Perhaps not all the so-called Colchester cloth exported in the late fourteenth century was made in Colchester itself. But there can be little doubt, given the town's specialisation in russets within its own region, that this was the major source. Predictably, then, the evidence of increasing sales abroad is paralleled by indications of industrial development. Signs of rapid recovery, or even new growth, were evident soon after the Black Death, when Colchester received its first influx of immigrants from abroad. The sudden burst of Flemish names into the records between 1352 and 1354 implies that a number of families came more or less together in the early 1350s, the burgesses being willing to accept them the more readily because of the recent loss of manpower. From this time onwards the number of textile workers in the borough increased, so that by the mid 1370s there were already appreciably more than there had been in the earlier fourteenth century. The taxation of Colchester in 1301 had recognised only six fullers and three dyers, but the court roll of 1376/7 alone permits the identification of thirteen fullers and two dyers.

The best evidence for continuing industrial growth in Colchester is the record of the changing annual rent of the wool market after its reorganisation in 1373. The wool trade before that time had no established location in the public market place; it was held under cover to keep the wool dry, in the hall and gateway of a privately owned tenement near the moothall, and this without any formal authorisation from the bailiffs and community.