1992.10 cloth sample of Papal cloth made at Kemp and Hewitt, Trowbridge, Wiltshire.
The cloth
This cloth sample features a beautiful piece of white worsted cassimere. It was put through an intensive milling process. Cassimere itself is a tightly woven, smooth, twilled wool fabric, often used for suits, and its history stretches back to the 18th century.
What makes this particular piece stand out is its label: “Papal Cloth.” This means it was made specifically for Rome, likely destined to become a Papal cassock or pallium. The cassock, also known as a soutane, is that long clerical coat Catholic clergy wear. The pallium, on the other hand, is a woollen cloak or band worn by the Pope and archbishops, symbolizing their important link to the Pope and their roles within the Church.
Getting the commission to create this special cloth must have been a huge deal for Kemp and Hewitt. They likely produced it at their Silver Street Mill, which people fondly nicknamed “the White City”—a fitting name, given its expertise in pure white fabrics like this one.
Kemp and Hewitt- The Mill
Samuel Pitman, father to Sir Isaac Pitman, originally built Silver Street Mill in 1795. Later, John and Edward Kemp bought it. Edward withdrew from the business before it even opened, so John partnered with H. S. Hewitt, another clothier who owned the Upton Lovell Mill in Westbury.
The White City
In 1874 they bought the Innox Mill site, commonly referred to as the Town Bridge site. This meant that the Silver Street Mill became a specialist in white cloth often called ‘the White City’. In the 1930 Institution of Mechanical Engineers: Visits to Works document it says:
‘This old-established firm has been greatly extended in recent years, and the mills are now about three times as large as is pre-War days. Woollen and worsted cloths, hunting cloths, breeches cloths, coatings, suitings, livery cloths, officers’ uniform cloths, etc., are manufactured from wools of the best quality. Coloured goods are made at the Innox Mills and white cloths, e.g. tennis ball Meltons, flannels, worsteds, and doeskins, at Silver Street Mills.’
Producing white cloth demanded strict separation from colored fabrics to prevent any cross-contamination. As weavers worked, tiny wool fibers drifted into the air and settled on the ceiling. Later, any disturbance would send these particles raining down. While this airborne dust wouldn’t make a difference in colored cloth, in pure white fabric, it could create a major, noticeable flaw.
Kemp and Hewitt- A Limited Company
In 1921 the company became a Limited Company. The Innox Mills site suffered bomb damage in 1942 which left the dye house practically flattened as shown in the picture below.
John H Kemp, chairman of Kemp & Hewitt died in 1948. In September of the same year the board announced to the shareholders that the light weight cloth trade was no longer viable as they could no longer compete in that market. They also announced that the trade in heavy cloth was not sufficient to keep the business going. The annual reports that year showed a profit of £8902 ( £274,765 as of Feb 2025). The Mill on Silver Street closed it’s doors in 1952. The company sold the Innox Mills site to Bowyers in 1954 ending an 80 year long successful business.
