In 1701 the carpet weavers of Wilton and Axminster received a charter; but even at an earlier date the manufacture of carpets had been carried on at these places. Both these towns have given their names to distinct fabrics that are now made in many places and countries. Carpet manufacture is no longer carried on at Axminster, where it flourished for about a century; and other places, like Fulham, Moorfields, Exeter, and Frome, where early attempts were made to establish the industry, have long ceased to have any connection with carpet making.
About the year 1740, the Earl of Pembroke brought over weavers from France and introduced into Wilton the making of loop-pile or Brussels carpeting. This was followed in due course by the development of the cut-pile fabric which took its name from the place.
About the year 1736 the weaving of carpets seems to have been established at Kidderminster, a town which had been connected with the weaving of broadcloth and “flowered stuff” from as far back as the reign of Henry VIII. When the art was first introduced, what is now called Scotch or Kidderminster carpet was made on the old hand-loom; the process of weaving was slow and laborious, and required a man and a boy to each loom. In 1745, Mr. Broom started the manufacture of Wilton and Brussels carpets in the town, bringing over weavers from Tournai. In 1772 the number of carpet looms in the town was 250, and the trade extended to other places in the North of England and Scotland. In 1830 there were nearly 1,100 looms in Kidderminster, and a considerable home and foreign trade had been established. A Parliamentary Paper of that date gave the consumption of wool in the weaving of carpets as one twenty-eighth of the whole quantity of wool produced in the Kingdom.
In 1757, Mr. Thomas Moore started the manufacture of carpets in London, and obtained a premium from the Society of Arts for the best imitation of Turkey carpets.
As far back as 1778 there was a trade to some extent at Kilmarnock. The original fabric was the two-ply Scotch or Kidderminster carpet. In 1824, an engineer of Kilmarnock introduced the three-ply Scotch carpet, a fabric of three layers of different colours, each of which is brought to the surface according to design; while about the same time Brussels and Velvet pile were also introduced into Scotland. In 1831, the Trustees for Manufactures in Scotland awarded the prize for four Turkey carpets, the first of that type made in Scotland.