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Photos of Wigan
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Wigan Album

Mill Girls

20 Comments

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Photo: RON HUNT
Views: 2,677
Item #: 30089
A group of Mill Girls in Wallgate, heading towards Eckersley or Trencherfield Mill.

Comment by: RON HUNT on 16th January 2018 at 11:19

I think this was taken from the PICTUREPOST magazine

Comment by: irene roberts on 16th January 2018 at 11:27

I think you're right, Ron, and I'm sure I have seen this pic from the other side, showing the girls facing the camera.

Comment by: John on 16th January 2018 at 13:22

No traffic jams then hundreds walking to work.

Comment by: Veronica on 16th January 2018 at 14:51

You can bet they were talking about where they were going that night. ;o ))

Comment by: Dave on 16th January 2018 at 17:48

Still remember the smell of mams pinny when she worked there. Funny how something’s we take in as children and never forget . Let no one tell me that a smell is lost in memory. Pictures like this and it’s there, as strong as ever as a child.. Special Thanks to Ron

Comment by: Philip Gormley. on 16th January 2018 at 17:50

Irene's on the right track: She's probably likening this photo to Item 29527, the latter image evoking her thoughts of the Gracie Fields film Sing As We Go.

Comment by: Veronica on 16th January 2018 at 20:06

I remember my mother coming home covered in 'fluff'. Perhaps that's why she always had a bad chest.

Comment by: irene roberts on 16th January 2018 at 21:54

My Auntie always had cotton-fluff stuck to her hair and coat; the cotton floated in the air outside The Empress Mill in Ince and, on a warm Summer's day, it had a distinctive oily, but not unpleasant, smell. Aunty Mary used to bring balls of tubular string, known as "banding", home from the mill and we children used it on our whips in games of "top-and-whip".

Comment by: John Brown on 17th January 2018 at 16:20

I worked at Trench' and Eck's in the 60s. Last thing we all did when getting ready to go home was wetting our hands and peeling the film of cotton off our clothes. I had to peel it off my eyeballs once ! Ah, the good old days.

Comment by: Maureen on 17th January 2018 at 18:08

My beloved Wallgate..thank you Ron.

Comment by: Elizabeth on 18th January 2018 at 08:36

So many lovely memories brought back for Maureen with this photo. I was reading the Archives of St.Joseph's Church last night and it mentions lots of people going to early Masses before going on to work.How times change.

Comment by: Albert. on 18th January 2018 at 13:31

The wet conditions doesn't appear to bother them. I mentioned this before, the good humoured banter that used to take place between the bobby on traffic control duty, where the girls' crossed the road at Miry Lane, and the girls' themselves, when they were in a hurry to catch their buses. All of them, the "Salt of the Earth."

Comment by: Maureen on 18th January 2018 at 14:20

Albert,if you haven't already seen it...have a look at a painting on google , it's by the artist"Eyre Crowe" titled The dinner Hour..it shows mill girls at the top part of Miry Lane.

Comment by: Poet on 18th January 2018 at 22:06

Beautiful photo . You can hear the footsteps on the wet pavement slabs.

Comment by: irene roberts on 19th January 2018 at 00:04

I bet those lovely pinafored Ladies would never have gone to the Supermarket, the Doctor's or The School Run in their pyjamas, even had they had the time! Hard-working, cheerful lasses, every one.

Comment by: Albert. on 19th January 2018 at 10:41

Maureen. There are certainly great photographs shown on this website "Eyre Crowe". When the girls finished their shift at both factories, it was tantamount to a female invasion, at the Miry Lane crossing of Wallgate. Happy days.

Comment by: DTease on 19th January 2018 at 11:11

The girl in the middle looks like she's casting a sneaky, over the shoulder eye over the lad reading the paper.

Comment by: A.W. on 22nd January 2018 at 11:44

Maureen, the painting you refer to is in Manchester Art Gallery.

Comment by: Maureen on 22nd January 2018 at 12:14

Thank you for that information A.W..I bet it looks grand up there with all the other works of art.

Comment by: Poet on 23rd January 2018 at 00:37

Not one atom of litter . Not a single cig butt. Bring back the road sweep .

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