If you’ve seen old mills, pictures of old mills and that, you’ll see that there’s a big mill with five or six storeys. And then at the back of it, probably, there’s a one storey part. And the roof is like that. And that’s north-facing for the light. That’s for the mending, so that they’ve got pure light. Pure north-facing light coming in. So they could see properly. North-facing light doesn’t distort.
Susan Gee - The Conditions in George Margate's Mill, Bingley in 1976
Susan Gee | Transcript
It was very hot in summer but very cold in winter. So I’d often have to, you know, put a couple of pairs of trousers on, the sheepskin coat. Nowhere to sit. You used to lean against the pipe or sometimes use a bobbin to sit on, you know, one of the larger bobbins to sit on. But yes, it was very dusty. It was very noisy. We didn’t have any hearing protection. We didn’t have any respiratory protection.
Pattern card making Drummonds Mill Bradford Tim Smith neg ref: Drummonds Mill 24
The process of turning raw materials, like wool from a sheared sheep, into a piece of fabric suitable for clothing or furniture, requires a lot of different processes, machinery, and a skilled workforce. Mill workers often specialised in a particular job within the process of textile development, usually located in a specific part of the mill building or complex.
Some roles were paid based on “piece work” where wages depended on the amount of work completed. The more specialist roles were sometimes supported by less formally skilled workers, who often had to perform physically demanding and dirty work.
The following process flowchart focuses on woven, wool textiles, but all fibres (whether synthetic or natural, such as linen, cotton or animal fibres for wool) go through a process of sorting, preparation, spinning, weaving and finishing to be made into cloth.
It was 1975, 7.00 am, and the darkness faded over the rising sun as my mum shut the door behind her.She left me and my young siblings sleeping as she walked up Wensleydale Road alongside other mill workers. My mum was never late for her 8.30 am start at Benson Turners Mill on Mount Street. The women walked down Leeds Bradford Road, past my school towards the cobbled streets that led to the mill. My aunt had joined them from Thornbury Drive before turning off at the school junction to make her way to Whiteheads Mill. The roads along the way bustled with mill workers starting and ending shifts from various mills in the Bradford area. Most of the immigrant workers walked to work; catching a bus was a luxury. The morning chatter echoed as the women reached the tall yellow Yorkshire stone building housing Benson Turners. This was the start of a long day.
Sorting & Cleaning
Sorting
SORTING 2 by Tim Smith
The wool from the sheared fleece is sorted into different grades. A fleece will contain different fibres – some longer, finer and stronger than others. This is a highly skilled job and is still done by hand.
Washing
Photograph : Tim Smith | A British Asian man removing debris from scoured wool, one of the first stages of processing at Haworth Scouring Company in Bradford.
Scouring cleans the wool to remove dirt and vegetation. Chemicals are used to remove lanolin, a natural oil produced by the sheep to keep their coat waterproof. Lanolin can be recycled to make cosmetics. The scoured wool is then dried for blending, which makes sure it has the right kind of fibres for the design of the finished yarn and the material it will be made into.
Dyeing
Loading a dyeing vat with yarn at Bulmer & Lumb in Bradford. Yorkshire has always been at the centre of England’s first great industry and one that remains vital to the region: wool and woollen textiles production.
The wool can be dyed after scouring or after spinning. Dyeing is a highly skilled and complex process that uses many different kinds of chemicals to produce the exact colours that have been chosen by the designers.
Preparation
Carding
NO IMAGE
Carding uses spiked drums to disentangle the fibres, remove impurities and to start making the strands all go in the same direction. The end result is called a ‘sliver”. The long fibres needed for some worsted fabrics can be broken and damaged by carding so they are prepared differently.
Combing
Man working in the combing department at Haworth Scouring Company in Bradford, one of the first stages of processing raw wool. The company sorts, scours (washes and dries) and combs over 30 million kilos of wool annually for its customers in the textiles industry. The textile industry was the main reason for the large scale migration of workers from the Asian sub-continent to the region, including many Sikhs as pictured here. Yorkshire has always been at the centre of EnglandÕs first great industry and one that remains vital to the region: wool and woollen textiles production.
Combing is important for making worsted fabrics. Combing machines straighten the wool fibres and separate the short fibres from the longer ones. The longer fibres are called “tops’ and the short ones are ‘noils’.
Drawing
Drawing Machinery at Salt’s Mill from Bradford Museums
The combed or carded fibres go through a machine which turns a thick ‘rope’ of wool into a thinner piece called a ‘roving’. The roving can then be fed into the spinning process.
Spinning & Winding
Spinning
Spinning Worker by BD Museums
Spinning creates a continuous thread from the roving. Spinning machines make many threads at the same time. The spinner has to spot and quickly mend broken strands of thread. The floor of a mill would have many spinning machines operating at the same time. It was a busy and extremely noisy place to work. Dyeing sometimes happens after spinning.
Twisting
Leo Higgins Twister by Richard Smith
Threads can be twisted together to add strength. Twisting combines multiple threads to make a stronger yarn which is often used as the warp for weaving or for knitting. The warp is the long, vertical, threads on a piece of cloth. They have to be strong as they are carefully aligned and kept under tension on the loom during weaving.
Winding
Winding from BD Museums
Winding happens when the spun yarn or thread is transferred from its cone or spool, to something else, usually a bobbin or a larger spool. This process is crucial for preparing yarn for various textile manufacturing processes.
We were offered, they were sort of office coats. They’d have liked us to wear office coats but there are three of us, three girls and we didn’t really care for that. We did it for a little while but not long. And the men could wear white coats as well because they were always handling the wool samples and things. So they wore white coats, which were sent off every week to be washed and starched and brought back. But we were just expected to be smart. And my boss’s idea of smart was smart. And he would say, when the mini skirt came in, ‘Jean, that skirt is too short!’
The Combing Dept at Thomas Burnley & Sons Ltd
Natavar Bhai Lad | Transcript
I was put on the basic thing, like drawing the ball… They used to make the wool ball, you know, that sort of thing. So, combing department. It is semi-laboring, you can call it, because you have to work on a machine doing this… Raw wool used to come with the combs. And then the combed things, then you have to make into balls. To send it to the, you know, for the processing department. Well obviously you have to be on the ball, like. You can’t just…. that because you have to work with the machine. As machine prepare the balls you have to be ready to change the carton, you know, where the other balls can go, you know. And then you take the ball out, weigh it up, put into the bag, make sure bag is clean, there is no other debris there that… because that particular wool ball will go for further processing, where they will just take out from the bag and put it there. If there is any debris or different color things it could ruin the whole processing. Obviously that bag also get tested or checked by other department
Loading a dyeing vat with yarn at Bulmer & Lumb in Bradford. Yorkshire has always been at the centre of England's first great industry and one that remains vital to the region: wool and woollen textiles production.
Designing & Weaving
Textile Design
E&S Smith Designer by Richard Smith
Textile designers create the patterns, prints, and textures of a piece of cloth.
They create many tiny ‘points’ that show where the colours need to be. They have to analyse different materials to find the best one for the cloth they want to make.
Patterns and Programs
Time Smith neg ref: Drummonds Mill 24
When a design is finished it is made into a pattern for the weaving loom. Today this is done by computer program, but before computers a cardboard punch card system was used. The Jacquard cards that were used until the 1980’s included all the details needed to create a perfect copy of the original design.
Weaving
Weaving department at Drummonds MIll. Photo by Tim Smith.
Weaving uses a loom to turn thousands of individual strands of yarn into a piece of fabric. One set of threads runs lengthways (the warp) and another set runs across (the weft). Setting up the warp threads on the ‘beam’ of the loom is highly skilled. The weft thread flies back and forth across the warp on a shuttle and the loom moves the warp strands up and down to create the final pattern. The program or Jacquard card changes how the different coloured threads are woven together to make the finished piece.
Checking, Mending, Finishing & Packing
Checking
Burling and mending department at Drummonds MIll. Photo by Tim Smith.
Checking or ‘perching’ the woven fabric spots any faults in the weave and they are marked up. The Burler and Mender then repairs small imperfections or tiny holes in the cloth. This painstaking work is almost always done by women.
Finishing
Finishing department at Drummond’s Lumb Lane Mills, Bradford, in 1991 when it was still producing large quantities of material for men’s suits on behalf of customers such as Marks and Spencer.
After being woven there are different processes to make it ready for cutting and tailoring. This may involve flattening, dyeing, brushing, softening or making the cloth water repellent.
Packing
Packer at E&S Smiths by Richard Smith
Finished fabric in textile mills is then packed to protect it from moisture, dirt, and dust. Lorries deliver the orders to the consumer, such as a clothing company, to be sewn into garments.
Behind the Scenes
Administration
Administration Role at E&S Smiths by Richard Smith
A working mill was like a huge machine with many different moving parts. Keeping track of everything was a big operation, with offices for finance and wages, buying and selling, planning and the creation of new designs. Sales and marketing teams would travel all over the world and business managers had to make decisions about production and investment in ever changing economic conditions.
Laboratories
Christeyns Labatory
The science of textile production and quality control was important to ensure the finished product was up to scratch. Specialist roles in chemical and testing laboratories were very necessary. Machines had to be maintained and improved and technology kept up to date.
After being woven there are different processes to make it ready for cutting and tailoring. This may involve flattening, dyeing, brushing, softening or making the cloth water repellent.
Recycling
Packer at E&S Smiths by Richard Smith
Finished fabric in textile mills is then packed to protect it from moisture, dirt, and dust. Lorries deliver the orders to the consumer, such as a clothing company, to be sewn into garments.
Christine Davenport - Yarn for Tampons
Christine Davenport | Transcript
Down at Midgley’s we used to do khaki which was a really, really, very dusty wood yarn. Obviously, it’s uniforms and things. The one that we used to all dread, all those ladies dread was Gregior. It’s a form of yarn. And they actually use it for tampons. And it’s really silky white. It’s beautifully, really silky white is the rovings for these. But once they’re spun, you need a knife to cut them. You know, you couldn’t just snap them with your finger, like you could with the others. So when you’re doffing, you used to use your fingers. Pull up, use your fingers. You couldn’t do it with that. You had to use a knife to cut the thread.
On my first day I was fascinated with the machines. Weaving meant 100,000 threads going at the same time, people stood around, fixing the thread that broke. They were complicated and then this material came out the other end. How did someone make these machines? The workers were given a pattern to make 100 metres of this and that, they changed the thread and adjusted the machine and made cloth. Wow!
Burling and mending department at Drummonds MIll. Photo by Tim Smith.
Colin Hobson - His Father’s Ditty for Colleague Using Textile Terminology
Colin Hobson | Transcript
There was another First World War veteran worked there, an overlooker. And he’d been wounded in the upper body. He was still working, you know. When wet weather came, these wounds played up a bit, you know, in the damp. And my father wrote a ditty about him. It was…
‘Down the gate comes Charlie Quick, key in hand and picking stick, “Oh me back and oh me side, I wish to God it was Bowling Tide. I just wanted some rest.’ But a ‘gate’ is the alleyway between looms, or spinning frames, as well. ‘Picking stick’ is part of a loom. And ‘key’ is a Bradford word for a spanner. You know, a big numbspanner, and they called them keys in textile trade. You don’t see it now, but bow-legged people were called key-legged, but I think it was rickets or something. But there were lots of names.
In the beginning, I was terrified of the powerful machines. In Pakistan, we had manual sewing machines that were very slow. These machines were huge and once you put your foot down, they sped up so much I thought they would go over my hands.
Patricia Crabtree - Father Speaking Urdu and the Value of Burlers and Menders
Patricia Crabtree | Transcript
He [My Dad] was very proud of what he did. He was very proud of the industry that he worked in. He thought it was absolutely wonderful. He liked being amongst the mill where there were looms and everything. And he liked the people. When he was in the army, he was based in India and Burma, but he was in an Indian division. And he learnt to speak Urdu, which in those days was brilliant. So in the 1960s and ‘70s, when people started moving over to work in the mills, it was absolutely brilliant. And Dad found… he made some brilliant friends. But it was great because he could communicate. A little bit, I’m not saying he was fluent, but he knew enough to get by and be able to communicate with people. And that was good. And people always seemed to like him. He had a lot of respect for the people that worked in the mill, lots and lots of respect. He had respect for the hours that they worked and their skills. I always remember him saying things like burlers and menders, he said they were particularly worth their weight in gold. He said they could make or break a company, they were absolutely priceless. Just as a good weaver was.
Anne Marie Shackleton - Doffing and Winding at British Mohairs
Anne Marie Shackleton | Transcript
And I had like 600, maybe 700 bobbins to look after. Three or four sides. So if one went… doffed off – stopped, then you’d have to get it going: tie a knot, thread it through, and tie a knot and turn a handle down to keep it going. Because if you didn’t, you’d end up with different sizes. So you could take them all off and they’d be the same thickness and they’d go into a cart and they’d go elsewhere to be… something else done to them. We got paid weekly. And we got paid on how much you produced. So, like I say, if your bobbins were stowed, you weren’t going to be making any money. So you had to get them…couldn’t say ‘I’m going for my dinner break now I’ll be back’. You had to sit there and make sure they all filled up, because it was your wage. If you didn’t do that, then you didn’t get a wage.
I used to burl and mend. Then I left to have the children and I couldn’t go out to work, so what I used to do was take up burling and mending into the house. And I had a big cellar, with lights and that. And a table down there. And when Gerald [husband] would go onto nights, I would go downstairs and do the burling and mending. probably six hours a night. They delivered the web of cloth, they called it, to the house, maybe about 50 yards or something like that. Say there was a hole. You’d get that hole cleared by pulling out the ‘weeding shots’, what they call ‘shots’. You’d get the pattern, and you’d do the pattern. And then when you repaired it, you took it up to the lady, and she would pass it. And if it wasn’t good enough, you had to go back up and do it again
A pattern weaver, who produces the prototypes of new weaves, working on an old fashioned loom at Drummonds MIll. Photo by Tim Smith.
Cloth for Islamic Funeral Gloves
Peter Sheperdson | Transcript
And I worked in a mill down at Bradford, right in the centre of Bradford, which was owned by the Jews, that owned that one. And I used to roll cloth for a big rolling machine like this. All this black cloth that they used to make funeral gloves with. I think they were for Muslim funerals, being made by a Jewish factory. And I used to have to roll this cloth. And that’s what I did all day. I used to go in there, roll the cloth. I learned pretty quick, because of the static on the machines, to take both my hands off at the same time. If I didn’t, I’d get a shock right from my butt and my hair would stand up! You know, from the static. It was amazing. So I did that. And I worked there for quite a while. It was a good job. I used to work there, and go to the pub, and work there, and go to the pub. That’s what I did back then. They had other types of cloth there. But the main thing was the funeral gloves. They used to send them all over the world.
Warping department at Drummonds MIll. Photo by Tim Smith.
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Photograph: UNSPUN by Tim Smith How To Use LOREM Lost Mills and Ghost Mansions was made in partnership with Bradford Community Broadcasting and you can find the radio programmes that we made together here. The project was funded by Bradford Council, the National...
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Ghost Mansions
I know that Robert Clough - he had a big mansion, and he donated a Christmas tree for the people of Keighley one year. Well, I won't be swayed on this at all. Particularly on a Friday night, when everybody else had gone home,...
Do It Yourself
Photograph: Alan Dix | Sangat Centre at Bradford Industrial Museum I think what people should do is show an interest in local history because one day (and I hope this never happens) there won’t be people like you, and there won’t be people like me, who...
Mediawall
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Textiles Today
Photographs: Laxtons' state-of-the-art spinning machinery in Baildon by Tim Smith Two years ago [in 2022], I saw this job. And I rang them up and said ‘I’m looking for a job as a textile spinner.’ They interviewed me, and they told me, ‘Oh, this is the machine,...
Changing Ways
Photograph: Mark Stevenson | Dalton Mill and Clock Tower I could see at that time that the mills were starting to close around Keighley all over the town and I thought ‘I need to be moving on somewhere’ and that's when I left in 1975 and joined the fire service....
Time Off
Photograph: Jaz OldhamPhotograph: Harold Heppleston and Colleagues from Kellett Woodman, shared by daughter Patricia CrabtreePhotograph: In Saltaire there were lots and lots of foreign people. There were hundreds from Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, like me. Everyone...
Research & Map
Photograph: I grew up next to Marriner’s and I actually watched it burn down. It would have been in the ‘70s. I was in my grandma's house when the fire started ‘cos she lived round the corner. And I watched it burn down stood next to Dr Who off the telly at the time....
Rights & Wrongs
Photographs: Bill Morris, former General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union (centre) and Muhammad Rasab (right), one of the leaders in the racial discrimination complaints against John Haggas Ltd, onstage at the Trade Union Congress Annual...
Diverse workforce
Photograph: Bradford Museums & GalleriesPhotograph: Bradford Museums & GalleriesPhotograph: Jazz Oldham The supervisors were white, whilst the machinists were Asians: Pakistani, Bengali and Indians. All very friendly. People looked out for each other and...