Walberswick - the story of the blanket

The second blanket in my East Anglian Quintet is Walberswick. Woven in a palette of walnut, chalk and charred black, the blanket has a playful dynamic pattern of blocks and stripes.

The blanket takes its name from the Suffolk village of Walberswick. The village is situated on the south side of the River Blyth as it meets the North Sea. Walberswick is now a small, quiet seaside village, but in its heyday from the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries was an important port, trading with mainland Europe, Iceland and the Faroes.

The village sign – made in 1953, and seen below on this book cover from 1955 – pays homage to Walberswick’s nautical history.

The permanent population of Walberswick has fallen over the last couple of centuries – you can see the contraction of the village in the late seventeenth century church of St Andrews – built within the ruins of the much older and larger church. The bell tower alone remains from the earlier medieval building.

The sea front and river mouth at Walberswick are lined with old wooden fishing huts – traditionally tarred black against the elements. The ribbed stripes of timber are echoed in my weave.

Walberswick blanket on Kimble chair by Matthew Hilton for De La Espada

Walberswick is now chiefly a holiday village – a short walk along the sand-dunes from the nearby town of Southwold. And if you sail upstream from Walberswick along the River Blyth you reach the village of Blythburgh – inspiration behind the first blanket in my quintet.

To view the Walberswick blanket in my online store please see here.