Flax

The tradition of cultivating flax can be traced as far back as the third century CE, but it was during the 17th to 19th centuries that flaxen thread brought really big incomes.

Many women had to struggle hard with pulling, stripping, combing, and spinning when everything from rough to fine cloth was to be woven and then sold to the rest of the country. Perhaps the drudgery spurred the farmers a little more to try to find a better, more efficient way.

They gradually succeeded when water power could do more of the job through the scutches and stamps of the rivers. Flax cultivation and linen-weaving continued up through the interwar era, but the heyday for flax was between 1750 and 1850.