Heritage Open Day: Dawe's Twineworks, West Coker, celebrates the former flax and hemp twine and sailcloth industries of south Somerset and west Dorset which flourished in the age of sail. It is now the only surviving Victorian Twineworks in the UK - and it works. The Jurassic sandstone of our area was ideal for growing flax and hemp - the raw material for twine, rope, nets and sailcloth. These products were the basis of world exploration and trade.
Coker Canvas was the best quality sailcloth available, but when others copied the process and power looms were introduced elsewhere, our village of West Coker moved over to mass production of twine.
We demonstrate how twine was produced and children can make a piece of twine or rope and understand the difference.