Weavers' Cottage - Cottage Industry

Cottage Industry

Medieval period peasants' cottages have rarely survived, while the prestigious dwellings of merchants and traders are still in evidence. The urban poor manufactured items in the living area of their cottages. The rural poor, bound to the land owner, worked in one of their master's buildings. With the rise of a non-agrarian society, subsistence level domestic manufacture became common, and the introduction of machinery required either the living room to be enlarged and modified or the addition of a separate room. Requirements were similar for any domestic manufacturing craft industry.

In a rural home the living room was enlarged so the weaver could benefit from heat from the single hearth. To provide enough light to operate a loom, a long window of up to ten lights occupied one wall. Alternatively, an extra storey was added so that manufacture was separated from family life. The loom shop was marked by the long multi-light mullioned window that became common in urban settings. Three-storey terraced cottages are now referred to as Weavers' cottages.

Most extant cottages in the north-west date from the late-18th and early-19th century when weaving had ceased to be a sideline. They were adapted or built specially at a time when spinning technology was sufficiently advanced to supply the needs of the weavers. Wool and silk manufacture were slower to adopt power driven looms than the cotton industry. Terraces of three-storey brick-built domestic workshops were built in Macclesfield after silk weaving was introduced around 1790 and more than 600 weavers had looms in their homes in 1825. Domestic workshops for velvet cutting survived in the Cadishead area until 1914.