Housing the Loom, 1790-1850: A study of industrial building and mechanisation in a transitional period

Abstract

The architecture of the textile mill changed radically during the late 18th and 19th centuries. Influences affecting mill design included the way in which production was organised and the degree to which processes were mechanised. This article examines how the industry developed new building types to accommodate looms. In the early period, handlooms were frequently concentrated in distinctive loomshops. The powerloom, introduced in the early 19th century, presented new problems, and in an experimental period different branches of the industry developed different means of housing the new machines. The single-storeyed shed was the dominant building type adopted for powered weaving, but there were in the silk and tape branches prominent examples of factories in which powerlooms were housed in purpose-built multi-storeyed mills.     

Crossing traditional boundaries: grub to glamour in Byzantine silk weaving

Abstract

Byzantine silk research evokes images of glamour but it is prudent to consider grass roots as well as exotic aspects of this enticing subject: without the grub there would be no glamour. In its fullest sense a study of Byzantine silk weaving entails research on many and varied levels, across a broad range of disciplines. An immense variety of topics require consideration: the production of the silk yarn; the various workshop practices involved in weaving the yarn into silk cloth; the relationship between technique and design; the marketing and the numerous uses of the silks both at home and abroad, and the implications of the distribution of Byzantine silks purely through diplomatic channels.     

The Room and Power System in the Cotton Weaving Industry of North-east Lancashire and West Craven

Abstract

The paper discusses the room and power system which before the First World War offered an appropriate form of organisation for cotton weaving in major sections of the British industry. The system was successfully adopted in a range of local circumstances and for a variety of fabric types. Its primary advantage was the reduction of entry barriers by reconciling the very low minimum economic scale of cotton manufacture with the much larger scale required for a weaving shed and related facilities. During the years of decline, the system became less useful, not least because it reinforced the fragmentation of the industry and created obstacles to investment.     

NEW EVIDENCE FOR EARLY SILK IN THE INDUS CIVILIZATION*

Silk is an important economic fibre, and is generally considered to have been the exclusive cultural heritage of China. Silk weaving is evident from the Shang period c. 1600–1045 bc , though the earliest evidence for silk textiles in ancient China may date to as much as a millennium earlier. Recent microscopic analysis of archaeological thread fragments found inside copper‐alloy ornaments from Harappa and steatite beads from Chanhu‐daro, two important Indus sites, have yielded silk fibres, dating to c. 2450–2000 bc . This study offers the earliest evidence in the world for any silk outside China, and is roughly contemporaneous with the earliest Chinese evidence for silk. This important new finding brings into question the traditional historical notion of sericulture as being an exclusively Chinese invention.     

Havelock Mill,Manchester: A case-study in the emergency recording of a large urban mill complex

Abstract

The early nineteenth century textile industry in Manchester is best known for its large steam-powered 'town mills', usually built in closely-packed groups alongside the canals, and for the local dominance of the cotton trade. Havelock Mill illustrates the size and complexity of these buildings but is distinguished because it incorporates the city's last intact silk mill. Documentary research and comparison with silk mills in other areas indicates that this was an exceptionally large example which was at the forefront of developments in the mechanisation of silk manufacturing. A cotton mill was later added to the site. Although parts of the complex were structurally unsound, an unusually high proportion of the original features and fittings survived.     

清代的官营丝织业

官营丝织业在整个清代丝织业中占有重要和特殊的地位,它代表着清代丝织业发展的最高水平。本文着重考察其组织机构、沿革、规模、产品种类和经营方式等,力求对清代的官营丝织业有一个较全面系统的梳理和认识。     

Excavations at Houndhill,near Barnsley,Yorkshire

Abstract

A ‘cottage’ weaving industry was established at Houndhill, family seat of the Elmhirsts in Worsbrough, near Barnsley, during the mid-16th century. It ceased early in the 17th century but excavation has shown it was revived under new ownership in the late 18th century. During the 19th century the mill became a general farm store and was totally demolished in the 1930s to permit a garden extension. The excavation was planned to retain any remaining features for conservation as part of the historical interest of the residence.¹     

Working Museums and Historic Mills in the Textile Industry

Abstract

The making of worsteds was critical to the economic success of Norwich from 1400 to 1550, replacing woollens as the town's main industry. Critical to this success was the development of very high quality double worsted, woven and finished to give it qualities similar to silk. It was used for both clothing and home furnishings. In the second half of the fifteenth century double worsted became an important and profitable export. Double worsted declined in the second quarter of the sixteenth century as cheaper, continental light draperies entered the market. Historians have underestimated the importance of the double worsted, and have incorrectly viewed the early sixteenth century as a period of rapid decline. However, there is evidence that Norwich was reasonably successful in diversifying its worsted cloths to sustain its textile manufacturing, and that this prepared it for even greater success in the seventeenth century.     

Ludwig Knoop, ‘The Arkwright of Russia’

Abstract

Piece-rate arrangements in the British cotton weaving industry were anomalous in that they prescribed a weekly wage based on output. Although, to some extent, output reflected the work done by the weaver, it was also governed by technical and other factors which were beyond the weaver's control. A wage system which emphasized the repair of broken threads and the replenishment of empty shuttles would have been preferable since these were the principal elements of the weaver's work. The absence of a clear relationship between effort and reward confounded attempts to increase productivity in cotton weaving between the wars, and was a particular obstacle to the adoption of the 'more-looms' systems. This article explores the anomalies and the issues to which they gave rise, both at industry level and in a local context characterized by the manufacture of diverse fabric types. It concludes that there was an uncritical acceptance of traditional wage arrangements, reinforced by a fear that fundamental change would destabilize an already fragile system of industry level (that is, across the cotton weaving industry as a whole) bargaining.     

The Birmingham Button Industry

Abstract

The city of Birmingham has been the birthplace of many industries and, somewhat surprisingly, one of the most important of these is the button industry, since this small but indispensable item appears to have been a major factor behind the increasing prosperity of 18th- and 19th-century Birmingham.     

Imagining Britain: reconstructing history and writing national identity in Englands Heroicall Epistles

ABSTRACT

The idea that in the Tudor era the English people became proudly conscious of their national language and history, has been challenged by critical interventions that suggest how England as a nation had to be “written”: the act of writing can construct imagined boundaries, both to appropriate and exclude. In Englands Heroicall Epistles, Drayton replaces Ovid’s mythological figures in the Heroides with specific well-known English historical personas who provide, through their letters, different perspectives on English history. I will contend that Drayton’s assertion of national identity and patriotism is done verbally and semantically, while his allegiance to oppositionist politics is rendered generically and subversively by a remarkable manipulation of the genre of historical poetry in the Heroicall Epistles: this in turn reflects his deep engagement with ideas of history and the construction of national consciousness in early modern England.     

The Curse of Cromwell: Warrington's Statue of Oliver Cromwell

Abstract

The revision of the historical reputation of Oliver Cromwell in the Victorian period associated with writers such as Thomas Carlyle was expressed in many forms, in histories and biographies, novels, public lectures, magazine articles, and also in the erection of outdoor public statues. Two Cromwell statues were erected in the North of England, Manchester in 1875 and Warrington in 1899. This article traces the history and responses to the installation of the statue of Cromwell, sculpted by John Bell, in Warrington. The gift of a prominent local Liberal businessman, the statue exposed divisions within the community, reinforcing the view that the reassessment of Cromwell's status and place in the making of modern Britain was far from settled. Opposition to the scheme was especially evident within the town's substantial Irish community.     

Fowler's Type G Penannular Brooches Reconsidered

Abstract

Analysis of coin finds in an area of NE. England employs and modifies methods developed for Iron-age and Romano-British assemblages alongside quantitative analysis developed specifically for Anglo-Saxon coinages. The results illustrate that observed patterns of coin loss do represent the overall coin loss for the study area, and sites can be confidently compared to each other and the region as a whole. The role and function of coinage apparently changes dramatically over the period from a medium of long-distance trade in the early period to a cash currency by the Viking takeover of York. A review of 'productive sites' suggests that these sites can only be adequately interpreted through analysis of their assemblages against the background of the regional circulation of coinage and artefacts.     

THREE AND A HALF CENTURIES OF BOTTLE MANUFACTURE

Abstract

This paper looks at the development of the bottle glass industry in England. The production of bottles is considered from both a typological perspective and through the chemical composition of the glass used. Samples of bottles and bottle production debris from many different production sites have been analysed to determine their chemical composition. The changes in the social organisation of the industry are discussed in relation to the changing materials and technologies employed in bottle production.     

The Long Life of Tiny Bread

Abstract

As the staple food of England for more than a millennium, bread naturally played a prominent role in English life across the period. The many forms of breads acquired a variety of cultural meanings, some of them extraordinarily long-lived. One of the most perennial types of bread is the subject of this study: miniature round flatbread, the secular, home-produced equivalent of the Eucharist and a potent bearer of cultural meaning for nearly a thousand years. This article traces the long life of this bread-form from its beginnings in early medieval Europe, through centuries which saw its meaning remain remarkably constant, and into recent times. The article focuses on the role of these life-bestowing tiny breads in Britain, with a nod to closely related forms on the Continent. Surveying the long reach of tiny bread reveals the continuing potency of bread, ritual, and miniaturization. It raises the question: why did these ceremonial breads appear in a tiny form? This article concludes by exploring the force of tininess.     

Big fish and great auks: Exploitation of birds and fish on the Isle of Portland,Dorset, during the Romano-British period

Abstract

The paper considers the assemblage of bird and fish bones from a Romano-British settlement on the Isle of Portland, on the southern coast of England. Compared with contemporary sites, the assemblage includes an unusually large number of fish bones from a wide range of marine species, including large cod, other Gadidae, several species of seabream, scad and bass. The bird assemblage includes bones of a butchered great auk. This provides the first evidence that this extinct species was nesting off the shores of central southern England and being exploited for food in this period. Other seabirds identified included razorbill, great northern diver and gannet. The species represented are discussed in relation to other Romano-British sites, particularly the Roman town of Dorchester, situated 15 km away. Many of the species have been discovered on only a few contemporary sites and the presence of the seabream in particular indicates that seawater temperatures may have been warmer than until very recently. Possible cultural changes in diet and food procurement in the Roman period are also considered.     

THE 20TH-CENTURY REVOLUTION IN TEXTILE MACHINES AND PROCESSES. PART 1: SPINNING AND WEAVING

Abstract

This paper reviews the textile revolution of the mid-20th century, a subject little studied by archaeologists, unlike the developments of the 18th and early 19th centuries. The consequences of this revolution pose new challenges to the industrial archaeologist, since the legacy is not distinctive buildings and urban landscape, but the machinery and fabrics themselves. This is the first instalment of a two-part study, looking at the development of the spinning and weaving in the period 1950–85.     

Acquiring,flaunting and destroying silk in late Anglo‐Saxon England

This paper argues that silk was ubiquitous in England in the late Anglo‐Saxon period. It also contends that when examined in the context of its use, it becomes clear that the deployment of silk was symbolic. People of means moved heaven and earth to get silk because it allowed them to appropriate its associated meanings for themselves. So, after establishing silk's ubiquity and its uses, the paper teases out its ideological underpinnings. Finally, the paper investigates the economics of silk. In the end it strives to prove that a whole spectrum of people acquired, displayed, and sometimes even destroyed silk, because it made others see them as they wished to be seen.     

Chatsworth Street Cutting,Part of the Original Terminus of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway

Abstract

Recent surveys of textile mills in Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and East Cheshire have laid the groundwork for future study in their respective areas. All three have necessarily referred back to precedents set in eighteenth century Derbyshire, where water power was first successfully applied to the manufacture of both silk and cotton. Derbyshire retains an important group of early cotton mills, most of them distributed along the River Derwent and its tributaries. Recent measured surveys of five of the most significant early mills and of a number of related sites by RCHME's Threatened Buildings Sections, supplemented by photographic coverage of further sites over many years, have provided a core of information on which the present article is largely based. The article concentrates on the surviving physical remains of the cotton industry, but draws also on documentary and other evidence for vanished structures.