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A
very important aspect of textile manufacture is selling and distribution.
In Halifax we are very lucky as some of the most important buildings
have survived. Prior to 1800 when the cloth was produced domestically,
weavers or Gentleman Clothiers who employed small teams of weavers would
sell cloth in pieces. Most of the textile towns had piece halls where
the pieces could be displayed, examined and then bought by cloth merchants.
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Halifax
Piece Hall opened in 1779 for the buying and selling of textile "pieces".
Each arch contained the office of a cloth merchant, 315 in total. By
the 1830s most cloth was being produced on a much larger scale in powered
mills and this changed the way in which cloth was traded. It was then
sold in bulk from large warehouses which were built in the area around
the Piece Hall and Parish Church. Here textiles could be sold, packed
and then dispatched, initially by canal, later by railway. Many of the
larger warehouses were built after the railway arrived in 1852.
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Textile
warehouses near Halifax railway station. The carpark was once a busy
goods yard bringing raw materials to the town and taking away finished
products.
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