Monument record 2608/0/2 - Terrace of Garret Houses, Pool Street

Grade II listed terrace of seven houses, each with a weavers' garret built around 1830. They are brick built with a Welsh slate roof. They were originally built as back-to-backs. Garret houses were three storey houses where the upper storey was specially built as a weaving workshop. It ran the width of the house and had large windows. These houses were usually built as terraces. Much silk weaving was carried out by outworkers who operated handlooms in such properties. Macclesfield was one of two silk production centres in Cheshire. It had a history of silk button making since Elizabethan times. Silk throwing (Twisting silk threads together) began as a domestic industry and became a mechanised process with the use of water powered machinery in the mid 18th century. The industrial revolution introduced power weaving in the late 19th century and many large mills were built at this time.