ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how fieldwork evidence can be used to investigate key themes that arise in the historiography of domestic industry, particularly with regard to the insights that can be obtained into the regional nature of Britain's industrialisation. It begins by discussing the various types of premises used for domestic production, focusing on the nature and location of workshop facilities and rehearsing the arguments that might be more fully considered in explaining why regional and intra-regional differences can be discerned. Discussion then turns to the impact of domestic industry on settlement formation and accommodation standards. A small-scale case study of seven adjoining enumeration districts in the Ribble Valley of Lancashire using 1851 census data revealed that the proportion of houses with handloom weavers varied considerably from district to district The types of houses with domestic workshops offering the highest and lowest standards of accommodation may be easy enough to identify, though not without qualification being made.
