Shearing, sorting, carding and spinning

Preparation of wool

Sue suggests - before cards were used the fleece would have been combed, originally with combs with wooden teeth, later with iron teeth.  Cards came later (no dates for what later means).

Spinning wheels

Sue suggests - it is possible that there were treadle-driven flyer wheels (i.e. that wound onto the bobbin at the same time as spinning) in use even at the start of the period we are looking at - certainly there were on the continent but she have not found references for Wales.  She also found a statement that the spinning wheel increased productivity by a factor greater than 10 ( this refers to the treadle/flyer wheel rather than the great wheel). No evidence yet of treadle-driven flyer wheels