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Atenterground,tenter ground orteneter-field was an area used for drying newly manufactured cloth afterfulling. The wet cloth was hooked onto frames called "tenters" and stretched taut using "tenter hooks", so that the cloth would dry flat and square.
It is from this process that some have the expression "on tenterhooks", meaning in a state of nervous tension.
There were tentergrounds wherever cloth was made, and as a result the word "tenter" is found in place names throughout the United Kingdom and its empire, for example several streets inSpitalfields,London[1] andTenterfield House inHaddington, East Lothian, Scotland, which in turn gave its name toTenterfield in New South Wales, Australia.[2]
The Spitalfields Tenterground was established in the 17th century byFlemishweavers, who wereHuguenotrefugees fleeingreligious persecution. Their weaving industry led to the area becoming a centre of thegarment industry (therag trade as it became known colloquially), with names such asFashion Street andPetticoat Lane still extant.
It was originally[3] an area of open ground about 150 yards square, surrounded by the weavers' houses and workshops inWhite's Row, Wentworth Street,Bell Lane and Rose Lane (the last of which no longer exists).
By the 19th century, the Flemish weavers had dispersed, and in 1829 the Tenterground was developed for housing. From about 1850, it was populated byDutch Jews (seeChuts), to be joined later byJewish refugees fleeing persecution ineastern Europe (seepogrom).
During the early part of the 20th century, the Tenterground was largely demolished for redevelopment, but some old buildings remain in and around the area, including Flemish weavers' houses and an earlyDutchsynagogue which was formerly a Huguenotchapel. Another former Huguenot chapel is now amosque.
Rocque's 1746 map shows further tenter grounds between Bishopsgate and Moorfields, adjoining "Mr Witanoom's Vinegar Yard" (i.e. CorneliusWittenoom[4]), and also covering large areas ofSouthwark. Lower Moor Fields, east ofFinsbury, connected to Long Alley northwards, was a cloth washing area with cloth pegged to the ground to be stretched and dried.[citation needed]
The 1520 (early Tudor) map of london in layersoflondon.org shows a strip of land marked Tenter ground, between Cripplegate and Moorgate, with another behind The Bell Inn, immediately to the north