Linen is an ancient material and derives from flax (Linum usitatissimum ) – one of the oldest continuously cultivated crops. For millennia, the flax plant has been valued for its seed, which is both edible and pressed to produce linseed oil, and for the fibre. Historians suggest that early humans gathering flax seeds also started collecting the tough, flexible flax stalks, intertwining them with vertical stakes to create wind breaks, or laying them across streams to trap fish. After prolonged weather exposure, the outer stalk bark would have rotted away, revealing the attractive and useful fibres underneath.

Special qualities of the flax plant are its adaptability, being easily grown in diverse climates worldwide, and its fibres which, extending from root to tip, are strong, lustrous, water absorbent and effective heat conductors. After three months’ growth, the 3-4 foot high plants are harvested and either stacked/‘stooked’ or hung up to dry for around two weeks. Afterwards, using a wetting process called ‘retting’, the woody and cellular matter surrounding the fibres is decomposed, the remaining flax then being dried and stored in preparation for flax dressing. Next the stalks are broken, then beaten in stages known as scutching or swingling, and finally combed or hackled/heckled em> to produce yarn for spinning and weaving.

Spindle weights (whorls) and flax fragments found together in excavated Neolithic sites date the cultivation and spinning of flax in Syria, Iraq and Iran to at least 8000–6000 BC, with further evidence relating to Neolithic lake dwellers in European Alpine regions c.4200 BC. Absorbent and cool, woven linen cloth was ideal for wear in hot climates and vast quantities of loom-woven linen textiles were being produced by the fourth millennium BC in ancient Egypt, where the finest linen garments expressed social class and embalmed mummies were wrapped in linen bandages and shrouds. Wealthy Egyptian women and dancing girls wore semi-transparent pleated linen tunics, while priests serving the goddess Isis wore pristine white linen garments to symbolise divine purity. Fine linen remained a highly prized textile throughout the ancient world, for fashionable elite dress and for religious rites continued by the Israelites, Greeks and Romans.

With the expansion of the Roman Empire linen production spread to many parts of Europe including Spain, Italy and Germany. The ability of the cloth to absorb perspiration and its cool feel made it comfortable and hygienic – the favoured fabric for wearing next to the skin. During the early Middle Ages flax cultivation and linen cloth production would become a widespread domestic occupation, including in Anglo-Saxon England.