A Carpet Timeline

The following table shows a timeline of the history of carpet production, from 6,000 BC to the present day.

Date	Event
6000BC	Evidence of goats and sheep being sheared for wool and hair and then spun and woven.
1480BC	Egyptian fresco of handloom (discovered in 1953).
464BC	Pazyryk rug woven, (discovered in ice filled tomb Outer Mongolia 1960). It has all the characteristics of a modern Persian or Anatolian with a pile and Ghiordes knot.
1000AD	Marco Polo confirms rug making in Central Anatolia. From there the technique spread through the Caucasus, Turkomania, Persia, Meshed, Herat, Kabul, India and Kashmir. Traders took rugs to Samarkand, Bokhara, Tashkent, Sinkiang and Peking, the craft swept through Tunisia, Biskra, Bou Saada, Marakesh and Fez.
1537	Robert Rothe imports weavers from the East to make rug on his estate in Kilkenny.
1540	Cardinal Wolsey imports Turkie rugs to England.
1550	Carpet knotting exhibited by Richard Hickey.
1570	Verulam carpet made for Elizabeth I.
1580	Aubusson carpet centre set up in Beauvair.
1586	Ardebil carpet made (now in Victoria Albert Museum, London) by Maksud the Keshani. One of a pair made for the Mosque of Ardebil.; the other is in the Los Angeles Museum of Art.
1596	Pierre DuPont sets up weaving carpets in Palais Royal Paris and moves in 1620 to soap works "Savonerie".
1619	Inventory on Naworth Castle mentions Kidderminster Fote Cloths.
1655	Carpet factory built at Wilton.
1685	Huguenot weavers flee France some settle in England and start weaving in Wilton. Wilton carpet weavers received Royal Charter in 1699.
1720	Earl of Pembroke persuades weavers from Savonnerie factory to work in Wilton and teach locals to make Brussels carpet. Legend has it that the Duke smuggled the weavers out of France in wine barrels. The Duffossy family still live in Dorset.
1735	Pearsall & Broome set up in Kidderminster making reversible double (Kidder) cloth. The last "Kidder" loom was dismantled in 1936.
1745	Broome brings weavers from Tournai to Kidderminster.
1749	Dufossy developed method to cut loops of Brussels weave to make a nap. This became known as Wilton carpet.
1750	Peter Parisot sets up carpet weaving in Paddington with two Savonnerie weavers, under patronage of Duke of Cumberland. He moved to larger premises near the Golden Lion Inn in Fulham.
1755	The Parisot factory in Fulham was brought by Passavant who moved plant to Exeter.
1755	Moore opened in Moorfield and Whitty opened in Axminster, closing in 1835 and looms moved to Wilton. Original hand knotted looms still in operation at Wilton until 1957.
1756 - 1759	Royal Society of Arts presented premiums for finest carpets. Won by Whitty three times and Passavant once.
1770 - 1790	Hand made carpet making flourished and attracted designers such as the Adam Brothers and Laverton.
1770	Brintons, previously cloth makers, started making carpets. The dynasty still exists and is the largest privately owned carpet company in the UK.
1790	Whitty makes carpet for Throne Room at Carlton House and Brighton Pavilion and supplied £1,000 carpet to Sultan of Turkey. It became the fashion to match carpets to ceilings, a trend that is still followed by today's equivalent of Whitty's factory, Axminster Carpets of Devon.
1791 - 1825	In America, hand knotted rugs and rag rugs made plus imports from England. In 1791 Sprague opens carpet factory in Philadelphia and 1825 mill opened in Massachusetts.
1801	Jacquard invents method of presenting different coloured yarn to weaving face. Revolutionises patterned fabric making the system still in use.
1810	Decline in fine hand made carpets due to Napoleonic War and competition from machine made. More looms introduced in Kidderminster, Yorkshire and Scotland.
1824	Three ply fabric commenced in Kilmarnock.
1750 - 1850	Industrial development in England. Population increase from 7 million to 18 million. End of cottage industries. Industrial revolution brought textile inventions by Hargreaves, Arkwright, Crompton. Cartwright and Watt's steam engine.
1803	Crossley Carpets start in Halifax. Crossley Carpets are still made under Carpets International brand by new owners Shaw Carpets of USA. Decendents of Crossley still make carpets in Yorkshire.
1832	Whytock invents method to print yarn and then weave it into flat fabric with design incorporated. Tapestry Carpet Loom. Start of Henry Widnell Stewart Ltd in Edinburgh later bought by Stoddard - who still manufacture carpet. Whytock leases Tapestry Carpet Loom rights to Crossley.
1837	James works with Quigley to perfect the Chenille Axminster loom. Chenille expanded to meet demand for large seamless patterned carpets at an economic price. Chenille grew to a multi-million company over 150 years and were bought by Stoddard around 1970. Quigley took his share and disappeared in America around 1850.
1839	Erasmus Bigelow in America invents power loom to make double ingrain and sold it to Scottish and English manufacturers who installed steam power. In 1851, he introduced a steam powered Brussels loom at the Great Exhibition and demonstrated it at Hoobrook in Kidderminster (Near the site of today's Brockway Carpets); eventually Crossley purchased it.
1852	William Grosvenor built steam driven factory in Green Street, Kidderminster, where the company still occupies in a listed building.
1862	Alfred Stoddard, an American, took over the tapestry factory of Ronalds at Elderslie, near Glasgow, to make carpets. By 1867, he was selling 75% in America. Stoddard now owns and still make carpets on the original site.
1878	Spool Axminster, invented by Halcyon Skinner in America, introduced into England by Tomkinson and Adam in Kidderminster. (Both families still making carpets). Morris opened hand knotting factory Hammersmith. (Morris designs still produced on Wilton looms).
1880	William Gray of Ayr develops seamless Kidder carpets
1890	Brintons develop Gripper Axminster (also from Halcyon Skinner of Yonkers) with efficiency advantages over traditional Spool. Later the two techniques were combined in Spool-Gripper.
1896	Donegal hand made factory set up and still in operation.
1905	Brintons produce carpet from first power driven wide loom; 15 ft wide (4.57m).
1927	David Crabtree, loom builders since 1853, start to export wide Gripper looms, three yards or three metres wide. 10 ft 6in width introduced in 1932.
1930	Decline in Tapestry carpet in favour of Gripper Axminster, especially for "Seamless Squares".
1940 - 1950	Tufted carpets developed in USA from candlewick weaving techniques.
1960	Chenille Axminster disappeared under increase of tufted carpet.
1950 - 1970	Tufted carpet limited to plan yarn effects but gradually printing white carpet improved.
1970 - 1995	Woven Carpet production declined by 70% but tufted production increased by 300% (UK).
1995	Fully patterned tufted carpets produced in England by Ryalux Carpets. Individual coloured yarns presented to substrate effectively for the first time. Patterned tufted carpet produced to rival woven (Gripper Axminster and Figured Wilton) carpets.
Present Day	Carpet choice has never been so diverse. Identifying the need to move with the changing demands of the consumer, the carpet manufacturers across the world offer a huge variety of diverse carpet ranges, with thousands of textures, colours, designs and styles.