The driving force behind this book was the desire to find out more about the remarkable Wardle family, the outstanding textiles they produced and why they produced them. Certain family members were influential people who had valuable, interdependent exchanges of ideas and sharing of skills with prominent, creative individuals. Although they were acclaimed in their lifetime, footnotes in histories of the Arts and Crafts movement and Aestheticism have never done them justice. When the first wave of Arts and Crafts history was written the Wardles were overlooked for the most part and slipped from view. Sometimes only the expanse of time can give us the true extent of someone’s achievement and new evidence has brought them back into focus. Once again they can be understood as the widespread cultural force they once were. Knowing more about the beautiful things they made tells us more about Leek, the place where they were produced, and where that fits into the wider textile sector during a particularly influential, extensive and creative era.

Leek, in north Staffordshire, where the family lived and worked, was no backwater. It was a globally connected and culturally refined centre in the late nineteenth century. What might appear initially as English local history was a complex balance of national and international factors dependent on numerous symbiotic international networks and a coalescence of many different cultures there. This wider context, including a strong engagement with architectural history, evokes correspondences between architects and the local community and thus between public and private lives, bringing textiles to life in numerous revealing ways. Three members of the Wardle family were nationally significant figures for a variety of reasons. Their stories bring to light little-known aspects of the lives of their eminent friends and colleagues, including the world's pre-eminent designers and architects. It was with William Morris that Thomas Wardle was most closely associated, but there were many other eminent figures who had reason to be grateful for his knowledge. Biographies of Morris, Walter Crane, Lewis Foreman Day, Arthur Lasenby Liberty, John Dando Sedding, Richard Norman Shaw, George Gilbert Scott Jnr and Charles F.A. Voysey are illustrated with images of their textiles produced in Leek. To date, however, no publication has fully explored what the Wardles themselves achieved and their subsequent widespread influence.