Editing Skelmanthorpe (section)

===Industry===
Similar to many village in the area, [[agriculture]] was the primary industry of Skelmanthorpe until the 19th century when [[weaving]] took over as the dominant occupation. Many of the older buildings in the village show signs of having been used as weavers cottages in the past.<ref name="wilkinson" /> As late as 1890, there were 200 [[loom|hand looms]] in cottages in Skelmanthorpe.{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}}

Number 6, Queen Street was preserved by Leslie Robinson a local historian as the Skelmanthorpe Textile Heritage Centre, complete with hand loom and all the associated equipment. Leslie became frail and in 2011, Richard Brooke, Tony Weatherby and David Collins created  the Friends of Skelmanthorpe Textile Heritage Centre to assist with the running of the centre. Following Robinson's death in 2015 The Friends  applied to the Heritage Lottery Fund to purchase the centre from his estate. The centre is now owned by a charitable trust. It opens on the second Sunday of the months between March and December to give free guided tours and loom demonstrations. It also opens for four days in September during the English Heritage Open Days.