The Incorporation of Weavers, Fullers and Shearmen takes its name from the Royal Charter of 1620. By 1700 Exeter was responsible for a quarter of England's woollen cloth trade. The Incorporation counted 400 craftsmen among its members, and its more prosperous merchants were known as the "Golden Tuckers".
Fortune did not always favour the Guild. In 1574 Queen Elizabeth I gave Tuckers Hall away to a gentleman of Gray's Inn. It took five years of legal contest, and a payment of £20, before the Guild reclaimed its home. The decline of the wool trade left only two freemen by 1890. The last of them, William Norman, died in 1894 aged 88, and with him ended the direct link between the wool trades and the Incorporation.
The Incorporation did not disappear. It admitted members from the wider business community, and from the 1960s it began a revival that continues today. Members in their distinctive green woollen robes still join the Lord Mayor's processions from the Guildhall to the cathedral. The Incorporation now looks to expand its charitable work.
The Guilds and Incorporation have existed in Exeter for nearly 600 years and have occupied Tuckers Hall since 1471. Both the Incorporation and the Hall have a remarkable story with a glorious and continuous history.
There are significant numbers of young disadvantaged people in the area who have often been brought up in care and are not able to get the help needed to support them into training and the workplace.
Jane Smith
