The Peel Web

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Cottage industry

This illustration is taken from George Walker's "The Costume of Yorkshire" p. 75 (1814)

A contemporary, if rather sanitised, view of cottage (domestic) industry

Walker says

Since the general use of machinery for almost every purpose of manufacture, the spinning by a wheel, as here represented, has been very much laid aside. It is, however, still in some degree necessary, particularly for the warp of woollen stuffs, in which a strong hard twisted thread is required. The demand, therefore, is even yet sufficient to employ a considerable number of poor people, to whom the low wages of about one halfpenny per pound weight may be an object.