1950s Lancashire cotton mill workers

A selection of clips from CF560 showing cotton mill workers in Lancashire in the 1950s.

[@SwazerSwazers]

Both of my nans (God rest their souls) worked all of their lives in the slave conditions of the Lancashire mills. Nearly 100 years of combined servitude. One of my nans was deaf in one ear & poor hearing in the second due to the noise of the looms. No one seems to care about working-class mills workers rights. Slavery straight out school aged 14. No choices. No health care. No employment benefits. This was your place in life & you had to just get on with it. The slaves such as my nans were instrumental in the wealth generated for this country, yet did not benefit from it personally. What about their rights? do they not matter? Slavery comes in all colours.

[@justmadeit2]

The conditions were dreadful I believe, I’ve just up loaded one about Bolton cotton mills, May 2023

[@janineblackburn7618]

Oh my goodness. My Grandparents worked in Cotton Mills in Preston and new Bedford from the Early 1900's to the 1920's. What a glamorised version of a back breaking job. My Great grandfather started work at 9 in the Cotton Mills and my Grandfather at 11 (half time)/ My Grandfather obtained a different job on return to Britain. Funny how he did not encourage his daughters to go down this career path.

[@SwazerSwazers]

Both my nans worked in cotton mills in Preston. Backbreaking slavery for the most part. No one seems to bother about their rights these days eh? the silent generation for sure. May they all rest in peace.

[@dinaboaro4558]

My Grandma god rest her soul and her Sisters worked in Swan Lane Mill in Bolton from the age of 14.

[@markorollo.]

My Grandparents worked in Cotton Mills in Oldham, My Grandad worked in the same one, Lilac Mill in Shaw, Oldham, from 1939 to 1989-90, 50 years.

[@coopwannabee8675]

Mine too....in Oldham, Chadderton and Failsworth. Fascinating stuff. I grew up near the Elk Mill in Chaddy.

[@christinelee2630]

Most of my family worked at Joe Clegg's mill in High Crompton.

[@teenwitch69]

looks like bolton town hall

[@helenahoare3561]

Grinding poverty, endless work. My Grandmother ran 6 looms and my father hardly ever tasted meat.

[@spex357]

We had a sheep's head on Saturday evening as our meat for the week. I think it was bought with the extra money from working Saturday mornings. I don't remember it having much meat on it, but it gave us a taste at least. Piece work was common and a family could run twenty looms on a shift system. Most Bangladeshi families did the same but they had everyone sharing one house.

[@jeanettewilliams6075]

My nana worked in a mill in north lancs billington it was called green brothers she ran about 6 looms at once I remember round bout 1974 going to meet her after school in the mill itself my god it was like walking into a fur nest hot and damp and the air had a heavy feel to it can’t discribe it really

[@swany001]

Eveyone on here complaining about the working conditions back then , But thats just the way it was back then people just got on with it unlike today when everyone justs complains about the slightest inconvenience.

[@hannahdyson7129]

No they did not " get on with it" 😅

[@whitetroutchannel]

my great granny used to be the rapper upper for my towns linen mill

[@TheTibmeister]

Infinite sky sick of life. Working for a pittance long hours working in a tied house thrown out when you got old and never saw the sunshine

[@georgestyer2153]

right, Jane been there done it kept the job to keep the house. but then the bosses sold out to the east, and i lost the house anyway. best part was the girls, married one bought a house for 50£, took 15 years to pay for it kids, and memories Trencherfield mill Wigan

[@paulwild3676]

They used to say that you can always tell when you are in Lancashire, because everyone is laughing.

[@clivelangman8696]

All my family worked in the Lancashire cotton industry..predominantly weaving in Preston. The exception was my grandfather, gassed in WW1 who could subsequently never work inside and got a job as a postman on leaving the Lancs Fusiliers. The reward? Well the terraced house into which I was born on Dunmore St (typical Lancs St with the mill at the bottom of the road, Methodist Chapel and a corner shop) had 6 of us living in a 2 up 2 down, no bathroom (tin bath in front of a coal fire on weekly bath nights) and an outside toilet (freezing in winter). It was the 1970s before this house was demolished but many terraced houses from the same era are still there. Although not living in Preston since the 1980s I still have a season ticket for PNE and whilst there has been much improvement to the town (always a town to me not City) the notion of applied 'levelling up' remains political rhetoric.

[@christineheap7129]

God bless them all my nanna work in them 🙏

[@stephenmatura1086]

Britain's bread hangs by Lancashire's thread.

[@ricum2]

Lived on kemp street

[@johnathanryan2117]

Oldham, world centre for ' coarse ' spinning. Bolton, where this is filmed, world centre of ' fine ' spinning and finishing trades. No cotton trade in either now. Sad times.

[@ajrwilde14]

Haha!

[@gatheringleaves]

Are they sick or something? They all are so pale!

[@jaxdreaming]

It's Lancashire, Sun hardly ever shines there, people were indoors a lot too as it rains a lot there. My Dad was a mill worker, and my Grandmother before him. I was born there in 1954!

[@markwroe7]

They are from the North of England where it rains a lot and If you work long Hrs. in't mill you never got much daylight. Manchester goods are because of the Pennine Ranges where the clouds go over the hill and drop rain into Lancashire. The high quality of the cotton was sold world wide because the dampness in the air prevented the thread from breaking as often as other areas work. Thread count is a way to measure the fineness of the fabric ie. Fewer breaks (knots{ in the thread. I am in my 70's and still have my very pale skin. Many weavers and spinners were deaf because of the very loud clickety clack as mentioned in the doco. I'm from Ashton-under-Lyne in lancashire.

[@hannahdyson5603]

Not much sunlight in this part of the world . And cotton in the air does make people ill , good chance the oxygen levels in the blood were not great which gave the the " sickly " look .

[@davewolfy2906]

Rickets was common.

[@spex357]

@@davewolfy2906 Everything was common. I look at my early health records and I'm surprised I'm still here. The toil on my lungs was immense from birth. Amazingly my chest cleared up many years later whilst living in London. The clean air act in the early sixties stopped my Grandma cooking on coal along with all her neighbours. This had a marvellous effect on air quality. Hanging washing outside took off as the rain no longer had soot in it, and you could run without coughing. And the health of everyone improved as you could now see the sun. All of a sudden in the new light, everything looked filthy, and local councils started cleaning the soot off buildings. Some so clean you'd think they'd been painted. Meanwhile Grandma and her neighbours lamented about the heat from coal, the range could be glowing and there would be deep bath water for sure. The smokeless fuel made their eyes sore and gave them a cough and was nowhere near as hot so they didn't have as deep a bath. Everyone loved the sun dried washing.