Cloth company’s history is woven through the thin red line at Waterloo

A WEST Yorkshire mill, which is one of the the UK's oldest family-owned businesses, has a special reason to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo - which saw Napoleon defeated and guaranteed peace in Western Europe for almost a century afterwards.

On June 18 1815 British forces - the 'thin red line'- commanded by the Duke of Wellington, went into battle wearing scarlet tunics made from cloth woven at Hainsworth's Pudsey mill, an enterprise founded by Abimelech Hainsworth in 1783 and still in the family.

The mill provided the rich scarlet woollen cloth used to dress the original red coat soldiers in 1815 - and the cloth is still made today in exactly the same way at the 232 year old mill.

The fabric and will be worn by ‘soldiers’ taking part in this year’s historic re-enactment of the battle which was a landmark in European history - and the last great battle before the invention of photography.

More than 175 metres of the mill’s iconic scarlet cloth has been specially made for an exhibition in London presenting 80 life-size imaginary portraits of the soldiers who served at Waterloo hung against a backdrop of Hainsworth fabric.

Opening for the anniversary, Somerset House in London will present ‘Unseen Waterloo: The Conflict Revisited’, a series of portraits by photographer Sam Faulkner .The free exhibition runs June 12 until August 31.

Tom Hainsworth, Hainsworth's managing director, said: “In 1815, our mill manufactured the iconic scarlet fabric for the English forces at the Battle of Waterloo, helping to coin the enduring reference to the battle of ‘the thin red line’.

“Waterloo had major significance for Britain, helping us to become a global trading nation. Hainsworth was one of the companies that flourished as a result of that.

“The mill would have been phenomenally busy at the time of Waterloo – war always stimulates the textile trade. We have continued to play a role in subsequent wars including both World Wars and were commissioned by the British military to develop khaki to better fit modern warfare.

“Today, our military fabrics are increasingly attracting the attention of fashion designers including the likes of Christopher Raeburn and Jenny Schwarz.”

In addition to taking part in the event, Hainsworth’s lifestyle brand Scarlet & Argent has created the De Lancey Throw to commemorate the anniversary.

The Waterloo themed throw is named after Lady Magdalene de Lancey who travelled to the battlefield to be with her fatally wounded husband.

The 100 per cent wool throw is woven in the colours of the uniforms Hainsworth supplied to the troops .

Hainsworth has also provided 'Waterloo' cloth to textile students at Selby College who have been using it to create garments for their end of term fashion show in Selby Abbey which coincides with the bicentenary of the battle on June 18.

The Year 2 students were given tour of Hainsworth;s mill and a Waterloo-themed brief for their design project.

Tom Hainsworth said: " Last year we were asked to participate in a project to support local textiles students and provide a brief for the students to work towards and produce finished garments for their end of term fashion show.

"We decided to focus our brief around the Battle of Waterloo which played a large part in the history of Hainsworth.

"After a mill tour and brief history lesson we presented our brief. The students were given the brief to take away with them and start planning their designs. They had lots to consider, time scale and budget to name a few, but they sketched out their garments then presented us with their final designs.

"The group were given a selection of different fabrics to choose from in a range of weights, colours and finishes. Having the chance to touch and feel the cloth inspired some of the group to change their designs slightly. We can’t wait to see the finished designs go down the catwalk this summer."

The Hainsworth fabric has inspired the students to design a range of garments, including structured evening gowns, military inspired jackets and tailored woollen trousers, some with military style embellishment.

After Waterloo, 54,000 men lay dead, dying or injured on the battlefield – more than one in four of those who fought in a battle which Britain and her allies narrowly won thanks to the last minute intervention of the Prussians . The victory was described by the Duke of Wellington as a 'damned close run thing". .

The Somerset House featuring the Hainsworth cloth is being staged after photographer Sam Faulkner aims to commemorate the fallen.

He travelled to the annual Waterloo re-enactment in Belgium to photograph the ‘soldiers’ who take part, dressed in the historically accurate uniforms. Since 2009 he has created portraits evoking the forgotten faces of Waterloo from a pop-up studio situated on the battlefield,.

No individual record was made at the time of the 200,000 serving soldiers from either side – painted portraiture being the preserve of the richest in society. By the time European nations fought again at Crimea in 1854, the war photographer had been born and during the American Civil War of the 1860s, almost every soldier from the North or South had their portraits taken before heading to battle.

Sam Faulkner said: “Unseen Waterloo: The Conflict Revisited is my attempt to re-interpret and imagine the non-existent portraits from 1815. Waterloo is often cast as a battle between great men and certainly we’ve all seen the grand paintings of Napoleon and Wellington from the conflict, however we don’t have personal images of the men who actually fought and died that day.

"This work attempts to reclaim the Battle of Waterloo for the valiant 200,000 who have been lost to history.”

Meanwhile a West Yorkshire historian and Napoleonic Warms expert says French soldiers had an edge over their British foes because their swords were more lethal and less likely to break on impact.

The Rev Paul Wilcock , who heads the University of Huddersfield’s Arms and Armour Research Institute, which has examined and analysed many of the swords and other weapons that survive from the Napoleonic Wars, including some from Waterloo, says British swords were inferior because they were not produced to a national standard.

By contrast, France had a national manufacturing centre at Klingenthal, near Strasbourg, which opened in the 1730s and was operational until 1966. .

Mr Wilcock said: “It was successful because there was an entrepreneur who was responsible for running the business, but they used military inspectors to oversee the actual work. Because of this constant tension between the business world and the military, they were heavily regulated, and the result was some very high quality products.

“The biggest distinction is that in Britain we didn’t have a national manufactory, but individual manufacturers contracted to the government. As a result, there were often quality issues when weapons were used in the field. There are accounts of British weapons breaking on contact,”

As the 200th anniversary commemorations of the Battle of Waterloo gather pace, Mr Wilcock has been displaying weapons and delivering lectures at locations including the Tower of London and Apsley House, the London home of the Duke of Wellington .

Mr Wilcock is also involved in curating exhibitions of Waterloo weaponry, including one at the National Army Museum North at Bankfield Museum, Halifax., which includes a British army shako – military headgear – that has a bullet hole and the actual Waterloo Medal presented to the Duke of Wellington .