Never mind sheep, what about cats? Larry, the Number 10 cat has to be a contender. Considering the wealth of the nation was based on the woollen trade, with Lo

Never mind sheep, what about cats? Larry, the Number 10 cat has to be a contender. Considering the wealth of the nation was based on the woollen trade, with London being the place where weavers from Flanders made that wealth, times have changed. The Speaker's Chair in the House of Lords is still a wool sack, although, a few years ago, it was found to be stuffed with horsehair. The Royal Navy grew to defend the cross channel trade in wool and that led to 'Britannia Rules The Waves' in a big way, up until about a century ago. The British weather and the plague made it so that wool was the winning product, with the customers being the armies of Europe and the slaves that needed to be clothed. Although mining was crucial to the Industrial Revolution, wool was the original cradle of innovation. We owe so much to wool, and sheep. Oh, Fuller's Earth was also crucial to the success story, needed for cleaning wool, along with urine, which peasants provided all by themselves, in abundance. Other wool was not with the long, tough fibres that British wool had, hence the desirability of the product.