12 minute read time. The Domestic System (Cottage Industry) West Yorkshire’s modern landscape is known for its beautiful, wooded valleys and stone cottages. But behind this peaceful image lies a history of rapid industrial change and the stories of thousands of forgotten children. For hundreds of years, textile work in the West Riding of Yorkshire took place in family homes in what is now known as the domestic system, or cottage industry. Women would spin yarn by the fire while men and boys worked the handlooms in upper rooms. Parents supervised their own children and introduced them to tasks gradually, and although children were no strangers to hard work, they did…