C Shimwell Shoddy.Pub

Watsonia 26: 127–137 (2006)WOOL ALIEN FLORA OF WEST YORKSHIRE 127 A Shoddy Tale: perspectives on the wool alien flora of West Yorkshire in the twenty-first century D. W. SHIMWELL* School of Environment and Development, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL ABSTRACT which were allegedly introduced through the agency of the wool manufacturing industry and The terminology traditionally associated with the the use of wool waste as manure in market study of the wool alien flora of Britain is discussed gardening. A primary crop was brussels sprouts from a historical perspective and clarification for which Bedfordshire with its 17,467 acres in provided on the diverse nature of wool wastes. 1938 in the area around Biggleswade was the Changes in the production of wool wastes and their uses in agriculture over the past fifty years are major UK producer (Fitchett 1943). The source presented as a background to an understanding of the of these plants was traced to the woollen increasing rarity and decreasing geographical dis- manufacturing districts of West Yorkshire by tribution of wool aliens in the twenty-first century. Lousley & Dony (1952) and the study of this Results are presented from a five years study of peculiar flora taken up by Lousley (1958, 1960, selected species in the rhubarb fields and livestock 1961). A lifetime of dedication is to be seen in waste dumps in West Yorkshire (v.c. 63). Recom- the work of John Dony, first in his county flora, mendations are put forward for research into the the result of eighteen years of field study, conservation of the wool alien flora. followed by additional records and notes on changes (Dony 1969), then his Bedfordshire KEYWORDS: wool waste, shoddy, decline of textile manufacture and agriculture, rhubarb fields, plant atlas (Dony 1976) and finally, some livestock waste dumps. further notes (Dony and Dony 1986), records that tell the story of the establishment and gradual decline of ‘wool shoddy aliens’ in his INTRODUCTION: ALIEN AND/OR CASUAL native county. Dony (1976) recognised the shortcomings of such a term: ‘The inter- An awareness of the various industrial pretation of the wool alien flora presents some activities that contributed to the diversity of the difficulties as some native species occur as flora of West Yorkshire was probably initiated wool aliens, usually Mediterranean strains, and by Lees (1888) who incorporated the records of the use of wool waste is not of necessity the several amateur botanists of aliens from wool sole means of their introduction’. He also and grain waste tips into his benchmark volume acknowledged that the wool alien species were The Flora of West Yorkshire. Lees (1941) not permanent and contended that their emphasized the continuity of wool alien distribution was a matter of only passing recording in West Yorkshire in the early interest, one however, that extended to the twentieth century, summarizing additional mapping of tetrads in which over 250 such records in a supplement to his original flora. species had been recorded. By the mid-1980s, Meanwhile, it was probably the seminal work Dony & Dony (1986) noted that few of the of Hayward and Druce (1919), more than any remaining market gardeners used wool waste other, which alerted botanists to the increasing but were able to record that its diminishing use importance of an adventive flora in contri- had shown ‘that wool aliens may continue to buting to the national floristic diversity. In occur in fields for as long as eight years after many ways, the lineage of adventive and alien the application of shoddy’. The term wool alien study witnessed a sublimation in the publi- had been popularised by Lousley (1961) in his cation of the Flora of Bedfordshire (Dony census list of all such species found in Britain 1953). This work stimulated a nationwide in the period 1946–1960, and although it is interest amongst botanists in those species implied in Alien Plants of the British Isles *e-mail: [email protected] 128 D. W. SHIMWELL (Clement & Foster 1994), the term wool casual term ‘shoddy field’ as used by botanists and is generally used. The authors define casual as ecologists (e.g. Wilmore 2000) is used to ‘not persisting in a locality for more than two describe arable fields that have been fertilized years without re-introduction’. Finally, in this with wool waste and shoddy manure. The context, the extremely detailed and dedicated market gardeners of Bedfordshire and the catalogue of the Alien Plants of Yorkshire rhubarb growers of West Yorkshire often used (Wilmore 2000) is consistent in its use of the more than one type of waste according to term wool alien. It is a discussion on the alien availability and because of the variety of types and casual status of certain species originating used and their diverse provenances, the alien as seed in wool waste that forms the core of flora varied from year to year. Until the last this paper, based on five years of recording and decade of the twentieth century, daggings and observation in the so-called Rhubarb Triangle carding waste were acquired from Halifax and of West Yorkshire. Additionally, the results of shoddy waste from Mirfield for the 150 acres five years recording on five waste dumps in of rhubarb grown each year in the so-called which wool waste is a component are pre- ‘Rhubarb Triangle’ north of Wakefield, West sented. These are set in the context of research Yorkshire. This area is essentially the country into the current availability of wool waste as an around the intersections of M1 and M62 agricultural manure, and a review of the several motorways between Wakefield, East Ardsley, technological, industrial economic, agricultural and Rothwell and within 10 km grid squares and environmental factors that have governed SE22 and SE32. Nowadays, the only sources of the sporadic occurrence of wool aliens. wool waste are two commission wool scouring companies in the United Kingdom, at Dews- bury and Bradford. THE NATURE OF WOOL WASTE AND SHODDY Until the last two decades of the twentieth CHANGES IN THE PRODUCTION OF THE SOURCE century, the textile waste that was the source of MATERIAL many of the seeds was of several different types and the different types had varying sized Scouring is the process of washing wool in hot seed banks. There were brokes and daggings or water and detergent to remove contaminants clarts which comprised the dirty waste wool such as dirt, seeds and grease and to prevent trimmed from imported fleeces; and there were entanglement or felting. The greatest tech- noils and carding waste, fine, almost granular nological development in the process came accumulations of short fibres, rich in seeds, the from the Wool Research Organisation of New residue of the scouring, combing and carding Zealand (WRONZ), which through the processes in which the raw wool was prepared invention of scouring machinery, made the and cleansed, prior to spinning. Collectively, country the most popular source for scoured these waste products became known simply as and cleaned wool worldwide. The WRONZ ‘wool waste’ or ‘shoddy manure’ and together Comprehensive Scouring System was first they provided the main seed bank for wool patented and installed in its country of origin in casuals. There was also shoddy waste, the August 1972. By 1981, over fifty plants in New residue of shoddy, a cheap, rough, fibre Zealand and other parts of the world had been recovered from ground rags either collected converted to operate the WRONZ compre- throughout Britain or imported from Europe hensive system. It is estimated that, in the and the Middle East and itself the most fibrous twenty-first century, plant supplied by a New of the wastes. Then finally, there was mungo Zealand manufacturer scours an estimated 70% waste, left after the extraction of mungo or the of the world’s wool. Because of the efficiency short fibres recovered from heavily felted of the new technology, scouring costs rose less woollen waste. Shoddy provided coarse fibre than other wool processing related production for the manufacture of heavy woollen clothing, costs and New Zealand wool scourers costs such as army uniforms and blankets and became the lowest in the world (WRONZ industrial textiles. It was this aspect of the 2005). Thus, by the 1980s, many UK woollen manufacturing industry that led to the adoption manufacturers were changing to the import- of the word ‘shoddy’ to refer to anything coarse ation of scoured wool from New Zealand and or of lower quality in a general, everyday Australia rather than import raw, unscoured context. In a similar manner, the descriptive wool to clean as a stage in their own production WOOL ALIEN FLORA OF WEST YORKSHIRE 129 processes. Although there are between fifty and import. Most rely on UK sources for c.90% of sixty woollen manufacturers in West York- their manufacturing base, acquired either via shire, most rely upon imported wool that has high street charities or from the textile waste been scoured and cleaned in the country of its reclamation banks of local authorities. The origin. Even the primary processing wool proportion of woollen to synthetic rags in such blending companies use New Zealand wool and consignments is usually low and wool raw the only waste product is dust which accu- materials far less common, so that inevitably, a mulates in the extractor fans and is then greater proportion of the processed shoddy combusted at municipal incineration plants. fibre for spinning is synthetic. Whether wool or There are, however, still some manufacturers synthetic rags are used, there is little waste and who import raw wool and commission its this merely in the form of zips, studs, buttons scouring at either of two remaining wool and labels, which finds its way to a skip and scouring companies in the United Kingdom, thence a landfill site.

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