Company of Merchants of the Staple of England Logo

Company of Merchants of the Staple of England

The Staple is the name given to the trade of the export of wool from 1314 onwards.  The Company managed the supply of wool to the clothing industry throughout the 17th and 18th centuries in the UK but the industrial revolution brought problems of supply and ultimate decline.

The Staple acted as a quasi Livery company but 1948 it only had two freemen left. It was then decided to re-launch the Company as a charitable and social institution and today it has some 100 Freemen.  The Company meets twice annually for dinners, usually in York, and has a biennial dinner in London.

Its long term objective is to increase the significance of its charitable activities. The Company runs a charitable trust and supports, biennially, when a suitable project is proposed, a scholarship to the wool trade through the Nuffield Farming Scholarship Trust.

 

Scholars Sponsored

Only most recent are listed.

  • 2020

    James Stobart

    I am Jimmy Stobart and I live in the Eden valley in Cumbria. I work in partnership with my brother Tom on our family farm.  The 780 Ha farm is split into two blocks with 93 Ha ran on a rotational grazing system and the rest being made up of SDA and moorland. The moorland block is in a HLS scheme and is currently running 400 Swaledale ewes.