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.

Click HERE to discover tales of "Work and Play" from fellow bloggers.

The Sad Story of Edward Stewart Ingram Smith - Surname Saturday

Edward Stewart Ingram Smith (1871-1923),  the paternal grandfather of my cousin Stuart,  is the focus of this third part of the Smith story.  He was a man of many parts -  boy soldier,  waiter, photographer,  and upholsterer.   In this photograph of him as a 20 year old young man, he has a sensitive and artistic air about him. 

This profile is the third in a series of posts on the Smith family who hailed originally from  the island of Unst in the Shetlands - the most northerly part of the British Isles.  In a number of moves and facing bankruptcy along the way, great grandfather James Ingram Smith settled  in the famous  seaside resort of Blackpool in Lancashire.

Edward was born in 1871 in Ceres, Fife,  Scotland, eldest son of John Ingram Smith and Isabella (Ella) Edward.   His Ingram middle name came from  that of the Shetland minister who had  baptized his  father - and was one adopted by future generations of Smiths. 

In his early childhood, Edward experienced several moves across country  as his father's hotel businesses failed.   In 1881 the family (now with six children) was in Aberdeen where his father was butler at Skene House. 

Edward's daughter Ella  (who lived to the age of 99)  left notes relating how her father  wore the kilt until he was 17 years old, played the bagpipes and spoke Gaelic  He enjoyed art and painted in oils.  He was well educated  in Edinburgh and spoke with a soft lilting accent  and used to say that Edinburgh people spoke the best English.

Leaving school, Edward joined the army as a  Gordon Highlander, but did not settle and was bought out by his parents. 

                                               

 

By the time of the 1891 census, 20 year old Edward was  in Leeds where his father John  was manager at the Victoria Hotel.  Edward's occupation was listed as photographer. 

A further move by the family followed, as by 1901  Edward was working as a waiter at the Belvedere Hotel, South Promenade, Blackpool.    

His daughter recalled that Edward was brought up in the Scottish Presbyterian Church but  converted to Catholicism for his first girl friend, without actually practising in the faith.  In 1902 in Kirkham Registrar, near Blackpool,  Edward married Lily Beatrice Jones, 13 years his junior. (below)  

Four children were born to the marriage - Lily Ella, Arthur Stuart Ingram, Edith Florence and baby Edward who did not survive infancy.   Edward's interest in photographer is illustrated in the many delightful portraits he took of his children - son Arthur, with his mop of long fair curls,  and in a "little Lord Fauntleroy"  outfit. 

Ella, Edith and Arthur

                         

Left - Edith Smith (1910-1982), dressed a snowball for a fancy dress event at Blackpool. Arthur (1906-1979)   and far right Ella (1904-2003) with her teddy. 

In the 1911 census, Edward's occupation was still given as photographer, but illness struck and Edward had to give it up.   He moved into upholstery, and eventually  opened up a furniture  business in Blackpool.

In 1915 at the age of 44, Edward, as a previously serving soldier,  was called up to return to the army  and he joined   the Liverpool Scottish Regiment.  He served  in France, but was gassed and injured at the Battle of the  Somme. After the Battle of Delville Wood, where he was wounded in action, he was invalided back to England and hospitalised.   His daughter Ella related how   he went to meet her  at the school gates and she did not recognize him, as his weight had dropped from 15 to 9

   
But  family  life proved unhappy following Edward's  discharge. His mother died in July 1919 and at some point, he separated from his wife and children.  A news item  of 24 November 1919 in "The Lancashire Evening Post"  made sad reading:

One cannot  help reflect that having to return to active service at the age of 44 and face the harsh physical and mental conditions of the World War One battlefields took its toll on Edward, as on so many soldiers.   He died in 1923 aged 52.    His wife Lily survived him by a further 40 years and married for a second time.  

The photograph below shows an older Edward Stuart Ingram Smith with haunting eyes and a dispirited air - a  far cry from the handsome young man of thirty years earlier.  

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In Case You Missed:
An Island Family - the  Smiths of Unst,  Shetland
John Ingram Smith - From Butler to Bankruptcy                                 

Surname Saturday is one of many daily prompts from Geneabloggers  encouraging bloggers to write about their family history 


NOTE:
The information on Edward's court appearance only came to light in preparing this blog post, and is included here with the permission of the Smith family.

I initially was looking for an item on Edward's war service and searched British Newspapers Online (included in my FindMyPast subscription), it is an extensive  resource that features many small local newspapers besides the national titles.  You can also access the  collection on the GenesReunited website and at  British Newspapers Archive. 

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John Ingram Smith - From Butler to Bankruptcy: Surname Saturday

(1871-1923)

John Ingram Smith was born on Unst in the Shetland Isles,on 22nd January 1847, the youngest child of Gilbert Smith  and Catherine Mouat. He was baptised  by Rev John Ingram, whose surname was adopted as a middle name by future generations of Smiths.  

John Ingram Smith left Unst with his family in the 1860's.  At the age of 20 in 1867 he married Isabella (Ella) Edward  and over the next thirteen years worked  in service as a butler and later as a hotel keeper at large houses and hotels in the east of Scotland.    In that time, eight children were born.  Census returns and the birthplaces of the children helped trace his many moves between jobs.  

1868 - Lily Florence Edward Smith born at at Balhill, Logie Buchan, Aberdeenshire
1869 - Arthur Ingram Edward Smith born at Auchenblae,  Kincardineshire
1871 - Edward Stewart Ingram Smith born at Craigrothie, Ceres, Fife 
1873 - John Lawrence Gilbert Smith born at Old Machar, Aberdeen
1874 - Ella Edward Ingram Smith born at Old Machar, Aberdeen

In 1875 John was hotel keeper  at the Crown and Anchor, Martial Street, Aberdeen, but another move soon followed.  For  fourth son Hardy Robinson Smith was born in 1876 at the Gordon Arms Hotel, Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, followed two years later by the birth of third  daughter  Edith Grace Robinson Smith.  The family still hold ten letters of reference on John's role as an employee, with the example below written in 1875 commending  him for being "sober, diligent and honest". 

 So by the age of 30, John was a  hotel proprietor at the Gordon Arms, Inverurie. 

 

 This advertisement appeared regularly throughout 1877 in the Aberdeenshire press. 

But success did not last long.  A random search for John's name on British Newspapers Online revealed a new angle on John's life. For  by September 1879. John's  business was in trouble, with the sale of "The whole Hotel Furnishings and Hiring Plant, belonging to the Trust Estate of Mr John Ingram Smith".

    Advertisement in the Aberdeen Journal:  September 1879. 

This must have been a very difficult time for the family, as three year old Hardy had died a month before the sale.  Upheaval followed for John, Ella and their six young children. By the start of 1880, however,  John was back in service as a butler, living at East Lodge, Skene House, Aberdeen, where daughter Jessie Margaret Mary Jane Smith was born. 

It is noticeable,  with the children's names. how loyal the Smith family was to people who had played an important part in their life, beyond immediate family members:  For
Ingram - came from the name of the Shetland minister who had  baptized their father;  and Lawrence was the Christian name of the Shetland doctor;    Hardy Robinson was the name of John's employer in Aberdeen, with Grace the name of Hardy's wife.  

But by 1882 another move took place, this time, leaving Scotland behind and returning to  the role of hotel keeper in Yorkshire  at the Cattle Market Hotel, New Wortley, Leeds.  Here tragedy again befell the family with the death of young Ella in March 1883, aged nine.  

But newspaper reports again showed that John was finding being a business man challenging,  with the report below from the Yorkshire Post:  2nd August 1895.  

 

Did circumstances prompt another move or was John a restless individual always seeking a change?  For by 1896 he was in the seaside resort of Blackpool, running a guest house at various addresses and becoming  the Catering Manager of the Winter Gardens, built in 1896  and still a major entertainment venue in the town. 
 

 

 

 John looking very smart in formal evening dress 

But the past caught up with him.  For in October 1900 "The Manchester Courier & Lancashire General Advertiser" reported a court case with John Ingram Smith  (53), a waiter at the Tower Restaurant, Blackpool  charged with obtaining credit  without revealing that  he was an undischarged bankrupt. 

 

In December John was discharged for a technical breach of the law  

In the 1901 census, John was listed as a caterer, living with his wife Ella and eldest daughter Lily.  Ten years on, however, his occupation in the 1911 census  was given as Furniture Dealer. He was thought to have retired from the Winter Gardens on ill health grounds and went on to help his son in his furniture business. John's  wife Ella died in 1919 and John six years later in 1925,  preceded by the deaths over the years  of  five of their eight children - Hardy, Ella, Edith, Jessie and Edward.  

John Ingram Smith was laid to rest in  in Layton Cemetery, Blackpool. 

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Surname Saturday is one of many daily prompts from Geneabloggers 
encouraging bloggers to write about their family history 

NOTE:

The information on John's business affairs only came to light in preparing this blog post, and is included here with the permission of the Smith family.

I searched British Newspapers Online (included in my FindMyPast subscription), initially looking for an obituary for John.  It is an extensive  resource that features small local newspapers besides the national titles.  You can also access the  collection on the GenesReunited website and at  Britisih Newspapers Archive. 

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