Pull The Wool

       Another important factor in the survival of my Celtic ancestors was wool. This item was woven into the fiber of their existence for generations. After bread and meat, it was perhaps the most time-consuming activity. From the pasture lands in the hills, to be driven down to get a haircut, giving the haircut, and then going into winter quarters in the flat lands; it would have taken the Deceangli and the Cornovii figuring out this endeavor in a cooperative manner. For hundreds of years they had a summer home and a winter home which were necessary to maintain this activity on a seasonal basis. Weaving all this wool during the winter months gave them something to put on their bodies. Now just imagine having to clothe 6,000 men at any one time.

      Peter Salway in his book The Oxford Illustrated History of Roman Britain (a must read for those with an interest) gives a comprehensive account of this period, and on page 459 gives a picture (mental) of this activity. Speaking of picture, the following is certainly symbolic of wool:

      Here stands sheep grazing upon one of the oldest monuments of the human experiment. Standing on the very top of this Bronze-Age cairn in NW Wales (Bryn-celli-ddu, Menai Bridge. Anglesey) is the wool carrying sheep saying, still here after all this time, guess we pulled the wool over your eyes.

                       [picture taken from The Shell Guide to Wales, p. 260, published 1969]

      It is also of interest that the word Briton means a "cloth clad" person. [Celtic Britain (4th edition), p. 212.]