Parramatta cloth was a cloth of the early 19th century from the town Parramatta in Australia. Initially, it was a coarse cloth produced by the inmates of Parramatta Female Factory, and used for convicts’ clothing. After 1815 the cloth was finished in a separate factory, producing a tweed of superior quality which was imitated by English producers.[1][2][3][4]

Slop cloth

Parramatta Female Factory was a prison for female transportees, and females who had committed a crime in the Colony; the convicts were made to do various jobs, including spinning and weaving.[5] Parramatta cloth was initially a coarse low-grade cloth, also known as “factory cloth”,[3] a type of slop cloth made of wool. The Parramatta Female Factory also produced linen cloth for convicts’ clothing.[6][7][8]

Later products

In 1815 Simeon Lord established a factory at Botany Bay where cloth from Parramatta was finished and dyed, producing a high quality, and expensive, tweed.[4][3] This cloth gained enough of a reputation to be imitated by English manufacturers in Bradford, who later marketed their own products as Parramatta Cloth.[4]

Variations

PIECE GOODS MANUAL refers Paramatta as a lightweight fabric woven with a specific twill pattern using cotton and Botany worsted yarns. It is commonly used for making waterproof items.[9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Middleton, Angela (1 March 2009). Te Puna - A New Zealand Mission Station: Historical Archaeology in New Zealand. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 189. ISBN 978-0-387-77622-4.
  2. ↑ Balint, Emery; Howells, Trevor; Smyth, Victoria (1982). Warehouses & Woolstores of Victorian Sydney. Oxford University Press. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-19-554385-8.
  3. 1 2 3 Maynard, Margaret (1994). Fashioned from Penury: Dress as Cultural Practice in Colonial Australia. Cambridge University Press. p. 166. ISBN 978-0-521-45310-3.
  4. 1 2 3 Stephensen, P. R. (Percy Reginald) (1966). The history and description of Sydney Harbour. Adelaide : Rigby. p. 296.
  5. ↑ "Convict Female Factories". 31 January 2013. Archived from the original on 31 January 2013. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  6. ↑ "'Slop' clothing". Sydney Living Museums. 13 July 2017. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  7. ↑ ''spin wool into yarn, and from the yarn weave the coarse "Parramatta cloth" from which convicts' winter clothes were made.'' Page 255 https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/The_Fatal_Shore_The_Epic_of_Australia_s/7E5wt_V5nw4C?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=frontcover
  8. ↑ Hughes, Joan (1989). Australian Words and Their Origins. Oxford University Press. p. 394. ISBN 978-0-19-553087-2.
  9. ↑ "The Project Gutenberg eBook of Piece Goods Manual, by A. E. Blanco". www.gutenberg.org. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
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