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Independent clothiers with small farms were
to be found all over the West Riding, but were especially concentrated
in the Calderdale area where they made up the greater part of
the population.
"Forasmuche
as the Paryshe of Halyfaxe beying planted in the Grete Waste
and Moores, where the fertilite of the gronde ys not apte to
bring forthe any Corne nor Goode Grasse, only by exceedinge
and greate industrye of the inhabitants. The same altogether
doo lyve by cloth making. The greate part of them hathe to
repair to the Towne of Halyfax and ther bye wooll upon the
woolldriver, some a stone, some three or four according to
thyre habilitie. And to carry the same to theire houses, some
iii, iiii, v and vi myles of, upon theire Headdes and Backs
and so to make and convert the same eyther into Yarne or Clothe,
and to sell the same and so to bye more woolle. By means of
which industrye the Gronde in those parts be nowe much inhabited
and above Fyve Hundrethe householders there newly increased within theis Fourtye Years past". The "Halifax" Act, 1555
The "Halifax" Act
tells us that people regularly bought their own wool and took
it home to spin into yarn and weave into cloth.
This method of production is called the domestic
system because people organised their own time to work in their
own homes.
Living in a land "Very
mounteynous, making every week a kersey and selling the same
at weekend. With the money received for the same to provide both
wool to make another the following week and also buy victuals
to susteyne themselves and their families till another be sold".
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7
of 11 in this section |
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