Oil painting by Alfred Balding of Wisbech, showing the inside of the roller house of the mill at Parson Drove, near Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. Three crushing wheels are drawn by horses around a circular pan containing the woad leaves, while workers knead the crushed leaves into balls and carry these to the drying ranges outside. The mill was demolished in 1914. Woad is a cruciferous (formed from four equal petals, arranged crosswide) plant yielding a blue dye which was widely cultivated until the end of the Middle Ages. Now rare, it has been superseded by the use of indigo dye.

Picture Reference: 10312672
Subject: TRADE & INDUSTRY > Textile Industries > Dye & Pigment Industry
Inventory No.: 1951-0021
Credit: Science Museum Pictorial

Keywords: 1870-1913, 1900s, 20th Century, Age Of Electricity, Agricultural, Agricultural Building, Agriculture, Animal, Animal Power, Balding, Alfred, Crushing, Crushing Wheels, Dye, Dye & Pigment Industry, Dyestuff, Energy, Europe, Farm, Farming, Farm Building, Female, Grove, Horse, Horse Power, Industrial, Industry, Male, Man, Men, Men's, Mill, Natural World, Orangic, Orangic Dyestuffs, Organic, Organic Dyes, Parson, Parson Grove, People, Pigment, Power, Power Generation, Science, Uk, United Kingdom, Wheel, Woad, Woad Mill, Woman, Woman's, Women, Women's, Workers

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