John was in his 20s when he went before the commissioners in Leeds. He was no longer working in a textile mill, but he recalled that he had done this for many years, as a child and a youth. I was between six and seven when I first began to work in Shaw and Tennant’s … More John Dawson: life after hugging bobbins
The textile industry in Yorkshire didn’t only produce wool and worsted, although that’s what the region is best known for. Flax was also spun and woven in Leeds, but Barnsley became a centre for weaving flax into linen, and became renowned for the high quality of its cloth. In the early to mid 19th century … More Jane Fearn and linen weavers of Barnsley
From the archives, we can discover that Deaf and disabled mill workers were carrying out a range of roles in the textile industry, alongside other workers. Some of these jobs were the cause of many workers becoming disabled. Many of the witnesses to the Sadler Committee of 1832, and the Factories Inquiry Commission the following … More Jobs of disabled mill workers
Shoddy exhibition 