High-Warp Tapestry Weaving at Merton Abbey

The Short Answer: From Bedroom Loom to Merton Abbey

The Victoria and Albert Museum records that tapestry weaving was established at Merton Abbey when company production was consolidated there in 1881, and that Morris appointed John Henry Dearle to manage production. Before that move, Morris had taught himself the craft he called the noblest of all the weaving arts, setting up his first tapestry loom in 1877.

His first completed piece, Acanthus and Vine, followed in 1879. According to the V&A's account, it apparently took 516 and a half hours to complete, worked at a loom in his bedroom by regularly getting up at dawn. The rest of this page fills in what happened between that bedroom loom and the working abbey workshops.

Before Merton: Morris Teaches Himself the Noblest of the Weaving Arts

The V&A notes that Morris taught himself textile techniques and left weaving until last, and that mastering the looms needed for furnishings, tapestry and carpet weaving presented the greatest technical difficulties of his career. High-warp tapestry, in which the weaver works upright on a vertical loom, was the hardest of these.

The V&A suggests the design was influenced by large-leaf verdure tapestries woven in France and Flanders in the 16th century, and that its deliberately faded appearance was probably an attempt to recreate wall hangings that had impressed Morris on a boyhood visit to a hunting lodge in Epping Forest.

That interpretation belongs to the V&A, and it explains something otherwise puzzling: why a new tapestry would be made to look old.

1881: Production Moves In-House at Merton Abbey

Until 1881, Morris relied on outside contractors for production. The V&A records that the acquisition of Merton Abbey in 1881 enabled production to move in-house, and that Morris found the site that year: an old textile-printing works near Wimbledon, offering soft water from the River Wandle, ground for washing and drying cloth, and room to build large indigo vats.

Tapestry weaving was established at the site as part of that consolidation, with Dearle appointed to manage production. The V&A also records that from the early 1880s onwards wallpaper became less of a central concern for Morris as his energies focused on textile production at Merton Abbey Mills.

The workshop's method was collaborative. According to the V&A, large tapestry commissions were often designed by Morris, Dearle and other artists working together, and executed by the company's experienced weavers on Flemish-style looms that Morris had built. The firm's wider history is covered in our guide to Morris & Co. history.

The economics were not straightforward. The V&A notes that by 1890 tapestries were becoming increasingly popular with rich clients but did not offer a reliable source of income; the company made more money from smaller, affordable tapestry panels or cushions sold through the Oxford Street showroom and via overseas agents. The question of who could actually buy Morris's work is examined in our page on the price of Morris & Co..

How the Weavers Learned: An Apprentice Panel

The museum's record describes a tapestry panel, museum number O89210, woven in wool on a cotton warp at Merton Abbey Works around 1890, and states only that it was possibly designed by William Morris or John Henry Dearle.

The V&A identifies the panel as probably an apprentice piece worked at the Merton Abbey Works of Morris and Co. Apprentices were set small trials, progressing to finished panels of simple design, and then to helping weave full-scale tapestries. The panel itself shows a single curving and twisting acanthus leaf in shades of blue and grey-green on a dark blue indigo ground, with a lower fringe of warp threads left visible where the weaving stopped.

The unfinished warp ends are the clearest detail in the record. They show a piece taken off the loom as a training exercise rather than finished for sale, and they make the progression from trial to full-scale work concrete rather than theoretical.

A Worked Example: Angeli Ministrantes, 1894

A single tapestry in the V&A traces the whole Merton process from drawing to loom. The museum's record for Angeli Ministrantes, museum number O78864, lists John Henry Dearle as primary maker, with a production date of 1894, and credits the design to Dearle with figures by Edward Burne-Jones, woven at Merton Abbey by Morris and Co.

The figures had a long history before they became tapestry. The V&A records that they were originally drawn in 1877 and 1878 by Burne-Jones for stained-glass lancet windows in the south choir of Salisbury Cathedral, made in the Morris and Co. workshops. Burne-Jones's own account book, as quoted by the V&A, lists the commission in plain terms.

The original cartoon, in chalk on stretched paper, is in the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, according to the V&A's record. In 1894 those cartoons were converted to tapestry with the addition of background and border designs by John Henry Dearle. The V&A describes the tapestry itself as woven in wool, silk and mohair on a cotton warp, entirely by hand.

The design proved popular for use in churches, and the V&A notes that a number of tapestries showing variations of this composition were woven by Morris and Co. in later years. A closely related piece, Angeli Laudantes, museum number O69152, is recorded by the V&A as designed by Burne-Jones and woven by Morris and Co. in 1894 at the Merton Abbey Tapestry Works near Wimbledon, London.

The V&A records that Dearle was born in 1860 and died in 1932, while Burne-Jones was born in Birmingham in 1833 and died in London in 1898. The stained-glass origins of the angel figures, drawn by Burne-Jones for the Salisbury Cathedral windows in 1877 and 1878, show how designs moved between media inside the firm.

Where the Record Is Uncertain

The museum records do not agree with themselves on every point, and it is better to say so than to smooth the differences away. Two attributions in particular remain open.

The main points of uncertainty in the V&A records are:

• Angeli Ministrantes (O78864): the V&A's record lists John Henry Dearle as primary maker and designer, with Burne-Jones credited for the figures.
• Angeli Laudantes (O69152): the V&A records it as designed by Burne-Jones and woven by Morris and Co. in 1894 at the Merton Abbey Tapestry Works near Wimbledon, London.

None of these differences changes the basic picture of how the workshop worked, but they do affect who gets credit for individual designs. Where a record hedges, this page hedges with it.

Why Tapestry Mattered to Morris

Morris ranked woven hangings above wallpaper for his own walls. According to the V&A, he described wallpaper as a makeshift decoration and, preferring woven textile hangings for the walls of his own home, treated it as only a tolerable substitute for richer wall coverings. That preference sits alongside the V&A's account of Morris leaving weaving until last, with the looms needed for furnishings, tapestry and carpet weaving presenting the greatest technical difficulties of his career.

The division of labour shifted over time. The 1894 Angeli tapestries, in which Dearle added background and border designs to Burne-Jones's cartoons, fall in that later period.

So the Merton Abbey tapestry workshop was the meeting point of three things: Morris's self-taught high-warp craft, Dearle's management and design work, and a collaborative studio system built on Flemish-style looms.