Project completion celebration - book launch, exhibition and discussions

Project completion celebration

1-6 Sept 2024, 10 am–6 pm, The Art Pavilion, Mile End, E3 4QY

Book launch/presentations

Wed, 3 Sept 2025, 6.30-8.30 pm. Receive Free books!

Exhibition, presentations, workshops, discussions

10 am to 6 pm, Mon - Sat

Jute, the golden fibre of Bengal and an empire monopoly: How the sweat of Bengal cultivators facilitated the expansion of the trade of the British Empire (1830-1940)

A project by Stepney Community Trust (SCT)

Stepney Community Trust (SCT) received an award in 2023 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to run a project through involving community participants to explore how for more than one hundred years jute, the humble fibre extracted from a plant only grown in Bengal, became a British Empire monopoly and the primary fibre for making sacks and bags that carried raw materials, food, commodities and manufactured products in ships that moved across the world's oceans to major cities and ports in all the continents.

Jute was the most used carrier material for more than a century, associated with the global trading operations of the British Empire. This project sought to help reveal some of this forgotten but significant heritage that connected Bengal, Britain and many parts of the world for a long time through the British Empire and the contributions of Bengal’s poor farmers to British prosperity during the heyday of its power.

Historically, what is now Bangladesh was the native home of the jute fibre and produced the vast majority of the material used worldwide to transport and carry goods. In terms of manufacturing, two cities - first Dundee and later joined by Calcutta (Kolkata) - became the prominent locations in the world where the machine transformed the fibre into yearns and textiles in mills after mills set up to feed the ever-hungry packaging and carrier needs of the expanding world trade, mainly through the reach and operations of the British Empire.

Over a period of about two years, Stepney Community Trust worked with community participants – mostly from East London and some from Dundee - to research and write about aspects of the history of jute; produce crafts made from raw jute fibres, jute yarns and jute/jute-cotton mix textiles brought from Bangladesh. They produced wonderful written materials and many crafts.

The project completion event celebrates their achievements and provides an opportunity for the wider public to learn about an important, common heritage – rooted in the sweat of Bengal cultivators - that contributed so much to the world, which has been hidden and inaccessible for a long time.

For more details, please email heritageproject@stepney.org.uk