Weaving and Spinning Mills

[lonetrooper]

Sally....

What can I say....?

This is so kind and beautiful of you.

My ancestor was imprisoned for one month. He had stolen some hay. Far from feeling shame for being the descendent of a hay thief,  I see that the poor man was probably trying to feed animals or maybe desperate for the only break he could get....in prison.

Oh my dear Sally .......

Thank you again for enlightening me.

x

[PATc3]

I have millworking ancestors down here in Devon which had a huge number of mills once upon a time. So reading these posts really brought the scale of the industry and the daily life of the workers home to me.
One line of my family worked in the wool mills until market forces changed it all. The females were employed as 'throwsters' which I believe relates to the spinning of silk. They worked at a large silk mill at Ottery St Mary just yards from their home/hovel, although they may have been homeworkers. The males who were combers seem to have been thrown aside when the silk mill came in and were paupers for a time. Then some used their skills on machinery to cast, make and mend agricultural machinery whilst others also became cordwainers.
Thanks for all this fascinating detail.

[youngtug]

The woolcombers did not use machinery, when a machine was invented that did their job it took their jobs away.  http://bancroftsfromyorkshire.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/woolcombing-in-yorkshire-dirty-business.html

[PATc3]

Thanks youngtug, that was a great link.

Have found that my ancestors not only made agricultural machinery after being thrown out of work at woollen/silk mill, but that they had cast at least one millwheel in small foundry they built nearby.
The wheel is still in existence in Exmouth stamped Berry & Son , Woodbury and was part of a mill at Withycombe which was knocked down in the 1960s. The mill wheel now forms part of floral display near the beach and a tangible piece of family history, thank goodness someone decided it was worthy of preservation.
So I am off to find more of Devon's watermill history.
Thanks again

[sallyyorks]

"Trimming Weaver"
Found on census, by RootsChat member brad85 ,  in Spitalfields area , London

[bykerlads]

Just coming back,to this thread.
Have we had mule spinners and greasy perchers? Used to see these textile jobs advertised in local west Yorks papers right through into at least the 1970's. No idea what the jobs were, though.

[sallyyorks]

This site looks to have been updated since last posted and you can contribute photos too
Photographs of UK Textile Mills
http://www.uktextilemills.co.uk/

[sallyyorks]

Some great old film footage of a woollen blanket mill in Dewsbury, 1932.
From yorkshirefilmarchive
http://www.yorkshirefilmarchive.com/film/wormald-and-walker-blanket-mill-dewsbury

[sallyyorks]

Physical deformities caused by the factory/mills machinery
http://spartacus-educational.com/IRdeformities.htm


Lord Ashley
(Child Labour and Factory Reform)
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Ashley-Cooper,_7th_Earl_of_Shaftesbury


Book published 1888
About the Luddites, the Chartists and the 1842 General Strike (free to read online)
The Risings of the Luddites, Chartists & Plugdrawers by Frank Peel
https://archive.org/details/risingsluddites00peelgoog