ABSTRACT
In the early and middle eighteenth century, domestically organized textile manufacture was to be found throughout the country. None the less, certain areas (for a variety of reasons which could include good local wool supplies, fast-flowing streams to power fulling mills, soft water for finishing processes, or freedom from controls) were, or had been, pre-eminent. These included East Anglia (especially Suffolk), the West Country (Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Somerset and Devon), and the West Riding of Yorkshire (with adjacent areas of Lancashire). The East Midlands counties of Nottinghamshire (cotton), Leicestershire (wool), and Derbyshire (silk) were centres for hosiery while London was a centre of the specialized finishing trades.
