Weavers' cottage

A weavers' cottage was (and to an extent is) a type of house used by weavers for cloth production in the putting-out system sometimes known as the domestic system.

Weavers' cottages were common in Great Britain, often with dwelling quarters on the lower floors and loom-shop on the top floor. Cellar loomshops on the ground floor or in the basement were found where cotton was woven, as they provided high humidity. A loom-shop can be often recognised by a long row of windows which provided maximum light for the weaver.

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.

To be an efficient manufacturing facility, a loomshop needed good daylight, controlled ventilation, un-obstructed space, provision for storage, heat, and access for goods and workers. Hand looms were manual, the artisan raised the heddles using foot levers, and threw the shuttle the width of the loom by hand, forward and back. The left hand was used to operate the batten that compressed the pick. Broader cloth could not be woven this way, so the weaver used a child to throw back the shuttle. John Kay's flying shuttle of 1733, removed the need for the child. The weaver jerked the two hammers or pickers with a picking stick held in the right hand. The pickers propelled the shuttle, and the left hand operated the batten.

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