Tonight we are looking at a British Army general service blanket. This item has caused some debate as there are no markings on it and the binding is in green rather than the more usual red that one would expect to see. The consensus on the forums is that this is a genuine British Army blanket and I am going with that unless proved otherwise. The blanket itself is made of rough grey wool and measures 90”x60” and weights 4 ½ lbs:The army frequently used a type of material called shoddy to make its blankets. Shoddy is made of scraps of wool and fibre either left over from other purposes or collected by the rag trade. This material is ground up to form a fibrous material that is re-spun into very rough yarn and made into blankets. The primary location for manufacturing shoddy were the towns of Batley, Dewsbury, Morley and Ossett in the West Riding of Yorkshire. These blankets were made in the region and then passed to the Army’s main textile storage depot in Dewsbury prior to distribution to troops. Although this example is made of grey wool, examples can be found made of brown wool. There are also variations with red, green or black stripes down the centre; or indeed none at all like this blanket. The short edge of the blanket is bound using a blanket stitch and examples have been recorded in red blue or as in this case green:This blanket is unstamped and without a manufacturer’s label, but examples can be found with ink date and manufacturer’s stamps, sewn in labels and none at all. The blankets can also be found manufactured in Australia or Canada. I have not come across any Indian made examples, but I expect they exist and are appropriately ‘rough’. The blankets were used for decades and most troops will have memories of folding them carefully into ‘bed blocks’ for inspections:Some fascinating footage of the manufacture of British Army blankets can be seen on an old Pathé News reel here. As can be seen from this footage, blankets were also made of normal new wool and the quantities manufactured were enormous. These items do appear for sale from time to time and seem to sell for around the £20-£30 mark. They are useful at shows in providing a good cover for tables on which other kit is displayed and I am glad I have finally added one to my collection.