Bobbins

We are in Ulverston for a couple of days at the International Music Festival, so we're being proper tourists in our home county.  We visited Stott Ghyll Bobbin Mill at Lakeside, which opened in 1835 and closed in 1971, which really doesn't seem very long ago to me.

As is always the case with Victorian factories, working conditions were hard and dangerous, with long hours and poor pay.  Workers were paid only for the bobbins they made, so anything they did that wasn't productive was unpaid.  They had to make their own tools, sharpen them when they became dull, and repair them when they were broken, and they were not paid for any of that.  Nor if they were sick or injured.

Health and Safety was non-existent, and there was a great deal of moving machinery, which meant dangerous conditions were just something to be endured.