Three small Somerset villages had a huge impact on global exploration and trade – Rachael Rowe talks to Professor Terry Stevens
“Nothing much ever happened at West Coker. No great man ever lived or died there. It was never the centre of great industry nor the source of widespreading trade.”
When Professor Terry Stevens read a book called The Annals of West Coker during lockdown, he was struck by the above opening sentences, penned by Sir Matthew Nathan in the 1930s. It inspired him to research further, to tell the story of how, for more than 300 years, the villages of East and West Coker produced the finest sailcloth in the world, used by explorers, traders, pirates and the Royal Navy.
‘I was born in East Coker. As you become older, you become more quizzical, and I realised I had grown up accepting strange names of places like Rethy Ponds and Yarn Barton, and never really asked how they got their names. There were fields called Guinea and South Sea. I had wondered why the primary school in East Coker overlooked the Dawes Webbing factory – in fact it was the original sailcloth works.
‘I think familiarity breeds invisibility. When I read that book by Sir Matthew Nathan I thought “How wrong could he be!” TS Eliot lived in East Coker for a while – my dad buried him in 1965. And William Dampier, who set foot on Australian soil before Captain Cook, came from there. His mother was one of those who grew flax for the sail industry.
‘I have worked mainly in the tourism industry as a consultant, travelling to 55 countries. In contrast, my father and mother never had a holiday – Dad never left East Coker. This book is more of a desire to tell a story about an industry that few people realised was actually there.’
Coker cloth was the best
‘The sailing industry in the Cokers came about because the soil in the area meant that it was particularly good for growing the two main components, flax and hemp. From the 13th and 14th centuries onwards, flax and hemp were grown here and the yarn-making industry was here in William Dampier’s time.
‘I grew up with the saying “Bucked in the yarn rather than the piece” and never knew what it meant. I know now that “bucked” means to strengthen. What the people in the Cokers realised was that if they strengthened individual pieces of yarn in the sailcloth, instead of the completed woven piece, it would be much stronger. So they used an alkali process on the yarn – and Coker canvas lasted twice as long as any of the other sails made in Europe. People tried to copy the process but Coker canvas was always the best. It was the canvas of choice of both Lord Nelson and Kaiser Wilhelm II. One of the best sailcloth producers in the area was John Giles, and he produced the sailcloth for the Sovereign of the Seas, King Charles I‘s flagship. The Royal Navy commissioned Coker canvas as their sailcloth of choice, as did the US Navy and the German Navy. At one time, people in the Cokers were trading with Russia, Lithuania and the Baltics, and it’s known that these traders all stayed in one of the local pubs. West Coker issued their own tokens as currency, so that they would be spent locally by the traders. Some of these tokens have since been found in people’s gardens.’
The America’s Cup
One of the most exciting connections to the Coker canvas story is its link to the America’s Cup – the oldest international competition still operating in any sport, not just sailing. From 1899 to 1930, when Sir Thomas Lipton of the tea trade was involved, every boat had to sail with Coker canvas. Cowes-based Ratsey and Lapthorn, the world’s oldest sail-makers, insisted on using Coker cloth for the America’s Cup. Lipton famously said: “We will use Coker canvas.”
‘Without Coker canvas there would have been no America’s Cup,’ says Terry Stevens. ‘The company that makes the sailcloth still exists as Ratsey and Lapthorn, and they still make the sails for the America’s Cup today.’
Terry, who is a professor of international tourism, worked on the book for four years. ‘My job was a bit like a traditional weaver,’ he says. ‘I’m not a historian, but I wanted to tell the story. Richard Sims in Bridport has researched Coker canvas for years, and he focuses on the industrial process. But I wanted to weave in other angles. Did William Dampier use Coker canvas? What did TS Eliot have to say about the trade – and why did he want to be buried in East Coker? I went to all these other sources and wove them into the story.
‘There were a few surprises, such as uncovering stories of bribery and industrial espionage. One of the discoveries was that the Bullock family were known for making the best sailcloth and they lived at North Coker House. They sold their home to the Maudsley family from Coventry, who invented the marine steam engine. And it’s that very steam engine that led to the decline of sailboats.
‘A further twist in the tale is that The SS Great Western, Brunel’s wooden-hulled paddle-wheel steamship, was designed to have sails and engines. Launched in 1838, it was the first ever engine-powered ship built to cross the world’s oceans, and on its first voyage, it used Coker canvas sails and a Maudsley engine.
‘As a further heritage project the Coker Rope and Sail Trust is getting Coker canvas sails made by a craft sailcloth company in Bristol. We’re working with the Boatbuilding Academy in Lyme Regis and aim to have them sailing next year.
“The story of Coker canvas is worthy of a Netflix film! However, what I’d really like is for every Somerset schoolchild to know this story, and how small rural communities genuinely influenced international trade and exploration.’
To mark the links between Coker canvas and the America’s Cup, Terry’s book, Bucked In The Yarn, was launched on 29th August at the Ratsey and Lapthorn Sail Loft in Barcelona, where the 2024 LV America’s Cup is running until late October. The book will be published on 17th September by Graffeg and all royalties will go to the Coker Rope and Sail Trust. All royalties are being donated to the Coker Rope and Sail Trust.
