

It produces a yellow liquid and after the cloth is soaked and hung in the sun to dry it turns blue.
As well as a dye it has been used as a paint and an astringent.
Boudicca and the Iceni Tribe used it as war paint. The Romans called the Ancient Britons 'Picts' which is Celtic for painted. The process has a pungent smell and Queen Elizabeth 1 ordered no dye house to be built within a 5 mile radius of her palace. This is still in place today. And the uniforms in WWI were dyed with woad.

Weld is a plant and produces a vibrant yellow. It was the mixture of these two dyes that produced the famous 'Lincoln Green'


The last Woad farm was in Algerkirk.