Waulking the cloth

In this traditional Scottish process, the cloth is looped around a table where up to a dozen people push it back and forth across the rough wood, binding the fibres together. This rhythmic work is accompanied by waulking songs in which old stories are told, or new ones improvised. (Click here for a glossary of folk music articles)

The purpose

The dry cloth is very stiff, and needs to be softened enough for someone to be able to cut their cloth in the way that they choose. The fibres can also be tightened together to give the cloth a little more strength.

The preparation

The whole length of cloth, still damp and smelling of ammonia, is looped around the length of a long table. This part is most often done outdoors, because of the ammonia smell. If a long table isn't available, a wooden door or two might be taken off their hinges so a table can be fashioned.
Waulking was typically done by women, simply because they happened to be in the house at the times the waulking needed to be done, but everyone can waulk cloth. Sometimes, those who had worked in the fields came home and took over the waulking whilst food was prepared.

The process

Usually 10-12 people sit all around the table and push the cloth over the rough surface of the wood, forward and back. Then they pass their section to the person sitting to their left, and pick up what they have been passed. Once again, they move the cloth forward and back over the rough wood. This rotation of the cloth ensures it is waulked evenly. Superstition says cloth should always be walked clockwise.
The friction softens the fabric, and tightens the fibres. The process is also called fulling and has much in common with making felt. The cloth will thicken and tighten, and can lose an inch or two of width during the waulking. (It also loses the smell of ammonia.) When it is deemed to be ready, the cloth is rolled up and briefly beaten by all hands, to finalise the process.

The songs

This is rhythmic work, and the rhythms change speed according to how far along you are in the process: it is slower at first, and speeds up towards the end of the cloth being made ready for use.
As with much traditional work, the rhythm and collective process lends itself to song, which also has the purpose of ensuring that the speed of the waulking is appropriate.
Typically, waulking songs are verse/chorus in style: someone takes the lead and begins to sing a story, and the others interject with responses that are often the same repeated phrase.
There are many stories that have been oft told: waulking songs are an oral tradition, and only recently have they been captured on paper by those who study folk music. Waulking songs are also improvised, and might be about local gossip or news.

The heritage

The making of cloth in this way, and particularly this method of the waulking of cloth and singing of songs, is of Scottish heritage.
On Skylark Island, in our fictional world. there is a ceremonial broadcloth made specially for everyone's coming-of-age celebration, and it is waulked in a sacred ceremony. Click here for more information about that ceremony.

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