C of Y Part 3: The Cloth Dresser

John Dixon was a "cloth dresser". But he may have been a "preemer boy" before becoming a cloth dresser.

I love the tongue in cheek writing of George Walker. His words are almost as good as his paintings.

All of us should note that several men working together in a small cottage can lead to some bad influences coming to the fore.

Before the industrial revolution, these skilled workers were somewhat independent. They weren't rich by any means and were not particularly well educated. However, they were not working in factories and did not work with machines. The fight over the industrialization of the wool industry was known as the Luddite movement and it occured at both the time and place where John Dixon worked as a young cloth dresser. This actually gives more detail about what it meant to be a cloth-dresser than anything I've seen yet. And, of course, a picture is worth a thousand words.