The Tragedies of Mill Work
Ever since I can remember, I've known how dangerous working in a cotton mill was. I don't know where I picked this up, I'm not even from a cotton milling place. It must have been a primary school teacher or history project that we did. I just know that cotton mills were held up as the epitome of places where young Victorians died horribly. That children were used to get into the nooks and crannies between the machines and lost limbs, hair or lives in doing so.
A read in the newspaper archives bears this out. As an example of just the kind of story we were told, in the 1890s a 16 year old girl died at Rickard's Mill in Skipton. She got caught up in some belting that had been allowed to hang loose, and was subsequently dragged around the machinery.
Death and injury didn't just affect children and young women though. In 1900 when the Crofthead Mill in Scotland was being extended and fitted out, a 22 year old labourer fell through an unfinished floor and died later the same day. And despite Dewhurst's often being held up as good employers, the Belle Vue Mill was not without its accidents. In 1899, a male millhand there got his arm caught between 2 heavy rollers but thankfully escaped serious injury. In 1910, another man lost his life after falling 6 feet down the hoist shaft. He had been standing on a plank that was just 10 inches wide.
When I hear people moan about Health and Safety in the workplace, I think of incidents such as these and it makes me a bit cross. Would you like to use a Preston Automatic Spooler without safety checks?
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