1906 photograph 17 mill-girls, in white aprons, with three men overseers, Woodvale Cotton Mill, Thornhills Briggs, Brighouse, UK
The Woodvale Mills, at Thornhill Briggs, Brighouse, were opened for silk and cotton spinning in 1880. The silk mill, a grade 2 listed building, empty at the time, was destroyed by fire in 1985. The adjacent cotton mill, severely damaged by the heat of the fire, was also demolished. In the early 20th Century the Woodvale Cotton Mill was owned by William Smith and Sons, so was known locally as Smith's Mill. The mill employed mule-spinning, the highly skilled mule-spinners being paid £3 a week, about twice as much as wool spinners. Cotton spinning there came to an end in the early 1930s. Spinning there was undertaken by men, working in bare feet to reduce the chance of slipping into the machinery on greasy floors. The ladies here are carders. Carding is the mechanical process that aligns the raw fibres (removing locks and clumps) prior to spinning. Carding, originally, was accomplished by hand combs with wire bristles. These women operated noisy drum carding machines. The two young girls have probably recently left school. The 1893 Elementary Education Act had raised the school leaving age to 11, then 13. In the days before mass camera ownership, local photographers would shoot scenes such as this and then sell their work as postcards, the case here. The photographer is unknown.
Size: 5300px × 3080px
Location: Woodvale Cotton Mill, Thornhill Briggs, Brighouse, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Photo credit: © robert harrison / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1900s, 1906, brghouse, briggs, brighouse, carders, carding, cotton, early, industrial, industry, kingdom, ladies, mill, mill-girls, mill-workers, monochrome, people, photograph, postcard, scene, spinning, textile, textiles, thornhill, uk, united, vintage, west, woddvale, women, woodvale, yorkshire
