Plough and Blanket Hall

Witney, Oxfordshire

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The Witney Blanket Story
www.witneyblanketstory.org.uk/WBP.asp?navigationPage=Sites&file=WBPPLACE.XML&record=Blanket%20Hall

The Blanket Hall's chief purpose was to be a central meeting place of the company and somewhere that locally made blankets could be weighed, measured, inspected and marked. The large room upstairs, known as 'The Great Room', was where the main business of the company was debated and in addition to this there was a kitchen, cellar and outbuildings.

It was built in the Baroque style and has a panel on the outside bearing the inscription 'Robert Collier Master 1721' and the arms of the Witney Company of Blanket Weavers. A public clock hangs on the outside of the building which was paid for by the company in 1722. This was at first was only a striking clock with a bell under a cover on the roof (this is still in place) but had no clock face: later a face with a single hand was added to the front of the building.

William Smith (1815-1875), the founder of Smith's blanket company, at one time lived in the Blanket Hall using the attics to store potatoes and later ran a brewery from the cellar of the building.

The Blanket Weavers Company came to an end in 1847 and since then the Blanket Hall has had many business uses; more recently it has become a private house. The internal structure has been subject to many alterations and only the external walls and a floor survive of the original building.

8 years ago. Edited 2 years ago.

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