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The
town of Kidderminster,
Worcestershire, lies about
20 miles
southwest of Birmingham in the
English industrial midlands.
It has been a center
of weaving for many centuries,
and in the
mid-late
eighteenth century began to specialize
in new
forms of carpet weaving,
rightfully coming
to be called the carpet capital of Britain.
The historic Stourvale
Mill
on Green Street was built in
the early 1850's under
the guidance of
Henry
Woodward, who had started his
company in 1790, and who was
joined by
Benjamin Grosvenor to operate
the first steam powered carpet mill
in Britain on the site.
The firm of
Woodward Grosvenor & Co. Ltd.
remains the
major weaver of Brussels
and Wilton carpets,
and is the only
firm with a complete
design archive extant,
that covers
over 200 years in
business and over
10,000 patterns.
J. R. Burrows
& Co. are the agents
in the United States for historic
designs from this archive,
which is marketed as the
"Stourvale Mill Collection."
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