Fabric of the Hills

As tempting as it is to imagine that a “wool church” is a place of worship knitted from a sheep’s coat, this is actually a far grander feature of the Cotswolds landscape and beyond.

Wool churches are in fact religious buildings financed by medieval English farmers and merchants who had made their money in the wool trade. Generous donations were made in the hopes of securing their place in heaven (we can neither confirm nor deny whether they were just being fleeced). As a result, the construction of new churches became a rather competitive endeavour, with ever more grand designs created.

Money was not in short supply either. English wool was prized by weavers from Florence to Flanders. book.