The
textile industry has been around in the Calderdale area since
before medieval times. For many centuries it was mainly woollen
cloth that was manufactured, the sheep on the moors providing
the raw material, which was converted to cloth by the rural
inhabitants in their own homes and sold on by the clothiers
at market. |
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| In
the Todmorden area it seems that the majority of the manufacture
was organised by local farmers, and they became known as Clothiers.
They built farmhouses with land on which they might have kept
their own sheep. Some would be small affairs with two chambers
on the upper floor and two rooms downstairs. The entrance
was through the gable end into the living area and there were
service rooms built along the back length of the house. In
the 1730's Paul Helliwell, who was a clothier-cum-farmer,
occupied such a house, known as Lower Ibbotroyd. Another is
Flailcroft at Todmorden Edge. |
Typical
small farm with entrance
through
gable-end,
probably
a one-loom
farmer-cum-clothier |
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Typical
small cottage of the period |
Smaller
farms such as the above would normally accommodate just one
loom. Other
farms were larger and would incorporate a workshop for the
production of the woollen cloth. Most of these farms were
at the centre of a small settlement, which would contain a
few cottages. These were often used to house members of the
extended family. These cottagers relied almost entirely on
the cottage industry to eke a living. |
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| At
the top end of the scale is Todmorden Hall. John Fielden bought
the Hall in the early 1700's. He went on to establish a flourishing
business as a woollen clothier there. Likewise, his father
and brothers had successful businesses. His father Joshua
(died 1693) was a stuff or woollen cloth maker, and identified
with Bottomley Farm in Walsden all his life. All his sons
worked in the production of woollen cloth. |
Todmorden
Hall in 1890 by kind permission
of Roger Birch |
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Joshua's
other sons also flourished in the trade. Nicholas, who died
in 1715, founded a clothing business at his family home at
Edge End in Todmorden. Thomas, who died in 1726, became a
farmer and stuff maker at North Hollingworth in Walsden. Samuel
worked both with his brother Nicholas at Edge End and also
with his brother John at Todmorden Hall. |
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Edge
End |
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| A
gentleman farmer-cum-clothier was
Anthony Crossley of Scaitcliffe Hall in Todmorden.
When he died in 1707 he left:
20
kersey (wool) pieces
5
packs of fleece wool
1
pack of skin wool
Meal
in shed at Scaitcliffe
Sheep
at Scaitcliffe
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Scaitcliffe
Hall |
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Other
inventories show us that some farmers had as many as 4 looms
in their possession.
Joshua
Lord of Ditches died in 1686 leaving 1 loom and a warping
frame.
Thomas
Helliwell of Stansfield who died in 1692 had 2 looms, a spoil
wheel, a warping frame and rings, 3 spinning wheels and a
line wheel.
Jonas Clegg of Rodwell End Stansfield in 1720 had cards, 3
great wheels, a line
wheel, 2 looms and 4 tenters.
William Sutcliffe of Swallowshaw had 4 looms, 4 wheels, combs
and a warping
frame. He produced kersey and worsted cloth.
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A
painting of the taking in steps at Kilnhurst
by local artist Alfred Bayes |
The
clothiers-cum-farmers would obtain the wool either from their
own sheep or by buying it in. They would manufacture much
of it themselves and distribute the rest to local small farmers
and cottagers. This was known as "putting out". After the
wool had been made into cloth the handloom weavers would walk
from their hillside farms and cottages with their finished
pieces to deliver them to the clothier's house in return for
payment and more wool. This was known as "taking in". |
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| The
clothier's workshop would almost always be on an upper floor
of his house with a separate door for the purpose, arrived
at by a flight of stone steps. Some had a hoist instead of
steps. Taking in steps can still be seen at Higher Kilnhurst
in Langfield (above and right) leading to a door on the upper
floor, and also at Royd Farm in Stansfield. These were larger
farmhouses and would house several looms as well as the taking
in shop. |
John
Fielden's business at Todmorden Hall was very successful.
His taking in steps are still used and are shown left, leading
to his large workshop on the upper floors. His workshop is
shown below.
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Painting:
George
Walker, Clothiers (1814) |
When
the cloth was finished the clothiers travelled by packhorse
to the markets and piece-halls of Rochdale, Hebden Bridge,
Halifax and Leeds to sell their cloth. There were no valley
roads as such until the mid 1700's when the turnpikes arrived.
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| The
packhorse trails criss-crossed the higher ground. They were
narrow, winding and rough, climbing the heights and down again
over the shoulders of the hills, but avoiding the valley bottoms
which were mostly heavily wooded and too marshy for the horses.
The only travellers in these parts were on business. No-one
did it for fun. |
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Handloom
Weavers by A.W. Bayes
a renowned local
artist of Langfield |
The
small hillside farmers who were given the residue of the wool
to manufacture in their own homes combined this with farming.
The main processes of this stage were carding, spinning, weaving
and finishing.
As
it needed maybe 7 or 8 people to card and spin for one weaver,
the entire family was involved. Everyone from 4 to 84 who
could see and who had nimble fingers played a part. If the
farmer had insufficient family, then he had to employ neighbouring
cottagers to assist.
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The
men of the family would busy themselves with the work on the
farm whilst the women would see to the milking and the cheese
making as well as the household chores. When that was finished
the wife and her daughters did the carding and the spinning.
They were known as spinsters, hence the word normally given
to unmarried women. The weaving was hard manual work and usually
left to the men folk. The system ensured full employment for
the whole family. |
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| The
drawing shows a spinster with a hand-carder on the floor.
This was a wooden block with a handle and metal spikes set
in leather. The fibre would be combed to untangle and straighten
it into lengths suitable for spinning. It was a difficult
process and essential to the spinning. |
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After
the carding, spinning and weaving were done, the cloth had
to be finished. The first stage of this was known as fulling.
After the weaving stage the cloth was little more than sack
cloth with loosely interwoven thread. The fulling process
tightened and shrank the cloth into a closely woven piece
and also served to cleanse the cloth of the grease and oil
introduced during the spinning and weaving stages. Initially
this was done by men walking and trampling on the cloth in
a tub containing a mix of stale urine and water, or in shallow
streams using fullers' earth. |
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As
early as the 1300's fulling mills were being built as the
system became mechanised with the use of waterpower. Wooden
mallets powered by a water wheel were used to beat the material.
The mills were built close to large streams and a fulling
miller would be employed to do the work. Such mills were often
known as "walk" mills after the old fashioned method of walking
on the cloth. In 1557 Richard Horsfall gave his daughter Ann:
"one walke mylne within the township of Longfelde".
This is the first known record of industry at Lobb Mill in
the township of Langfield. |
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| There
was also one at Inchfield in Walsden, which was operating
in 1706 and managed by James Crossley, known as Jam at Mill.
He later moved to become the fuller at Scaitcliffe Mill.
After
the fulling process the cloth was literally hung out to dry
on a tenter fame. This was a bit like a post and rail fence,
each rail fitted with a row of tenterhooks onto which the
cloth was fastened. The lower rail would be lowered so as
to stretch the cloth into a fixed width. Some unscrupulous
dealers would stretch the cloth to add a few inches.
Between
1724 and 1727 Daniel Defoe toured the country and wrote a
three-volume travel book entitled "Tour Through the Whole
Island of Great Britain."
As
he reached the Calderdale district he wrote:
"...
Almost at every house there was a tenter, and almost on every
tenter a piece of cloth ... look which way we would, high
to the tops, and low to the bottoms, it was all the same,
innumerable houses and tenters, and a white piece upon every
tenter"
Some
farmers set themselves up just as finishers. One such man
was Henry Sutcliffe of Langfield who died in 1720. His probate
inventory recorded that he left 3 tenters, a press, dressing
tools, wheels, cards and a tub and oil, but no loom.
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To
do all this the family needed tools and machinery. Many farms
had more than one hand loom and as they were often very expensive,
some of the weavers would rent them. On a farm they would
be housed in a shed or barn known as a shop, but in a cottage
they would normally be in the bedroom.
image
provided by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council for use
in the Cotton Town digitisation project: www.cottontown.org. |
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By
1700 the woollen industry was arguably the most important
in Britain.
In
the late 1600's the fashionable ladies of the affluent society
were wearing cotton fabrics imported from India and these
became very popular. In order to protect the existing woollen
and linen industries, in 1700 the Government placed so much
tax on imported cotton goods that the practice ground to a
halt and was then banned altogether, which in turn prompted
the country to develop a home-based cotton industry.
By
1750 pure cotton as opposed to the cotton-linen mix known
as fustian was being produced in Britain. The import of raw
cotton from the West Indies began in a serious way, most of
which found its way to the hills and valleys of East Lancashire
mainly due to the damp atmosphere, which was needed to help
with the spinning process. The local folk were already experienced
wool manufacturers and had no difficulty in changing over
to cotton, as the processes were much the same
The
cotton arrived by ship at Liverpool and was taken to Manchester,
and from there the merchants carried it by packhorse to the
villages of East Lancashire, including Todmorden & Walsden.
The
weavers walked down to the village market place to collect
the bags of cotton, returning at the next visit to hand in
the finished cloth and receive payment. The merchant would
carry the finished goods back to Manchester where it would
be dyed before being sold on again. It wasn't long before
the entrepreneurs of the district realised that money was
to be made by cutting out the merchant. Some of them set themselves
up as middlemen, known as fustian masters.
They
travelled to Manchester themselves to collect the bags of
raw cotton, often carrying these home on their backs. They
opened up the upper floor of their homes as "putting
out and taking in" shops, and therefore became similar
to the woollen clothiers.
The
masters attended the weekly market in Manchester where they
sold their pieces of cloth to the merchants, returning with
more bags of raw cotton. These middlemen became known as putters-out
and were the pioneers of the cotton trade. They worked hard
for their money, setting off to market very early in the morning
so as to find the best bargains, and returning the same day.
By
then this cottage industry had brought great wealth to some
and provided valuable income for the majority of the inhabitants
of Calderdale. In some families the farming was subsidiary
to the manufacture and in others it was the other way round.
If the rent could be raised from the farming side alone, so
much the better. For a piece of cloth made from 12 pounds
weight of cotton, a weaver could be paid 18 shillings plus
a further 18 shillings for the carding and spinning. This
would be about a fortnight's work.
1750
to 1780 was an idyllic time for the folk of Todmorden &
Walsden. The farms were small and easily managed, and gave
the family the opportunity to be self-sufficient. The cottage
industry gave them money to spend so the traders also flourished.
The cottagers were fully employed. There was no abject poverty
and life continued at an unhurried pace.
As
the cottage industry grew from strength to strength and the
rates of pay were good, so many people of Todmorden &
Walsden became prosperous. However, in about 1780 the system
began to change and the Industrial Revolution was born.
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