Once there was linen

I think flax is still the oldest domesticated plant yet found in recorded history. The earliest fibres of it were unearthed, millennia ago, in ancient Georgia. In more modern times, villagers in Brittany grew very rich growing the flax plant in the 17th-19th centuries. They mainly sought to use the flax fibres for fabric. Not the seed so much--which is popular now as linseed oil. 

Brittany flax farmers grew metre-tall, fine-stemmed flax plants topped with blue flowers. When ready for extraction Brittany harvesters would take the long plant stems and remove the seeds by rippling them. Or winnowing.

These longs stalks would then go into tanks or pools of moisture for retting, to gradually destroy the glue, or pectin, holding the stem fibres together. 

Following this the villagers began the process of scutching whereby they took handfuls of the weakened plant fibre lengths to beat and crush so that the remnant stalks fell away and the soft filament fibres were exposed. 

Finally, the villagers took chunks of the rough fibres and heckled or combed them, until they were long strands of shiny soft flax fibre, just like hair. Flaxen hair. 

The villagers took these long lengths of flaxen fibres spun them into yarn, then wove them into fabric, called linen, and bleached, or dyed it, if needed.

For over two centuries linen was whitened all over Brittany in water that had been warmed over oak chips. From the bridge over the river Trieux, which gives its name to the town -- Pontrieux, the river is literally lined with remnant troughs for linen washing.

Today they are filled with flowers, testament to the state of the trade nowadays. 

The yarn would have been washed in these troughs, the skeins laid out to dry in the sun, in and out, in and out, for three long months of whitening until it was ready to be made into fabric. 

The linen cloth made in Bretagne was used mostly for sails so needed in the constant wars that were being waged and the trade that was being conducted across the seas. For over two centuries its production made the ports along the coast, and in many of the small inland villages, as wealthy as they had ever been.

Or were ever likely to be. 

Lavoirs along the River Trieux, today filled with flowers

Linen from Brittany villages was used mainly for sails