ENGLISH CARPETS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 66, Issue 74, 8 January 1946, Page 6

ENGLISH CARPETS

ON THE LOOMS AGAIN LONDON. Britisli-made carpets —the first for five years—will soon be in the shops. The country’s £5,000,000-a-year carpet industry is getting back into peacetime production. Bridgnorth, in Shropshire, home of Axminsters and Wiltons, have already started up aud the Board of Trade has granted over 40 licenses to firms all over the country to let them make a start.

But the Board of Trade is to clamp down on any high prices. There will be a strict control, ranging from 22s 7d per square yard for Axminster down to 3s Sd per square yard for haircord. A complete 35 by 45 square of tapestry carpet will cost £ll 12s 6d. 1 The difficulty of obtaining labour is at the moment restricting manufacture to about 10 per cent, of the prewar figure. The Change-over.

A Board of Trade official said that practically all the pre-war manufacturers had been granted licenses to restart after five years of war activity, in which the industry made all sorts of vital things—parachute harnesses, webbing, and so on. “There is no restriction on the number of carpets that can now be manufactured,” he said. “The supply of raw materials will govern that.

“Carpet weavers who were directed into other war industries are, in most cases, being allowed to return as they become redundant.” One of the leading carpet-import traders in London said: “There is not a sign of this side of the industry getting restarted. We have not had as much as a thread in our warehouse for months.

“We have t made repeated requests to the Board of Trade for licenses to let us get going, but so far without result.”