History of Sheep M L Ryder (1981). “Medieval sheep and their wool types”, in D W Crossley (ed), Medieval Industry – this is published on the Archaeology Data Service site as 3 separate but consecutive sections; http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/cbaresrep/pdf/040/04002001.pdf
and ML Ryder (1984). “Medieval Sheep and Wool Types”, The Agricultural History Review pp. 15-28, is published on the British Agricultural History Society’s site at http://www.bahs.org.uk/32n1a2.pdf
Breeds of sheep Oklahoma State University (OSU) Breeds of Livestock Project: The Breeds of Livestock Project lists the livestock breeds worldwide and illustrates many of them in this alphabetic section on sheep breeds - http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/sheep/index.htm
Other fibre animals - Alpacas, Rabbits, Goats etc Mary-Russell Roberson of the Smithsonian Institute’s extensive article on the origin of South American camelids – “Discovering South America's Camels” in the January-February 2008 issue of the Smithsonian Institute (SI) magazine Zoogoer, http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/ZooGoer/2008/1/Camelids.cfm
European Fine Fibre Network (EFFN) Project covers fibres from Angora goats (mohair), Angora rabbits, Cashmere goats and fine wool sheep http://www.macaulay.ac.uk/europeanfibre/
“Life in Flanders in the 18th and 19th Centuries” is a Rootsweb site presenting a detailed social and economic background to rural life in Flanders in the 1700s and 1800s, with 4-5 pages closely related to flax and linen production:-
Spinning and Spinning Wheels Cesare Marchetti (1979) A postmortem technology assessment of the spinning wheel: the last thousand years. Technological Forecasting and Social Change vol. 13, pp 91-93.
Joseph Needham (1965) Science and Civilisation in China. Vol. 4 (2). Cambridge, England.
Lynn White (1974) Technology Assessment from the stance of a medieval historian. American Historical Review. Vol. 79 (1), pp 1-13.