The women chainmakers of Cradley. By Lottie Caldwell

The story of the female chainmakers of Cradley Heath, who were led by Mary McArthur into the first women's strike for a living wage.
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[@439bananas]

The lady in the centre of the 'photo at 1:15 with chain around her neck is my great, great grandmother Patience Round. She worked until the age of 79 and lived to be nearly 103. She worked at her forge in her back yard from dawn to dusk. The ladies were paid either on the length of chain or weight of chain that they made, but they were only allowed to make the small link chain and it was way more labour intensive to make small link then large link. The men made large link chains and they used a treadle operated hammer called a Tommy hammer, the ladies were not allowed to use this piece of equipment because it was believed to displace the womb. Because of the gross inequality in pay, they all came out on strike led by Mary MacArthur. The coal to heat the chain making hearths and the rods were bought from a middleman called a fogger that would inflate the price to make his own profit. The manufactured chain would be sent to Lloyds proving house where it would be tested for tensile strength, if it failed this test then the worker would not be paid for their work, but the chain would be retained and sold on for non critical usage. This prevented the worker from inserting a new link where the failure had occurred and meant that they were out of pocket for the materials that they had bought to make the chain with. If people are interested they can see chain being made in this manner for free at Mushroom Green, contact Industrial Heritage Stronghold. The Black Country Museum also has chain making exhibits and Avoncroft museum has chain Making and now has the rebuilt Lloyds Testing House

[@leejennings5170]

Hope to catch a reading in the Black Country soon

[@lindakitto8979]

Me granny was a chain mekker…. ‘Er was a Boston ‘ooman an ar bay arr proud on er. Thanks for this ar babby