This year marks the 200th anniversary of the Luddite uprising, a movement led by skilled
textile workers whose livelihood was under threat by changes being imposed via the process
of industrialisation. Beginning in Nottinghamshire in 1811 and quickly spreading across
England, the movement took its name from Ned Ludd, a weaver from Leicestershire who is
said to have smashed a mechanical stocking frame in anger in an incident in 1779. The
snippet of folklore spread and by the time organised frame-breaking was taking place in
1812, the Luddites would joke that it was Ned Ludd who was responsible for the
destruction. ---- The primary impetus for the uprising was the introduction of new
machinery to the textile industry, which were able to mass-produce goods in order to meet
increasing demand from burgeoning urban centres.
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