When school pupils Capel Cochineal and Stanley Sheep are asked by their teachers to produce a history project about their area, they soon realise that their families played vital roles in helping the town become famous. But it came at a price: Capel’s relatives, immigrants from South America, were literally destined to dye - dried and crushed to provide the rich scarlet dye - whilst Stanley’s woolly family lent their fleecy coats to make the world-renown broadcloth. Through their amusing, playful account, the two characters tell the story of Stroud’s String of Pearls – the collective name for the 170 woollen mills which once roared with the sound of waterwheels, fulling stocks and spinning jennies. They re-enact history from medieval times when men walked on cloth in vats of urine; to the Industrial Revolution era of steam, coal, machinery and factory life; to modern life and how the mills are used today.
