some tomato plants and might even take on a dahlia or two! 🤍 If you’re a gardener and know how to keep this grape vine alive, do let us know how 😂
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Celebrating International Women’s Day today 🤍 As a female founded and run business, it’s always important for us to look at the women throughout history that have been empowered and made a difference. Few have made such a difference than May Morris, not only an expert in embroidery and design, she ran the embroidery department at her father’s business, Morris & Co. She also founded the Women’s Guild of Arts as the Art Workers Guild did not admit women - like her father was a true pioneer at the time with her talent and activities to progress women’s rights - a remarkable woman indeed 🌿 We were lucky enough to see some stunning original May Morris embroideries at our friends @williammorrissocietyuk - she was a true talent 🧵🪡
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Give us all the spring florals, we’re absolutely ready for the blooms to bloom this spring 🌷🌿 To celebrate, use code: SPRING on our website for 15% off everything (including our beautiful spring sale with exclusive colour ways and different products!) 🌱 Hope you’re all enjoying the sunshine today 🌞
Beautiful William Morris Daisy is on the table today 🌼
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Celebrating World Book day with a coffee meeting over one of our favourite books; our French archive ⚜️ Filled to the brim with beautiful designs, we might have picked a couple to be our new designs! Quilters, you’re going to want to watch this space! 🫶🏻 If anyone’s interested in how we bring a new design to life, let us know we’d be happy to film it for you! 🥰
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A little afternoon tea set up 🧸 Using stunning Willow Bough blue, we thought this is a perfect William Morris kids afternoon tea party 🤍
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Prepping some beautiful blooms 🌷 Got to include our fabulous William Morris tea towels of course 🩷
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What do you think to our new tote bags? ✨ Now in cotton fabrics, we’ve been perfecting the samples for weeks and they got stolen out the office and taken on a cruise by one of our team who thought they’d be the ideal holiday totes 🤍 what do you think? Shall we make these part of our range? ♥️
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Stunning Daisy is on the table 🫶🏻 Daisy was the first design William Morris produced so it’s always such a special one amongst his fans ✨
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#floraltablecloth #placemats #placematset #daisy #williammorrisdesign #williammorris #williammorrisfabric #fabric #floralfabric #florals #floraltable
Pack a fabric stack order with us ✨ which William Morris design is your fave? 🤎
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Oh Compton we love you! 🧡 All the details within Compton are so stunning, the winding leaves and florals, did you know it was the last design Morris himself before he passed? 🤎
featuring; William Morris Compton, our licensed digitally printed design ✨
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Back in stock alert! 🐇 One of our all time favourite designs is William Morris Brother Rabbit and we’ve just digitally printed it on cotton in the red everyone has always loved so much from our licensed collection 🥰
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📣 We’ve got a big announcement! 📣 We are now digitally printing our fabrics 🎉 Still printed in the United Kingdom (of course!) we always aim to bring you the highest quality, licensed William Morris designs (and exclusive florals but more on that later..) and by digitally printing them we can really focus on the details within the fabric, you can see how crisp all the aspects within the design are here: the little strawberries and the birds are so clear in the design 🍓 Printed onto high quality cotton, we’re so pleased to be able to print Morris designs displaying all the details just as he drew all those years ago 🎨 Timeless designs that when he was printing his designs in Merton Abbey Mill using the Indigo dye technique he’d never have been able to imagine the progress made that we can now digitally print them! 🤍 Strawberry Thief red is now back in stock, such a gorgeous design we adore it ♥️
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#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisfabrics #florals #preraphaelite #digitalprint #digitalprinting #strawberrythief
To celebrate Valentine’s Day this week, we’ve been looking through some Pre-Raphaelite love quotes including this one from Dante Gabriel Rossetti ♥️ They sure knew how to write poetry, we’ll share more of their beautiful words this week ✨
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Today’s tablescape feels very Valentines pretty 🤍 Beautiful Charlotte Rose is our design from our French archive, so timeless it’s on our table constantly through the year 🌹
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We’re closed for holiday soon! 🪩 From the 21st Jan- 6th Feb we’ll be taking a little break, so make sure your orders are placed before then, or we will send it when we’re back ✨ since we’re treating ourselves, we thought we’d treat you too with 15% off our website with code; MORRIS - valid until we close 🤍
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Merry Christmas everyone! 🎄 We hope you’ve all had a wonderful day ✨
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There’s still time to get your Christmas shopping ticked off! ✨ Free gift wrap on your orders and 10% off everything with code; festive 🎄 Just email us or message us to let us know you’d like us to gift wrap your order ☺️
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisfabric #preraphaelite #christmasgift #willowbough #floraltable #florals
Loving cutting beautiful fabric stacks this Christmas! 🎄 A fabric stack is an ideal gift for quilters and crafters in your life, they’ll be able to enjoy using them for their next project ✨
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