Economic And Social Change in a Midland Town

Book excerpt: This book was first published in 1966. The city of Nottingham grew from the nucleus of a smaller and older town to become one of the nation's leading industrial centres, and although it was not a product of the industrial revolution Nottingham was completely transformed by it. For most of the nineteenth century the major activities were the production of hosiery by an industry whose methods, organization, and outlook remained traditional for many decades, and the manufacture of machine-made lace, a progressive and mechanized industry which from its early years featured factory production. This text explores the relationship between the development of power based machinery and the more traditional crafts of the area.