Gill Cookson

School of History, University of Leeds

Gillian Cookson graduated in History from the University of Leeds and took a DPhil at York with a thesis on the origins of textile machine-making in Yorkshire. Finally, 25 years later, informed by substantial new research, revised, rethought and rewritten, The Age of Machinery will soon be published.

After working in university-based research, Gill became county editor of the Victoria County History of Co. Durham in 1999, writing and editing major new studies of Darlington and Sunderland. She has particular interests in industries of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, especially textiles and engineering, and in northern and landscape history. Involved in a number of local and regional history and publishing groups, in 2015 Gill was elected president of the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society.

Abstract

The context of textile revolution: one year in Leeds

The year 1791 witnessed three very different initiatives in Leeds textiles. Each was significant; together, they perfectly illustrate the multi-stranded nature of industrialization. A range of fibres, a multitude of manufacturing processes, organizational upheaval and mechanical change were encompassed in these developments. But alongside momentous innovation, older processes and products continued as before. To produce yarn or cloth in domestic and small workshop settings was an intricate operation. The industrial transformation underway from the mid-eighteenth century, rather than simplify matters, succeeded in making them more complex still.

Is it possible to work out the motivations and resources, or lack of resources, driving and enabling this process? Context, chronology and unpacked complexity are key to this. Many of the answers lie in diverse personal, family and trade relationships within textile communities.