3-074-483 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

At Work in a Woollen Factory, 1883. 'The textile manufactures of Great Britain exceed in magnitude and importance...every other branch of industry practised by the toiling population of our great towns...The introduction of the power-loom...occasioned the removal of such manufactures to Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire...The value of wool yearly imported, adding that of alpaca, mohair, and other materials to be mixed with the wool, is about twenty-five millions sterling; while the export of yarns is to upwards of five millions, and that of woven stuffs, woollens, and worsteds has approached thirty millions in value. The number of hands directly employed in this manufacture is near a quarter of a million, besides, at least, as many working in different trades allied with it, amongst which are the makers of complicated machinery used in the spinning-mills and factories...Our Illustration of the sturdy-looking female hands in a woollen factory is a truthful representation of their ordinary appearance; but they belong to a robust and vigorous race, and there is no better-disposed class of people in all England, none more sober, industrious, honest, and kindly, than the working-class population in the West Riding of Yorkshire'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.