Just a small comment to add.  In the 1940s the firm of Bloomfields net makers must have had a contract to make large mesh heavy nets to cover such things as guns, tanks, army vechicles etc.  These nets were dyed green as camouflage.  Large balls of coarse string were delivered to women at their homes, plus long wooden flat needles.  My mum had a rod across a door frame from which she made her nets.I remember sitting by the fire on winter nights threading her needles for her.  Yes, you could do it in your sleep!  Mind you, it was good radio listening time!

My grandmother and her sister were beatsterers in the eary 1900s.  Gran was 14 years old.She worked in the long sheds (dont know where) and after she married she mended nets at home.  My mother who is 86 remembers it well.

I was so pleased to find this page, as it explained an ancestor's occupation on the 1881 census. I had no idea what it meant.