OVERLOOKER

CONTENTSIntroduction to the millsEfficiency in the millTips for spinnersChildren in the millWomen’s acts and UnionsInterview with Annie ChapmanQuotes from the past

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WELCOME

INTRODUCTION TO THE MILLSDuring the industrial revolution, women were recruited into factories in large numbers. They worked up to twelve hours but still had to run thei household as well. Mills were often dangerous and unsanitary places. Women Suffered accidents, illnesses, and encountered much gender inequality

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EFFICIENCY IN THE MILL 08We ask you to co-operate with us in producing the best possible

yarns under the best possible conditions.

Our Weavers trust us to produce high quality yarns...We trust you to do all you can to help us make perfect yarns.

A perfect yarn is a pece of work to be proud of and everybody in every department can take part in making the perfect yarn.

The process of passing on faults is unfair to others,

PROMPT DELIVERY of PERFECT YARNS will increase our reputation for reliability, and stregnthen the confidence of our weavers it will give you more trade and give you MORE EMPLOYMENT.

SOME IMPORTANT TIPS FOR SPINNERS

11 Bobbin: A winder around which thread or tape or film or other flexible materials can be wound

Yarn: A fine cord of twisted fibers (of cotton or silk or wool or nylon etc.) used in sewing and weaving

Carrier Rollers :Situated and fixed to the top of the track frame, these rollers are designed to carry the weight of the track group.

Traverse:A horizontal beam that extends across something

Pot Eye:Glass or china eye which guides yarns

Overlooker:Supervised the employees in the mill.

When the frame has been started after doffing, look along the bobbins to see that the yarn is winding correctly on the bottom of the bobbin. Also see that all bobbins are fitting on the driving pegs

If you see an end running at the side of the front rollers report this to your overlooker. It probably means that the traverse behind the back rollers need adjusting.

This is caused by two ends running together through the same pot eye. If this happens make sure to pull back off the bobbin untial all the double yarn is removed.

Constantly watch your tapes to see that all are running correctly on the wharles. Report chafing tapes to your overlooker.

Keep looking at your carrier rollers to see that they are in position.

Laps on carrier rollers and front rollers cause bad yarn to be made. Look for laps of this sort and report them to your overlooker.

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Lifter

Traverse

SpinnersDouble

Tapes

Carriers

Laps

14If you had been growing up in Bradford between 1800 and the 1930’s, you probably could have had a job in a mill. There were many, many children working in Mills under terrible conditions. You would have struggled with long hours, illnesses and violent punishments, and you could have suffered gruesome accidents. No wonder then, your life expectancy in 1840 would have been just 18 years old.

Mills were difficult and dangerous places to work. Children were often unwell, and even seriously injured or deformed. Accidents you might have suffered whilst working in the Mill include: losing your fingers and limbs, and scalping, which was when your hair got caught in a machine and was pulled off. You would also have been exhausted and probably suffering from Mill Fever.

CHILDREN IN THE MILLMill Fever : The name given to the sickness and headaches caused by high temperatures and dust.

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WOMENS ACTS AND UNIONSFactory act: Women and Children to work no more than 12hours per day with an hour and a half for mean times; 9 hours on a Sun-day. Deaths and accidents at work to be reported to surgeons. Machinery to be properly fenced in.

Women and Children to work no more than ten hours a day or fifty eight hours per week. Set hours for women and children: either 6am-6pm or 7am-7pm; only until 2pm on a Saturday.

Women’s Protective and Provident league formed, later became Women’s Trade Union League in 1903.

Women and children to work no more than 56 hours per week.

Northern Counties’ Amalgamated Association of Weavers formed, represented male and female workers.

Women’s TU Association formed, later became Women’s Industri-al Council, which investigated conditions in many different trades and published a book, ‘Married Women’s Work’.

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1847

1850

1878

1884

1889

16Improved safety and sanitary measures amended in 1895: made certain industrial diseases (lead, phosphorus, arsenic and anthrax) notifiable for the first time. Women not to return to work within four weeks of giving birth. Extended to eleven weeks in 1893.

National Federation of Women Workers formed, merged with National Union of General Workers in 1921. Today, known as GMB.

Women = 1/3 workforce

Women over thirty given vote.

Female membership of Trade Unions peaked at 1,342,000 = 25% female workforce

Women over 21 given vote.

Number of women in Trade Union has dropped to 1 million.

1891

1906

1910

1918

1920

1928

1939

INTERVIEW WITH ANNIE CHAPMAN

What age did you start working at the mill?14 and a half.

What was it like starting work at a mill?Well, it was ok. I remember that I called the Overlooker (everybody had one) Sir, like I had done at school, and he laughed, he wasn’t use to that, but I didn’t know any other. I had worked in an office for 6 months prior, but left because we couldnt have ‘Bowlling Tide Week’.

Despite being accepted into a Grammar school, you went out to work. Why was this?I couldn’t go because we couldn’t afford the books and the uniform, so somebody else took my place. I also went to work to support my mother, because she had worked for me all her life.

What was the job heirarcy like?Ok, when I was 16 i was allowed to go down to the cellar to the re-combing, where my mum worked.

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Annie ChapmanOverlooker:Supervised the employees in the mill.

Bowling Tide Week:A local holiday where all the mills in Bradford close for a week and the employees go to the beach.

Was it a dangerous place to work?If you followed the rules then no. If you saw anything hanging out, you hadn’t to touch it. One day I was there and watching a new girl, Lois, I said to her “don’t touch anything” and by the time I turned around she had lost her finger. Another instance like this was with a man called Dick Pirelli - he must have put his hand in the belt hole, and he lost his right arm. Thats all apart from when the Mill fell in while I was at school. My Brother, who was three years older than me, came and got me from school. We rushed down there watching people come out, waiting for my mum to come out too. However, she never did. We ran home because we were so upset, and there she was standing and baking because she was on ‘short time’.

What was your Career in the Mill like?I started in the Spinning as a Doffer, which is what all the kids do. We would sit on a bench and when one of the spinners shouted ‘Doff here’ we all had to run and take the full bobbins in a can and replace it with an empty one. One day while I was working as a Doffer someone came round and asked if anyone was interesting in sweeping the steps for an extra six pence, I jumped at the chance and with this my wage per week was 24 shillings and two pence.

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20Doffer:A worker who replaces full bobbins by empty ones on the thr ostle or ring frames.

‘Noble Comb’

I never was a spinner, as I mentioned earlier, I went down the cellar into the combing. One thing I remember we had to go through the penny-hole and pass the penny hole man. In here I looked after two noble combs.

Hanks of wool went into the machine and came out as an inch thick yarn at the other side, which would enter a can and be taken to the finishers. I worked in the re-combing from when I was 16 till my 23rd birthday on the 1st of april.

How many hours did you work?We would start at 7am, at 8:30 we would have breakfast then from 12.30 to 1.15 we would have a dinner break and then worked up till 5pm. Saturday morning we worked 7am to 12. At 11.45 we had to clean our machines, otherwise we weren’t allowed to go home. We only had one week off a year, bowling tide week, we would go to blackpool, morecambe or scarborough. But we still had to work the Saturday morning.

Thank you.

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QUOTES FROM THE PAST

QUOTES FROM THE PAST

25 ‘I was petrified, absolutely petrified, I mean a room with about fifty machines in and they all went on! I felt I was going to collapse where I was. I was only thirteen of course.’

- Woman, born 1906

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28“ I once saw a girl have her clothes ripped off by a belt that had snapped. I think it caught her legs and the fact that it had wound her clothes round the flyers cushioned it, but it had pulled her clothes off, literally torn them down the back, and nobody heard her screaming it was so noisy in there. I always remember because she had green bloomers on underneath’

- Woman, born 1933

‘We used to go home at lunchtime with black grease up to our elbows and the smell use to get everywhere. You’d come home at night and have a bath and wash your hair before you went out...’

- Woman, born 1924

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Loom

32 ‘Money was very tight, so I want to work when my daughter was six weeks old. I only got twenty-three shillings a week

and I was paying eight shillings for her minding. I used to run home at breakfast, breast-feed her, run back to work, then

come at dinner time and feed her again, and this is how it was.’- Woman, Born 1902

‘There were no conversations as such and it was so noisy you learned to lip-read, and you could speak to each other over the top of the frames. But if you were caught talking too much you were told about it in no uncertain terms. But you had to do something. Fortunately for us the rhythm of the machinery would start off a song, and it would create into another one and we would sing nearly all day long.’

- Woman, born 1924

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I n t e r n a t i o n a l Wo m e n ’ s D a y 1 9 1 1 - 2 0 1 1