Author: Stuart Peachey,
Stuart Press/Historical Management Associates Ltd,
Partizan Press/Caliver Books

Orders of the day, Volume 34, Issue 1, March/April 2002

The last "Orders of the Daye" included an item referred to in 'Knetwatch' which asked for information on coat lining colours. It appeared from the summary of replies that none of the correspondents knew of the published sources which have been on sale by a number of traders at every major muster for the last 14 years! I therefore thought it might be useful to have a review of the information currently readily available to Society members on all aspects of the common people's clothing, both military and civilian, for the Civil War period.

Firstly, soldiers' clothing. The main Parliamentarian national field army for about 3/4 of the First Civil War was the army commanded by the Earl of Essex. The infantry clothing was covered in detail in "Old Robin's Foot" (Peachey and Turton, Partizan Press 1987) which is still in print. This covered not only the original 20 regiments raised in the summer of 1642 but also the seven regiments of the Earl of Warwick's army amalgamated with it after Edgehill and four other regular regiments which served with it from Kent and London. It showed that the regiments were uniformed and gives coat colours for 26 out of the 31 regiments and coat lining colours for 14 of them. As well as colours, it gives details of the fabrics and specifications of the clothes and how to reproduce the garments.

The same authors also undertook a very detailed study of Parliamentarian forces in the six West Country counties. The first part, covering the first 15 months of the war, took 10 years to research and was published as "War in the West, Part 1" in 1994 (Stuart Press). While it is impossible to prove a negative, about 60 foot regiments were identified (with an average life expectancy of three months) and there is no indication that any of these were ever issued with any clothing. It is extremely probable that they wore civilian clothes and this seems probably normal for Parliamentarians in other areas. There is also no indication that trained bands were ever issued with clothing during the Civil War; the same applies to artillery and pioneers.

Some Royalist areas also seem un-uniformed. Probably most or all of the main field army which fought at Edgehill was not uniformed until the summer of 1643. Hopton's West Country army which fought at Stratton, Lansdown and Bristol, among many other major engagements, certainly has no indication of uniform during the pre-Bristol period and many other regional armies may have been largely in civilian clothes. Troops returning from Ireland do generally seem to be uniformed. All references to both Royalist and Parliamentarian coat and flag colours are listed in "ECW Flags and Colours Part 1 English Foot" (Peachey and Prince, Partizan Press 1991). Stuart Reid wrote a parallel volume on Scottish Foot. The New Model Army was also covered in detail by the Victorian Firth in "Cromwell's Army" which was recently reprinted.

The vast number of common men in civilian clothing involved in the majority of battles (possibly most military encounters had no uniformed troops at all) has been largely ignored by both the Sealed Knot and the ECWS, with there being an obsession with uniformed units. Even at Worcester in 1651 much of the Parliamentarian force was militia, while the Royalists included Highlanders and some hastily raised English, neither of whom had much chance of being uniformed. There is only one English regiment to my knowledge, the Norfolk Trained Bands, which sets out to represent an un-uniformed unit in any of the societies. In addition, no female uniform costume is known.

Those portraying civilians or soldiers in civilian clothing need to base the costume on a particular class or occupation such as agricultural Tabourer, husbandman or tailor. The garments worn by civilian men and women were analysed in "Clothes of the Common Man" and "Clothes of the Common Woman 1580-1660" (Morris, Stuart Press 2000) which lists the clothing belonging to people in particular occupations, including any mention of the fabrics and colours. "Textiles and Materials of the Common Man and Woman 1580-1660” (Stuart Press 2001) was a 6-month collaboration between a seven strong research team which produced detailed specifications for each of the fabrics listed in the "Clothes" books.

As none of the woollen fabrics identified were then available from traders, Historical Management Associates Ltd have started to commission the manufacture of some of them, beginning with the naturally-pigmented fabrics (made from wool from coloured sheep) made with the right coarseness of rare breed fleeces, the correct thread counts, finishes, etc. The first examples of these fabrics are now available. From archaeological records, naturally-pigmented fabrics account for about half of all woollen garments, and the stereotype 'country grey' would agree with this.

About 25% of woollen garments were apparently undyed white cloth. For those trying to reproduce the 25% of coloured woollen clothing "Dyeing the Clothing of the Common People 1580-1660" (Hopkins and Peachey, Stuart Press 2001) analyses in detail what garments were what colour and who wore what colours. In its second section is described in reproducible detail how these colours were produced.

"Headwear, Footwear and Trimmings of the Common Man and Woman 1580-1660" (Morris, Stuart Press 2001) describes and provides illustrations of the various items of head and footwear from startups to straw hats. It also covers the buttons, points, stockings and decorative braids and ribbons, in many cases with information on how to reproduce them.

Finally, Jane Huggett has produced "Clothes of the Common Woman 1580-1660 - Part 2, Making the Garments" (Stuart Press 2001) which describes how to produce the garments with 5 pull-out patterns. She justifies her interpretation of the mass of woodcuts and text material, and in this and Part 1 there are a number of unexpected results. For example, all the many common women's skirts where the fabric is mentioned are made of wool, while woollen doublets for men are unusual. Petticoats normally include an integral 'upper body' often made out of a different fabric rather than being just a skirt. Most buttons are made of thread or scraps of cloth; there is no indication of plain wooden buttons. (This belief largely arose from early reports of excavations of 'macrame beads' on the Mary Rose which later turned out to be part of a rosary, not buttons at all). A large proportion of doublets and breeches among the majority of labouring classes were made of leather, etc. The male volume of "Making the Garments" is currently under production and is expected to be published in time for the Re-enactors Fair in mid March.