Textile Industry Occupations held by the Irish in Huddersfield England in the Mid 19th Century and their Descriptions
Huddersfield had some involvement in the woolen industry as far back as the 13th century, but an explosion of growth occurred in the nineteenth century with the expansion of the canal system, development of the road system and later the railroad. By the early 19th Century, cloth manufacture became the primary occupation of the people of Huddersfield. Wool was the primary cloth produced in the early parts of the century followed by cloths of light and mixed fabrics, and by the second half of the 19th Century Cotton and silk production was on the rise. (Marland, 1987, p. 15).
The Irish population in Huddersfield England held a variety of different jobs in the textile industry in the mid 19th Century. In the following table I will provide a list of the various textile industry related occupations that I found associated with the Irish immigrants in the Huddersfield England Census records and a brief description of each. I will be adding to this table as I work my way through the Huddersfield Census records.
| Irish-Held Textile Industry Occupations |
|---|
| Block Printer. A design is cut out of or engraved in a block of wood that is coated with dye and pressed into a fabric. Each color required a separate block.. This is the oldest method of applying colored designs to fabric. |
| Calico Printer. An individual who works with a cloth made from cotton that is dyed and printed. The word Calico comes from Calicut India where the vast majority of the cloth was woven. A ban was placed on importation of Calico Cotton from India into England in 1790 in an attempt to boost the textile Industry in England |
| Carder. In preparation for weaving, the carder combed the fibers of wool or cotton by hand or machine. This process was often done by children with women involved in spinning and men the weaving. |
| Cloth Finisher- Woolen. |
| Cotton Hinter. ? |
| Cotton Factory Stripper. Individual who removes debri from the carding machines. |
| Draper. A cloth merchant who deals with cotton, linen, woolen fabrics and associated products. |
| Dress Maker. An individual who makes clothing. |
| Dyer. An individual responsible for dying the fabric earlier in the production process before carding or upon completion after weaving. |
| Milliner/Dressmaker. |
| Silk Carder. An individual responsible for combing the silk fibers so that they run in the same direction. This was done by hand and in later years by machine. |
| Tailor. Individual who makes or repairs clothing. |
| Weaver. An individual who produced cloth by use of a loom (using cotton, wool etc) |
| Winder. After the spinning process was complete the winder wound the thread onto the bobbin in preparation for weaving or for sale. |
| Woolen Drapery Hawker. A street peddler who sells Woolen fabrics. |
| Woolen Piecer. An individual responsible for "piecing together" broken fibers that occur in the spinning process at the mill. |
| Woolen Power Loom Weaver. An individual who ran the Power Loom Weaver that made the arduous process of hand weaving obsolete. |
| Woolen Salesman. A person who sells woolen fabrics; a.k.a. woolen cloth merchant |
| Woolen Scrubber. After the weaving process, the scrubber, cleaned the cloth with an ammonia solution to remove the oil, dirt, and size. |
| Woolen Spinner. This was usually a woman's occupation, the spinning of yarn for weaving. Until the "Spinning Jenny" was invented, it was a slow process spinning one thread at a time. |