2-979-029 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Portion of an old broadcloth manufactury, Cranbrook, Kent, 1857. '...in this locality...cloth manufacture was at one period held in high repute; and Hasted, the historian of Kent, states that it was of so much consequence, and in such estimation, that the greatest landowners in the Weald followed this business; and nearly all the ancient families, some of which are now ennobled, sprang from, and owe their titles to, ancestors who followed this great staple occupation....Our illustration shows part of what was years ago one of the principal cloth manufactories at Cranbrook, the buildings extending some distance down the main street of the town...These remains are not unpicturesque; in which respect they have the advantage over the factory buildings by which they have been superseded'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.