Worsted is a type of wool yarn, the fabric made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from Worstead, a village in the  English county of Norfolk. That village, together with North Walsham and Aylsham, formed a manufacturing centre for yarn and cloth in the 12th century, when pasture enclosure and liming rendered the East Anglian soil too rich for the older agrarian sheep breeds. In the same period, many weavers from Flanders moved to Norfolk. "Worsted" yarns/fabrics are distinct from woolens (though both are made from sheep's wool): the former is considered stronger, finer, smoother, and harder than the latter.