Kidderminster was a town where the manufacture of woollen cloth had been the basis of economic activity since Tudor times after Henry VIII put in place legislation allowing weaving to take place there. One hundred years or so later Kidderminster Stuff, a hard wearing woollen weave was important enough for Charles II to set in place quality standards that cloth had to meet in order to bear that description.

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Then there was a period of evolution as material often used as a decorative wall covering was transformed into a floor covering and was being manufactured as such by the 1730s. A further leap came with the building of the Carpet Hall here on Mount Skipet where Brussels weaving producing a carpet with a pile began in 1749. Quite how this technique arrived in Kidderminster is not fully recorded with tales of international industrial espionage being bandied about, or of skilled weavers being imported to the town to set up and work the first Brussels looms.

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Through the eighteenth century man of the towns mill owners produced both bombazine – a fabric used for clothing  and carpets - but by the early nineteenth century it was clear that carpet weaving was set to become the trade that would makes the towns name – and fortune.

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For information of some of the towns most celebrated people see Notable Local People.