THE TEXTILE INDUSTRY

Abstract

There is archaeological evidence of textile production in Britain from the late-prehistoric period onwards. For many thousands of years wool was the staple textile product of Britain. The dominance of wool in the British textile industry changed rapidly during the eighteenth century with the development of mechanised silk production and then mechanised cotton production. By the mid-nineteenth century all four major branches of the extile industry (cotton, wool, flax, hemp and jute and silk) had been mechanised and the British landscape was dominated by over 10,000 mill buildings with their distinctive chimneys. Overseas competition led to a decline in the textile industry in the mid-twentieth century. Today woollen production is once again the dominant part of the sector together with artificial and manmade fibres, although output is much reduced from historic levels.