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In the 19th and 20th centuries Glemsford was a centre for linen, silk, coconut matting and horsehair manufacture. The factory complex on Bells Lane dates from the 1820s and was built as a silk mill. According to the Shell Guide, 500 employees were grading and processing horsehair by 1855. Horsehair was much used in uphostery in the Victorian period, and production continued until late in the twentieth century. Glemsford's finest white horsehair was used in the production of such things as cavalrymen's helmet plumes and in the Scottish sporran trade. The factory buildings are now housing, with the fine and unusual postal address "Former Horsehair Factory, Bells Lane, Glemsford".