The woollen cloth trade needed water to power its simple machines and to support several stages of the production process. Exeter could meet this demand, offering a reliable, plentiful and easily accessible supply.

By 1400 Exeter was a significant centre for the trade in woollen cloth, but it was not yet a commercial powerhouse. Exeter was the regional capital, the South West’s major city, but within the woollen cloth trade it still had to compete with local rivals.

On a visit to Exeter in the 1720s, the writer and traveller Daniel Defoe captured the city’s spirit by calling it a place ‘full of Trade and Manufactures’. At its vibrant centre was the woollen market.

Banking on success: At the height of its powers in the 1600s, Exeter’s woollen cloth industry dominated the region. Although the trade dwindled to nothing over the next 150 years, it still left a legacy. Tuckers Hall is one visible reminder of the cloth trade’s importance, as are the grand merchant houses that can still be seen around the city today. But one of the industry’s most significant legacies came in the shape of a business, that of merchant banking.

The Guild of Weavers, Fullers and Shearmen was not the only association to emerge from the woollen cloth trade. As early as the 1200s, the merchants who bought and sold woollen cloth also began to join forces. Together they formed what came to be known as the Company of Merchant Adventurers.