We have written evidence from the Court Rolls of the Honour of Clitheroe that there was a water-powered fulling mill at Worston by 1311 and another at Colne by 1323. Fulling is a process of working coarse loom-state woollen cloth to convert the open weave to a dense serviceable cloth. It was only done in quantity and so this is proof that clothiers (cloth merchants) were active in trade before these dates. The source of this cloth was domestic weaving by individuals who sometimes had a farm as well. In other words, long before the Black Death, our old Barlickers had an alternative source of income, spinning and weaving wool at home and selling the cloth by the piece to the clothiers. This is the origin of 'piece-work' which was the norm in the trade until the Second World War.
The important thing about this is that it was private enterprise and nothing to do with the peasant's relationship with their Lord. It was a money trade, not barter. We know from sources like the Barcroft Papers that the early clothiers often acted as bankers because they had to hold stocks of coin. This domestic or cottage industry was the single most important factor in the development of Barlick and the source of income for our old Barlickers. We have no records of the size of the industry in these early days but it is safe to say from the scant evidence we have that almost every farmhouse and cottage had a spinning wheel and a loom. The workers either spun their own wool or took in wool or yarn from the clothier, this was why the trade had another name, 'putting out' because the clothier put out the materials for weaving and paid for the cloth by the piece.
Further down the country there is evidence of villages being deserted after the Black Death. I have never found one in the textile areas and believe that this was because the peasants had an alternative form of income weaving cloth for sale which must have been very useful in the hard times after the plague. Indeed, it seems to have had an effect on the birth rate. We have a map dated 1580 of Whitemoor which shows that before then common lands had been enclosed on the moor. There can only be one reason for this, that the available land in the valley bottoms was insufficient to support the population. We believe that the reason for this was that a young couple working in the putting out trade had a source of income that allowed them to set up an independent home instead of waiting for their parents to die. Being younger they were more fertile and had more time to establish a family and this is why the population of the textile districts rose faster than the rest of the country. Making a living was becoming easier in Barlick!
Domestic industry.