Devonshire, although in former ages famous even on the continent of Europe for its cloth-weaving, no longer ranks as a manufacturing county. Apart from agriculture and fishing, its industries are now mainly confined to the making of lace and cider, to ship-building, and to the manufacture of earthenware.

The prevalence in the county of the names of Webber and Tucker is some evidence of the extent and antiquity of the woollen trade, which, from very early times, flourished all over Devonshire until the closing years of the eighteenth century, when it was greatly checked by the introduction of cotton fabrics. One of the most important seats of the manufacture was Tiverton, where the industry was established in the fourteenth century, and reached perhaps its greatest height in the sixteenth. It was his success as a cloth-merchant which enabled Peter Blundell to found here his famous school. The chief woollen market of the county was originally at Crediton, but it was removed in the sixteenth century to Exeter, which long ranked second only to Leeds, and in its palmy days exported annually more than 300,000 pieces of cloth. Other important centres of the trade were Barnstaple, where towards the end of the sixteenth century improved methods of weaving were introduced by French refugees; Tavistock, whose kerseymeres had a European reputation; Honiton, Cullompton, and Totnes. Now Ashburton and Buckfastleigh, where there are some manufactures of blankets and serges, are the only towns where the industry survives.

Lace-making, which has been a characteristic Devonshire industry for nearly three hundred years, is said to have been introduced at Honiton by Flemish refugees at the close of the sixteenth century, and to have been well established by 1630. The lace was a most costly product, chiefly because the special thread used in making it had to be imported from the Low Countries. In old days the price of Devonshire lace is said to have been reckoned by the number of shillings which would cover it. But the change of fashion in men's dress lessened the demand for lace; and the introduction of machinery in 1808 greatly diminished its cost. The piece of lace which in the eighteenth century would have cost £15, could be purchased a few years later for 15s., and can now be obtained, machine-made, for 15d. There was some revival of the trade after the making, at Beer, of Queen Victoria's wedding-dress, at a cost of a thousand pounds. Schools were established for the training of lace-workers; and by 1870 the industry provided employment for 8000 people. The manufacture has, however, again greatly declined, and although there is a lace-factory at Tiverton, and although hand-made or pillow-lace is still worked in many cottages in the south-east, especially at Beer, Colyton, and Seaton, the total number of lace-workers in the whole county, at the last census, was less than 2000.

Devonshire Lace

Carpets in imitation of those of Turkey were first made at Axminster in 1755, but in 1835 the looms were removed to Wilton, near Salisbury.

There are valuable deposits of various kinds of potter's clay in Devonshire, and although much of this is exported, a good deal is used in the county. There were formerly many small, scattered potteries in North Devon, but the chief seats of the industry now are at Bideford, where a good deal of rough pottery is made; at Annery, noted for its glazed bricks and tiles; and at Barnstaple, where are extensive and long-established potteries of what is called Barum ware, which has been compared to the Italian sgraffito. The potteries of Bovey Tracy, which use both local and imported clay, employ from 250 to 350 hands. The fine red clay of Watcombe is used to make terra-cotta; and at Lee Moor, near Plympton, whence much kaolin or fine china clay is exported, the silicious refuse is made up into bricks of high quality for use in metallurgical furnaces. The kaolin deposits of Devonshire were discovered by Cookworthy, who made porcelain at Plymouth from 1772 to 1774, after which date the works were removed to Bristol.