distributed to workers, who would spin it in their homes before it was collected and taken to the homes of those undertaking the subsequent stages in the process.
In Elizabeth I reign, competition from Dutch refugees - arriving mainly in Norfolk and Essex - caused a setback. The final blow came in the 19 th century, when factories in the north of England were mass-producing yarn and cloth that was more attractive, and cheaper, than goods produced in the old way.
Replacement industries were needed and the ones that developed in Suffolk involved working with finer and also coarser fibres than wool.
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