{"id":2921,"date":"2019-06-14T21:11:01","date_gmt":"2019-06-15T01:11:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=2921"},"modified":"2019-06-14T21:24:38","modified_gmt":"2019-06-15T01:24:38","slug":"bobbin-factory-circa-1890-lake-windermere-england-june-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=2921","title":{"rendered":"BOBBIN FACTORY CIRCA 1890: LAKE WINDERMERE, ENGLAND JUNE 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BOBBIN FACTORY CIRCA 1890<\/p>\n


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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
June 2019<\/div>\n

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\u201cMarjorie, what is a BOBBIN?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cA bobbin is a spool\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cA spool,,,bobbin if you will\u2026is used to hold thread or yarn.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy would anyone want a bobbin full of wool?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cBobbins feed threads to the machines that make cloth\u2026big bobbins do that.<\/div>\n
“Small bobbins feed thread to machines that sew cloth\u2026hold  pieces of cloth together.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSuppose there were no bobbins, then what?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThen we would be walking around naked or covered with the hairy skins of animals.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t be ridiculous.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNot really meaning to \u2026 just exaggerating a bit..”<\/div>\n

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I bet some readers do not even know what a BOBBIN is!  I bet there are even some readers<\/div>\n
who do  not care a  whit about BOBBINS. Too Bad.  Why?  Because those readers will miss<\/div>\n
out on what to us was a wonderful surprise\u2026and experience almost beyond words.<\/div>\n

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\u201cI just love these English country roads\u2026narrow and twisty with a new and sometimes startling<\/div>\n
thing to see at every twist and turn.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cFine for you, Alan, you have the front seat.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAs things should be.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cI am the senior person on this excursion\u2026.have a little respect.”<\/div>\n
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\u201cToo bad about the rain, Alan.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNot so bad\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cRain and fog lend  an air of mystery to the road\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n
\u2018Like a  time machine\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYeah\u2026better idea\u2026like driving into the past\u2026time travelling\u2026.good  idea.”<\/div>\n

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\u201cThings pop out at us\u2026.and then they are gone.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cClick\u2026click\u2026click.”<\/div>\n

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\u201cDescending from Kirkston Pass to Lake Windermeere now\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cRhododendrons along the road now.”<\/div>\n

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\u201cJam on the brakes, Gabriela\u2026something unusual over there on the left.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cBarn\u2026stone barn?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMore than that\u2026something weird\u2026really old\u2026strange.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cA barn full of tent poles\u2026why save long poles\u2026piles of them.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDo a quick turn into the driveway\u2026careful\u2026”<\/div>\n

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\u201cTurn now.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cA factory\u2026in a rural setting\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSign  says STOTT PARK BOBBIN MILL\u2026open to the public”<\/div>\n

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\u201cWonder why there are pipes and  piles of sticks and  poles all over the place.?”<\/div>\n

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\u201cLet\u2019s cut to the quick before we go any farther\u2026this place made bobbins\u2026all kinds of them\u2026<\/div>\n
millions of them.  The big textile mills  in Lancashire needed millions of bobbins.  At one time<\/div>\n
in the 19th century there were 300 factories like this making bobbins by the millions.  The<\/div>\n
Stott Park Bobbin Mill is the only one left.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat happened to all the others?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cPlastics\u2026$%^%& plastic bobbins drove all mills like this  to the wall.:<\/div>\n
:How come this mill survived?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cJust saved in nick of time by English Heritage people\u2026it had closed in 1979 and  was<\/div>\n
about to enter the scrap yard when one man  alerted  the government people about<\/div>\n
the mill\u2026THIS PLACE IS WORTH SAVING?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy worth saving?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cBecause this mill had  never been modernized\u2026no electruc machines.   All the lathes<\/div>\n
ran from one gigantic  line shaft powered by an ancient steam  engine.  In the early years<\/div>\n
the factory was powered by a water wheel but became \u2018modernized\u2019 with a steam engine.\u201d<\/div>\n

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” alt=”IMG_2182.jpg” class=”Apple-web-attachment” apple-inline=”yes” src=”https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/EA414DED-D952-4CA3-8869-1E904EE21144.jpeg”><\/div>\n

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\u201cPardon me, do you sell any of these bobbins?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSure do\u2026visit the gift shop.\u201d<\/div>\n
(Marjorie bought a suitcase full of bobbins.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cBest sale  we\u2019ve had this year.\u201d said the gift shop lady.<\/div>\n

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\u201cI was more intrigued  by the tour guide.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cCouple of reasons.  She was an excellent guide.  Here she hold one of the sticks that I mentioned earlier were strewn around the outside of the factory.<\/div>\n
These sticks would be cut into short pieces and then shaved into rough bobbins.\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cShe did not like me.  At least, I felt she did not like me\u2026for a couple of good reasons.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s because you are precocious, Alan\u2026bold and self-obsessed\u2026just too enthusiastic  at times.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cGuilty as  charged.\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cShe really knew the factory\u2026every machine\u2026.every bobbin\u2026she even knew<\/div>\n
how the flyable governor on the steam engine maintained speed of the hug drive wheel<\/div>\n
that powered the whole place.<\/div>\n
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\u201cWhat is missing in all these pictures?\u201d  Think about it.  There is something missing that led to<\/div>\n
the early death of many Bobbin factory workers.  What is it?  Answer at end but<\/div>\n
you can figure it out.  Many died of consumption and the lung diseases. What caused<\/div>\n
these deaths?  What is missing from the pictures?<\/div>\n

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\u201cNormally, back  in he 19rh century, this floor was covered as much as waste deep in Bobbin shavings\u2026so<\/div>\n
much so that sometimes  the machines had to be shut down to clear the shavings. \u201c<\/div>\n
\u201cWasn\u2019t there a danger of fire?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDefinitely\u2026anything that gave off sparks had to be removed\u2026such as the tool grinders.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAny use for all those shavings?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThe shavings and waste wood chunks were used to fire up the steam engine.  \u201c<\/div>\n
\u201cSo everything made sense\u2026even the scrap.”<\/div>\n

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High up above the lathes \u2026 the mighty line shaft with a drive pulley for each lathe.   <\/div>\n

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\u201cAren\u2019t those drive belts dangerous\u2026could  kill.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYes, they are shielded by wood cribbing close to the lathes\u2026and there is a severe to slide the belt on to an idling pulley.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMy dad worked in factory like this.  He told me about a fellow worker who decided to push the drive belt towards the idling pulley by hand.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDangerous.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYou bet.  the poor guy got his hand caught and his body was thrown around and around until he was dead.  I had an image from that<\/div>\n
story that I cannot forget.  The fellows limbs came apart.   Nothing could be done.  Other workers  ran down the factory to shut down<\/div>\n
the drive engine but by then all was mayhem.  Did that happen here?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYes, there were injuries\u2026many\u2026a lot of the workers were children.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAny accidents recorded?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cIn 1860, at Crooklands Bobbin mill,Thomas Fox, aged14, got caught in a drive belt by his head  and shoulders\u2026carried to the ceiling line shaft<\/div>\n
where his head was crushed\u2026supposed to have died instantly.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSo my dad\u2019s story was  likely accurate?”<\/div>\n

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\u201cYou said children.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cChild labour laws were non existent for decades and when they did come into affect they only applied to children under ten.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy would parents let their kids near these machines?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cPoverty\u2026and some children had  no parents\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo parents?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cLiverpool is not far away from here.  Orphanages collected street children\u2026a lot of them were sent here\u2026some stayed\u2026some <\/div>\n
ran away.  Others were always available.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDid any get hurt that you know about.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThere is a  record of one boy working here with his hand bound up because the hole filling lathe pierced  his hand\u2026like taking<\/div>\n
an electric drill through your hand.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cLong hours\u2026doing repetitive tasks like boring holes in bobbins\u2026pushed hard by overseers\u2026.fatigue spells trouble.”<\/div>\n
\u201cAnd  this is a remote rural factory\u2026surrounded by wilderness.  One boy, Kit Cloudsdale, 13 years old, was sent on a five <\/div>\n
mile errand.   He froze to death.”<\/div>\n
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\u201cWhere do these stairs go?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cTool grinding room\u2026lots of sparks\u2026”<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe line shaft powered the large grindstone but a thick stone<\/div>\n
wall  separated the grinding room from the factory floor. Fires in<\/div>\n
19th century factories were common.   Imagine someone stupid<\/div>\n
enough to light pipe on the factory floor?  There must have been rules here.<\/div>\n
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\u201cThere are holes in the stone interior walls to let the drive belts through.  This hole<\/div>\n
has no purpose other than a site line\u2026perhaps so the overseer could be sure<\/div>\n
the tool grinding was  being done right.<\/div>\n

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Polished bobbins were shipped in sacks to the cotton mills  in Lancashire and to textile mills elsewhere in the world.<\/div>\n
Not just in the thousands but in the millions.  Weighed on this scale.<\/div>\n

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\u201cHey look here\u2026do not look away\u2026do not day dream\u2026do not look over at your friend on the next machine.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy not?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cLook at that drive belt\u2026now imagine your hand or our hair getting caught\u2026instantly maimed or killed.  These factories<\/div>\n
were dangerous.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u2018Why work in places like this?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo choice really\u2026food and a place to live\u2026many workers at Stott Park spent their entire working life on one of these machines\u2026doing the<\/div>\n
same thing thousands  of times  per day\u2026boring, shaping, polishing, grinding, \u2026some felt lucky to have a steady job.<\/div>\n

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Only pauper boys were allowed to work at the Stott Park Bobbin Mill.   Girls, however, were allowed work in the cotton <\/div>\n
factories as  above.  Note the long lines of bobbins wound with cotton thread.<\/div>\n

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Pauper children around  1900.<\/div>\n

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Another young boy at work in a Lancashire cotton mill.  Pilesof bobbins in front and behind him.<\/div>\n

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Young boy at work in the Stott Parkin Bobbin factory about 1900.   Sometimes the wood  chips got two feet deep.<\/div>\n

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This is a picture of Marjorie in the Stott Park Bobbin Mill shop buying more Bobbins than they sold  all month.<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy did she buy them?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMovies may use them in some period  motion picture someday\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSomeday?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMy thoughts precisely.”<\/div>\n
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“Look in the top right corner of this picture.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat am I looking at?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThat little platform up near the driveshaft is where the factory foreman could look down on his<\/div>\n
workers\u2026make sure they were doing a good job.\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cSee that round trim that looks like a whiskey barrel?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cLooks like a whisky barrel for sure,\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThat is  a whisky barrel made into a polishing drum\u2026dump in <\/div>\n
a pile of bobbins, bounce them around and they come out polished.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDo they smell like good scotch whisky?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNot sure.\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cNow  here is a mathematics  challenge to you.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cpick one of these two bobbin pictures ..  count the bobbins\u2026then<\/div>\n
multiply times  10\u2026i.e.  100 x 10 equals 1,000 British pounds or $2,000 Canadian dollars.<\/div>\n
Fortunately Marjorie did  not see this bobbin pile.   She only bought 7 big bobbins which cost a pretty penn anyway.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cIs that what they were worth long ago?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNope\u2026a new bobbin sold for a penny or so I think\u2026those were days  when a penny was worth something though.”<\/div>\n
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Quote from John Gibson,1878, letter to Ulverston Board of Guardians concerning CHILD LABOUR<\/div>\n

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\u201cWE send them at 12 or 14 for seven years without remuneration\u2026When their time is up they are discharged\u2026and we send<\/div>\n
other boys to fill their places  at the mills.  They are in many cases\u2026over-worked, half clothed and fed and  in many ways very<\/div>\n
unfairly used.\u201d<\/div>\n

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Caring for the poor has been a social  problem for a long time.  When England was largely rural poor relief was  provided by parishes\u2026money<\/div>\n
collected  to cover food, shelter, food and clothing.  Such relief was  spotty so in 1834 the Poor Law was  amended.  Each parish was expected<\/div>\n
to build workhouses where poor families were expected to do  work for their relief.  Families were separated.  Many pauper children became a<\/div>\n
problem and  the workhouse guardians tried to find work for these children in local industries  like Stott Park Bobbin Mill.  The only way we know<\/div>\n
much  about these children is through the reports  of the Relieving Officers of the workhouses.  Charles  Dickens novel Oliver Twist made many<\/div>\n
middle class citizens aware that abuse was  common.<\/div>\n

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Answer to question:  What is not shown in these pictures is THE DUST THAT FILLED THE AIR and promoted lung diseases that killed<\/div>\n
workers as  young as  37.<\/div>\n

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Conclusion:   It took ten years to rebuild the Stott Park Bobbin Mill.  But credit for the saving of the bobbin mill must go to one man, Jack Ivison who began working <\/div>\n
as the mill in 1927 and was  the mill maser when it closed in 1971.   Jack Ivison then  urged English  Heritage to accept the mill as  an  important part of English industrial history.<\/div>\n

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Touring the mill in June 2019 made me think of the lyrics to DIRTY OLD TOWN by the Pogues.<\/div>\n

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POGUES<\/h2>\n


Dirty Old Town Lyrics<\/strong><\/p>\n


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I met my love by the gas works wall
Dreamed a dream by the old canal
Kissed my girl by the factory wall

Dirty old town
Dirty old town

Clouds a drifting across the moon
Cats a prowling on their beat
Spring’s a girl from the streets at night

Dirty old town
Dirty old town

I heard a siren from the docks
Saw a train set the night on fire
Smelled the spring on the smoky wind

Dirty old town
Dirty old town

I’m going to make me a good sharp axe
Shining steel tempered in the fire
Will chop you down like an old dead tree

Dirty old town
Dirty old town

I met my love by the gas works wall
Dreamed a dream by the old canal
Kissed my girl by the factory wall

Dirty old town
Dirty old town

Dirty old town
Dirty old town<\/div>\n

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BOBBIN FACTORY CIRCA 1890 alan skeoch June 2019 \u201cMarjorie, what is a BOBBIN?\u201d \u201cA bobbin is a spool\u201d \u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d \u201cA spool,,,bobbin if you will\u2026is used to hold thread or yarn.\u201d \u201cWhy would anyone want a bobbin full of wool?\u201d \u201cBobbins feed threads to the machines that make cloth\u2026big bobbins do that. “Small bobbins feed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2921\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}