Down at the Mill - Sepia Saturday Work & Play 1

What was life like for our ancestors, many of them women,  who worked in the textile industry, helping to produce cotton goods, knitwear, tweeds, tartan and blankets?  For they faced long working hours, poor conditions and often dangerous machinery. 

This month's  Sepia Saturday prompt on the theme of "Work and Play" show a ten year old girl leaving her loom to stare out of the window.  Was she dreaming of a more leisured childhood?  

The choice for my post was an obvious one;  for in the collection of my local heritage group Auld Earlston are photographs taken at Rhymer's Mill  at the turn of the 19th/20th century.  Take a look at the serviceable clothes worn, the working environment and the the daunting large scale machinery. 

  

The 1851 census for Earlston  described Charles Wilson as  "of the firm of Charles Wilson & sons,  blankets and plaiding manufacturers employing 18 men 7 women and 19 girls".  Ten years on, the business had extended to making tweeds, and employed  128 men and 44 women, boys and young women". At the end of he century the business was taken over by  Simpson and Fairbairn. 

Although no child features in these photographs, child employment was a feature of life for many families.  In  the Earlston 1861 Census, boys  from the age of 11 were employed as agricultural  labourers  and girls  as domestic servants. Under 14's were also employed as  a cotton winder,  a cotton factory piecer,  as workers in a woollen factory, a power loom weaver,  labourers in a timber yard, and as  apprentices to a  shoemaker, tailor, and grocer.  

A press cutting of 10th November 1871 in "The Kelso Chronicle"  makes illuminating reading:

"EARLSTOUN. Short-Time Movement.— Last week Messrs (Chas. Wilson & Sons intimated to their employees that they should henceforth have one hour each meal instead of three-quarters formerly, thereby reducing the time of labour for the week to fifty-seven......The announcement was very well received by the workers."

In this period,  the average working week was  between 55 and 60 hours, often over six days.  What a contrast to today's 35-37  hour week!   Given the long working hours, the noisy factory environment and the complex machinery, it is not surprising that mill accidents were an ever present danger.

Rhymer's Mil, Earlston,  Scottish Borders

Along the road from the mill, housing was built for the workers. 

Scottish Borders woollen mills were always at the mercy of the dictates of fashion and economics.The late 1950's and early 1960's saw declines in the industry   In Earlston  a firm,  which at one point had employed more than 300 workers and been a  mainstay of the local community,  experienced short time working with the tidal wave of workers coming up Mill Road reduced to a trickle.  Rhymer's Mill  finally closed in 1969. 

Earlston's role in the  Borders textile industry came to an end. 

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   Sepia Saturday encourages bloggers to tell their family history through photographs.

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