This cotton mill could be anywhere in the north west of England but was, in fact, in Burnley. What can’t be seen on the photograph is the noise. We have a museum near us which occasionally fires up just a few looms in a room that would have held hundreds and they are so loud that it is impossible to have a conversation. The girls developed the ability to lip-read and created a language of gestures to communicate with each other. They must have had serious hearing problems when they got older but would have considered it to be ‘part of the job’. Thank goodness for modern health and safety legislation.

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