manchester tourist guide history
Wednesday, 30th July 2003
Weaver's cottageA surviving 'domestic system' building from late C18, The Grey Horse on Portland Street. It has distinctive second floor windows maximising light for the intricate labour of weaving or spinning. This system of working from home gave way to the more debased but efficient factory system in early C19. For handloom weavers this was a decline from self-employment into wretchedness - small wonder that they played a part at the Peterloo Massacre. In many similar properties owners profiteered on overcrowding by dividing the house between various families. Cellar dwellings - note the windows below street level - became notorious with families living on straw and sacking in damp conditions without basic sanitation.
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