The Legendary Newbury Coat Made
Newbury, Berkshire The 25th of June 1811 AD
On this day, between five in the morning, and six twenty in the evening, textile magnate John Coxeter oversaw the making of a legendary coat for Sir John Throckmorton starting with the sheering of two sheep, through all the yarn preparation and weaving processes to dyeing and finishing, and tailoring the coat.
Throckmorton won 1000 guineas on a bet it could be done, and Coxeter had the sheep roasted for the crowds gathered to see the fun, throwing in 120 gallons of beer in one of the greatest publicity stunts of the age.
Sometime later the Throckmorton family moved from Berkshire to Warwickshire , where the original coat is displayed at Coughton Court near Alcester . Newbury, however, has its own version of the coat, produced when the feat was repeated in 1991 - knocking a further hour off the record!
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