Wool

Armley Mills, once the largest textile mill in the world, now houses the relics of Leeds industrial past. The mill itself and the district of Armley grew out of the Industrial Revolution and was once home to much of the Leeds textile industry. As recent as the 1970's a large proportion of Armley's population was employed in textiles. The mills and factories that once defined this area are virtually gone now, as cloth manufacturing has moved away. Our clothes and textiles are mostly imported from China and India, and local manufacturing is unable to compete with import prices. Casey Orr's Wool looks at this disappearing industry in Armley and what remnants can still be found here. There are still a few small manufacturers in the area, but Armley's historical ties to wool and cloth are reaching an end; the mills, halls and churches redefined for a new generation of businesses. Armley is still waiting for an often-promised regeneration - for what will come next to define the area. Unlike the official history of Leeds' Industrial past, told through the conquests of the owners and businessmen who built the mills and factories, Orr's Wool is a story told through the remaining small businesses and reclaimed majestic spaces used now for other purposes, spaces built with the money of the Industrial Revolution; it is this, but it is also about women, the working hands of the women who did the making; the sewing, cutting and measuring, the hands that tirelessly did and still do the work
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