The Linen and Wool Industries in Britain and Ireland

Abstract

Abstract This chapter reviews the development of the linen and woollen industries in Britain and Ireland from the early eighteenth century to the twentieth century, the classic period of mechanization and mill building. Ulster came to dominate world linen production in the later nineteenth century, while Yorkshire was the centre of world woollen yarn and cloth production by the mid-nineteenth century. The technical development of textile machinery, and the buildings they were housed in, is reviewed along with the major stages of manufacture for each industry: preparation, spinning, weaving, and finishing. Both branches of the textile industry used similar machinery and manufacturing processes, and both adapted machinery from the mechanized cotton industry.