The Weaver

Traditionally, the Norwich weavers worked in their own homes (where some had separate workrooms) or in a small family-run workshops, not in factories.

‘I was disappointed in not being able to see any of their Manufactures at Norwich. I expected to have seen some kind of Public buildings for carrying them on, or large work-rooms belonging to the several weavers, but there is no such thing, and the workmen I was told all have their separate looms in their own houses; and mounting up into a garret to see a single loom was not worthwhile…..’

The Journal of Marchioness Grey, 1750

The route into the trade since medieval times was to train as an apprentice for seven years, after which a successful apprentice became a journeyman weaver. On the payment of admission to the register of freedom of the City, he was entitled to call himself a worsted weaver. There are thought to have been around 6,000 looms in use in Norwich in 1700. The trade dominated the City thoughout the 17th and 18th centuries, with 521 members in 1671 or 36.1% of the total number of freemen. The largest percentage of worsted weavers lived in the ward of ‘Norwich Ultra Aquam’ (Over the Water). Two thirds of all textile workers at this time lived in the riverside wards of Wymer or Ultra Aquam.

A Norwich weaver was typically independent and politically minded. He collected his own yarn from the manufacturer (sometimes known as a master weaver), and wove to a supplied pattern. Patterns may have been drawn by London artists; only the larger manufacturers had their own design specialists. Traditionally, the family unit supplied the necessary labour with the wife helping in the warping up. and the son as draw-boy operating the mechanism for pulling up the cords on the draw loom.

After weaving the piece, the weaver took it on its cloth beamback to the manufacturer, and received a price dependent on the cost of the yarn, the complexity of the pattern and the quality of the work.

The structure of the rates paid was regularly reviewed by the Justices of the Peace at the Quarter Sessions. When times were hard there was pressure either to reduce wages or else to pay in ‘truck’ (factory products such as woven blankets) or vouchers. During the recession of the early 1820s, records of petitions from the Journeyman weavers of Norwich bear witness to unemployment and distress. A reduction in wages caused numerous families to sink into poverty. Frustration sometimes boiled over into trouble. In Willett’s factory, windows and frames were destroyed. The Norwich hand-loom weavers never regained their economic power or stature as industrialisation of the industry gathered pace.

In the later period, it was more usual for the weaver to work in the workrooms or factories of those larger manufacturers who still had profitable businesses in the late 19th century. However, even at the close of the textiles era in Norwich, some weavers still worked from their own homes. The relatively small number of surviving Norwich Jacquard shawls indicates that these looms were not widely used except by notable companies like Clabburns. Census returns reveal that women and children were taking over from men as power loom weavers and hands during the later years of the industry. They were paid less than adult male weavers.