The other main branch of Clutterbucks, those who originally settled in the Leonard Stanley area, were more specifically involved with the woollen mills there and making woollen cloth. The woollen mill in King’s Stanley was worked and later owned by Clutterbucks who produced cloth there for some 200 years.

In 1562, part of Stanley Mill, which was a fulling mill and a corn-mill, was leased to Robert Clutterbuck and in 1579, it was sold to Robert’s brother, Richard, of Stanley House. It then stayed in the family until at least 1773 when a Jasper Clutterbuck (d. 1782) was working the mill and also had a spinning-house at Sherston.

‘Fulling’ was a process where woollen cloth is pounded in an alkaline solution to shrink and thicken it after it has been woven. This gives it a ‘felted’ appearance where the individual lines of weaving become indistinguishable and make it more hard wearing.

Old woollen mill machinery

One of the Clutterbucks in this area, Thomas, was a warden at the old church, St George’s in King’s Stanley. The nave altar contained a medieval oak chest with his name inscribed on the lid of it. There was also a picture of the Clutterbuck Cloth Mark painted on glass in the tracery of a window in the aisle of the Church before it was refurbished.

St George Church, King's StanleyClutterbuck Cloth Mark

This same Cloth Mark also appears in other churches in the Cottswold area, including Cirencester, Eastington, Frampton-on-Severn, Minchinhampton and Stroud. Many of the churches built at this time owe their existence to the wealth and generosity of the yeoman and cloth merchants of the day.

It seems not all Clutterbucks were reverent and respectful of religion, however. In 1548, there is an account of one teen-aged “William Cloterboke” from Slimbridge, creating quite a stir at Church. Along with another, he was accused of disturbing the congregation by ‘reading openly in the churche’, and of describing holy oil as only fit to ‘gryce sheepe and bootes’.