Hard Lives and Pastimes of Mill Girls

 Leafing through the British Newspaper Archive, it is possible to find glimpses into the lives of the girls that worked for the English Sewing Cotton Company. Here are three stories that reflect the era that the mill girls lived through and give us some sense of their world.

Breach of Promise

The earliest story that I have thus far found takes place in Skipton in 1866. A young woman of 19, who worked as a weaver at Dewhurst's, was forced to go to court with a breach of promise case. The man that had neglected to marry her was aged 32 and a cattle dealer. The court heard that he had first become acquainted with the plaintiff at Whitsuntide 1864, and had obtained her mother's permission to visit their home. Letters were then exchanged, and in one of those letters a meeting in some local fields was arranged. There, the bounder seduced her, writing to her again the next day to apologise and assure her of his regard. However, by the following April, the poor girl was delivered of a baby and still had no husband to show for it, though he continued to visit. Then, it turned out he had married a woman in Manchester- which is when the courts got involved. It ended well for our mill girl in that she was awarded damages of £68 and 5 shillings. However I wonder if she ever saw that money, and if her reputation ever recovered.

Message in a Bobbin

Anyone who has read my Sylko themed books, including my collection of short stories "Message in a Bobbin", will be familiar with the Dewhurst mill girls' practice of putting slips of paper with their names and addresses on inside the bobbin hole. I first came across this happening during the Second World War, but recently found another successful example of the practice that took place in 1937. Again, the marked bobbin ended up in Australia - I wonder if the girls particularly targeted the reels destined for export abroad? This incidence resulted in a correspondance between young girls in Skipton and Fremantle being established.  It must certainly have added excitement to a repetitive life in the mill.

Memories of Strutt's Mill

Strutt's Mill in Belper dominates the town - although today the huge building is sadly empty and neglected. Back in 1981, the Derby Evening Telegraph interviewed an elderly lady who had memories of working in the offices there during World War One. She remembered being one of the first 5 females to be given a job in the mill offices, as the men were being called up to fight. Eventually, women almost completely took over with just a handful of men who were deemed unfit for service remaining as the war went on. Her working hours were 8.30 to 5.30 - not bad for those days - but there were no tea breaks and absolutely no talking - so those days must surely have dragged. The younger girls had to start at the bottom and this could mean staying behind until 7pm to do the post with no overtime pay. 

"There was one typewriter and the typist lived at Ambergate. There were no buses and often she didn't finish until 7pm and had to walk to Ambergate...a frighteningly lonely stretch for a teenager."


Message in a Bobbin can be bought from Amazon here or downloaded from my Etsy shop here.

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