Worn Stories: Material and Memory in Bradford 1880-2015

Worn Stories:

Material and Memory in Bradford 1880-2015 Edited by: Claire Wellesley-Smith and Jennie Kiff

Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Community storytelling through textiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 From rag merchants to paper barons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Ellen Tring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 The Ballad of Ellen Tring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 The crimes of rag workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Materials and the industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 William Baxter and Denton Waring – Rag magnates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Dangerous rags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 John Marshall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Abraham Topley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Stories from the charity shop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Wardrobe dealers – Women and second hand clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Contemporary rags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Worn Stories:

Material and Memory in Bradford 1880-2015 © Hive 2019

Edited by: Claire Wellesley-Smith and Jennie Kiff

Introduction The Worn Stories project was devised to look at the history of textile repurposing and recycling in the city at a time when there is much debate about the textile and clothing industry and its sustainability. Bradford today has a number of businesses concerned with recycling and repurposing textiles. The communities that live here also have much to offer in terms of personal experience and skills that can be shared. The project offered volunteers and participants the opportunity to take part in a variety of activities and learning. These included training in research skills using primary sources and oral history interviewing. In community settings around the city creative textile workshops exploring traditional and contemporary recycling and reuse techniques were delivered. The project also offered opportunities for personal reminiscing and sharing about the value of textiles, their use and disposal, in our everyday lives. An exhibition of community-made textiles, interpretation of our research, photographs and archive objects was shown at Bradford Industrial Museum between November 2018 and March 2019.

Worn Stories has motivated and inspired volunteers to actively explore the processing of rags in contemporary society. It has also encouraged volunteers to place modern experiences in a historical context and investigate Bradford’s rag heritage.

For almost a century the dealing and processing of rags was understood to take part in the heavy woollen triangle of Batley, Dewsbury and Ossett. Our research project has revealed that this is misrepresents the extent of rag processing and that Bradford was an integral part of a wider industry.

‘Tattered Lives’

This book introduces the themes of the project and has been researched and written partly by project volunteers. Additional more detailed research and case studies are available on our website http://wornstoriesbradfordblog.wordpress.com. This project would not have been possible without the support of a Your Heritage grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Exhibition piece featuring the names of 160 female rag workers embroidered by Hive groups Worn Stories researchers

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Worn Stories: Material and Memory in Bradford 1880-2015

Worn Stories: Material and Memory in Bradford 1880-2015

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SHINE Creative Threads group 6

Worn Stories: Material and Memory in Bradford 1880-2015

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Community storytelling through textiles 8

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Family activity day, Hive

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Community storytelling through textiles Claire Wellesley-Smith

‘I’ve been learning skills that I didn’t think I’d have. I know how to put things together now, patchwork. We are like caterpillars that turn into beautiful butterflies.

Heritage projects are all about connections. As a Jamaican I think about how things were there and here in the UK when I arrived. Working like this helps me make connections and remember.’ (F, 75) West Bowling Group Worn Stories focussed its community engagement work on three areas in the city and district, Undercliffe, West Bowling, and Keighley. Undercliffe and West Bowling are located to the North East and South of Bradford respectively, Keighley is a town 10 miles away but is located within the metropolitan district. The projects took place in areas in the top 10% of deprived wards in England (2017). The locations were chosen as there were strong connections to be made between the types of textile industry, historic or contemporary, that took place in these communities and the themes of the project. I began a community scrapbag that travelled with me throughout the project, full of donated materials from communities and participants. It became a working archive for the project, full of possibilities and creative activities to come.

for our projects. The conversations were often heard in many translations, a member offered her Arabic to English interpreting skills and this helped some of the group to contribute. As the project developed we decided to make a banner that could be shown at Bradford Refugee Week events in June 2018. The theme of the exhibition was ‘My Dream..’ and the ESOL class in the next door room joined us to spend time writing hopes and aspirations in multiple languages and English translations onto scraps of donated shirting material. A colourful border constructed from personal donated fabrics completed the work.

New Start, Undercliffe In Undercliffe we worked with the New Start group at Community Works. New Start is a weekly social group set up for refugees and asylum seekers new to Bradford. It offers an opportunity for socialising, improving language skills and also for community information to be offered with occasional talks from healthcare professionals, the police, and education services. A crèche is available for the pre-school age children who attend with their parents, and lunch was shared at the end of each session.

The sessions offered an introduction to the Worn Stories themes through the use of creative textile techniques and conversations about Bradford and an opportunity to share experiences and textile stories offered by the participants. The people who attended were from a wide variety of backgrounds and countries including Morocco, Eritrea, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Hungary, Iraq, Iran, and Democratic Republic of Congo.

As many of the families attending have young children and they were offered ideas that could be used to make things for them. The group was encouraged to contribute materials from clothing that was no longer useful to them and was too worn to be used by others. We gathered a pile of small shirts and t-shirts, skirts, pillowcases and stripped them of zips, buttons, collars and cuffs creating a usable pile of materials

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New Start banner, Community Works

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Creative Threads, West Bowling Creative Threads are based at SHINE, a community organisation in West Bowling, an area formerly known as a centre of textile dyeing in the city where the largest piece-dyeing works in the world was based at the turn of the 20th century. The group is intergenerational and includes participants whose families have lived and worked in the local area for generations; economic migrants from the West Indies who came to work in the city in the 1960s; young women and adults with learning difficulties.

The location was significant, partly due to huge history of textile production and immigration related to the industry in this part of the city, but also due to a contemporary example of textile recycling that takes place at the centre. The West Bowling Children’s Clothes Bank was set up by Rebekah Hinton in 2014 to provide children in West Bowling with clothes and school uniforms. They have been able to provide clothes for hundreds of children in need. As part of our sessions the group was offered a guided tour of the facility with an explanation of the referral system to the bank. As well as suitable garments many adult garments and items unsuitable for recycling are given. These are sold to the local rag man for cash and this money is used to buy new underwear and socks. As a group we decided to pay for some of these unsuitable items and repurpose them creating a unique ‘West Bowling Cloth’.

Using a method of recycling tiny scraps onto fusible heat activated interfacing we created a beautiful mosaic material that was then used in a family textile event and for making small textile tokens. Textile reminiscing sessions went on alongside our making activities and included an upcycling story from the nineteen seventies: ‘Dad made me and Siobhan (my sister) a party dress each from a newspaper pattern. He cut them out of mum’s old dress, it was blue floral and he put a lace collar on each one.’ (F, 50)

Zero Waste quilt, Roshni Ghar project 12

Worn Stories: Material and Memory in Bradford 1880-2015

The West Bowling Children’s Clothes Bank

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Hive Talking Textiles group 14

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Roshni Ghar, Keighley The Roshni Ghar project is based in Keighley and is a community mental health organisation for BAME women. The Suhoon E-Dil group is for older women of Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage.

Scrap fabric heart, Roshni Ghar project.

The focus of the sessions was textile storytelling and zero-waste crafting using discarded fabrics and old clothing donated by project participants. A call for materials led to donations of shalwar kameez offcuts from a local traditional dressmaker and donations of fents from a market trader and these were added to the community scrap bag. As a group we went through the collection of dressmaking offcuts and the different sections were explained to me ‘…this is a suit border’, ‘…part of a headscarf.’

There were conversations about the to-and-fro of fabrics for traditional clothes bought in the UK – different categories – ready-made, part-sewn, uncut. These are often sent out to Pakistan and Bangladesh to be made up by tailors into shalwar kameez suits then brought back to the UK to be worn. The use of ordinary texiles like ones found in the scrap bag, items from everyday use – clothing, domestic projects, mass produced fabrics is described by artist Francoise Dupre as a textile-based ‘global reminder’.[1] A participant commented, ‘It’s good to make things and see the results.

It’s satisfying. It reminds me of watching Mum and the things she made for me: dolls, balls. All out of scraps of material.’

Endnotes 1. Jessica Hemmings, Cultural Threads, London: Bloomsbury, 2014

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Scrap fabric children’s toys, Roshni Ghar project Worn Stories: Material and Memory in Bradford 1880-2015

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Discarded bootees, Randisi Textile Recycling ltd.

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From Rag Merchants to Paper Barons Jennie Kiff

Rags provided the raw materials for a number of different businesses. One business that needed rags was paper manufacture.[1] Paper manufacturers needed a continual supply of rags and many worked closely with a network of rag merchants, both at home and abroad.[2] Some rag merchants also expanded their businesses to include paper, either making paper bags or basic paper for other industries.

In Bradford one business made this highly successful transition, the Shackletons.

James Shackleton [plate 1] was born in Kirkby Malham into a farming family. Census returns show that by 1851 he and his family lived in Manningham and in 1861 he had become a rag merchant. In 1871 he was living at 9 Foster Square, Horton, and his business had expanded to employ twenty women workers. Three of his five sons were also shown as rag and waste merchants.[3]

and son were listed as paper bag makers at North Wing as well as rag merchants at Borough Paper Mills, North Wing.[5] James Shackleton lived at 3 St. Andrew’s Place, Horton until his death on 9th February 1887. His will described him as a paper manufacturer and merchant and his estate was valued at £7000.[6] The original partnership of James Shackleton and Sons had been dissolved by mutual consent in 1884.[7] John Shackleton, lived on the same street as his father at number 23, and continued as a rag merchant.[ plate 2] His business was at 37 Silsbridge Lane and in the 1890s moved to 1 East Parade, Bradford.[8] His brother James worked as a rag warehouse man.[9]

Plate 2. John Shackleton (1846-1900), seated on table, and James Shackleton (1851-1921) Plate 1. Jam es Shackleton

In 1876 the growing business relocated to Borough Paper Mills, formerly known as Horsfall Mills, Barkerend in Bradford.[4] This placed the business closer to other businesses that could supply rags, such as William Baxter & Co. By 1887 J Shackleton 20

Worn Stories: Material and Memory in Bradford 1880-2015

Robert Shackleton remained part of the original business, now James Shackleton and Son, paper manufacturers. A biography written in 1913 stated that he started work in a spinning mill aged eight.[10] In 1854 he had begun a business on his own account dealing in rags, waste and paper at Brick Lane near Thornton Road. By 1881 Worn Stories: Material and Memory in Bradford 1880-2015

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he was employing thirty-two men and seventy-seven women. He had also moved with his wife and seven children, mother-in-law and servants to 20 Whetley Grove in Manningham before moving to a larger house at 4 Mount Royd. The report described him as “one of the best-known business men in Bradford”.

Endnotes I am grateful to Mike Kennard and Eve Greenwood for directory but many others did exist and chose not to permission to reproduce their photographs of members pay the subscription to be included in the directories of the Shackleton family.

9. Census returns 1881, 1891 and 1901. Joseph Farrar 1. Richard Leslie Hills, Papermaking in Britain 1488-1988: A Short History (Bloomsbury Press: 2015)

Shackleton (1838-19030 was the eldest son of James Shackleton. He was an engineer and not part of the rag or paper business. In 1898 he and his family left Bradford and moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

2. John Christopher Malin, The West Riding Recovered Wool Industry ca.1813-1939: A Study of the Growth of woollen rag merchanting and the manufacture 10. Bradford Observer 29th November 1913. Article of shoddy and mungo with an assessment of its celebrates the 50th wedding anniversary of Robert and contribution to the West Riding Woollen Industry (PhD Mary Shackleton. It details his career but gives little Thesis, University of York: 1979) information about his wife.

Plate 4 - Robert Shackleton (1842-1921) and family

In 1883 Robert entered into civic life and applied himself to the transport and sanitation problems in Bradford. In 1900 Robert and his sons, Frank (1867-1952) and Arthur (1876-1951), registered as a new company, James Shackleton and Son, with additional directors. The description of the business still included acting as rag merchants.[11] Frank and Arthur Shackleton were both listed as paper manufacturers in 1911.[12] Arthur lived at 313 Killinghall Road, Bradford and popular residential area with other successful Bradford industrialists. In 1912 the business acquired Barkerend and Pit Lane Mills.[13] In 1914 Robert Shackleton acquired lands from the City of Bradford adjoining Barkerend Road.[14] In 1915 City Paper Mills were selling machinery at auction and in 1916 Borough Mills was renamed as City Mills.[16] When Robert died at 4 Mount Royd on 20th April 1921 his estate was valued at over £21,000.00.[15] James Shackleton & Son became Barkerend Mills Estates Ltd in the 1920s and was still in existence in 1945.

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3. More details about the Shackleton family, 11. Leeds Mercury - 28 September 1900. Business listed as researched by Mike Kennard, can be found at www. “paper manufacturers and merchants, paper stainers, ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/44661127/ rag merchants, manufacturers of jacquard loom cards, person/6235083722/ and by Eve Greenwood at www. paper bags, tubes and press paper, dealers in paper ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/23466009/ making materials, dyes, pigments, salts, nikahs and acids etc.”

4. Bradford Daily Telegraph, 14th October 1876, notice for “James Shackleton and Sons, Rag, Waste and 12. Frank lived in Ilkley in the 1901 census, by 1911 had New Paper Merchants, Thornton Road, Bradford now moved to Ben Rydding, Ilkley. Arthur had married removed to Borough Paper Mills, late Horsfall Mills earlier in 1911 and was probably a recent resident at (behind Parish Church)”.

Killinghall Road.

5. White’s Trade Directory, Bradford pg. 660 and pg. 667 13. WYAS, WHC, West Riding Registry of Deeds 1912 Vol. 26 Page 165 no: 63 and 1912 Vol. 26 Page 174 no:68 6. Probate was proved on 13 April 1887 and his will deposited at Wakefield Registry now West Yorkshire Archive Service (WYAS), Wakefield History Centre (WHC), Wills Apr-Jul 1897. Executors were his son Robert, Thomas Priestley, a Bradford Stuff Manufacturer and William Thackray, of Leeds County Contractor.

14. WYAS, WHC, West Riding Registry of Deeds 1914 Vol. 24 Page 332 no: 115 15. Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - 21 August 1915. WYAS, WHC, Registry of Deeds 1916, Volume 7, Page 78 no:232. Reconveyance dated 23rd February 1916.

7. London Gazette. 20th October 1884 Dissolution of 16. Probate was proved on 30 July 1921 and his will partnership of James, John and Robert Shackleton, Rag deposited at Wakefield Registry now West Yorkshire merchants, Paper and Jacquard card manufacturers Archive Service (WYAS), Wakefield History Centre and merchants, by mutual consent.

(WHC), Wills Apr-Jul 1921. His sons were not named as 8. Kelly’s Trade Directory 1893 pg. 1254. Only nine other Bradford rag merchants are listed in this

executors.

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Ellen Tring Tracey Williams

The life of Ellen Tring is a fascinating insight into the world of crime and false identities. Ellen worked as both a rag sorter and a rag picker, but like many others she had to find other ways to earn a living. Her other occupations included weaver, mill hand and common prostitute. A woman of “notoriously bad character”, she also went by the names of Ellen Quinn and Ellen Cameron. Prison records show that her date of birth varied between 1846 and 1850 and she was born in either County Armagh or Glasgow depending on the alias she used at the time.[1] Prison records also provide details of her background and her physical appearance.

Ellen’s height was recorded as being between 5ft 1” and 5 ft 3”. She had brown hair, pierced ears and a scar on her forehead. On her left arm she had tattooed the initials of her husband, John William Tring, a mechanic. Ellen was a Roman Catholic who could read but who had an imperfect education. She had no fixed abode but records show that she lived in Bradford, Barnsley, Dewsbury, Halifax, Heckmondwike and Sheffield, among others – all areas associated with the heavy woollen industry and rag working. It was her criminal convictions that brought her to the attention of the courts and the newspapers. “A wretched looking woman”, “well known to the police” and “an old thief” she had approximately twenty-one criminal convictions between the years 1877 and 1896, with sentences from three days to twelve months hard labour. [2]

to their house in Sheffield. The men were struck and kicked by John, whilst Ellen threw plates and a drawer from a dresser.[4] On 29th June 1883 she was also convicted at Bradford of assault on Sarah Ann Wood.[5] In the case of the latter a police constable had been called to the Commercial Hotel Ravensthorpe where Ellen, being the worse for drink, had refused to leave. Ellen had become very violent and had assaulted the constable.[6] Ellen also pleaded guilty and gave the excuse of being the worse for liquor when she stole three vests from George Cathcart Wood, a pawnbroker.[7] She was also drunk when she was involved in the theft of a rug from Mr Mitchell of Cleckheaton and the stealing of an overcoat from tailor and draper Joseph Ward with Robert McMillan (a currier with whom she lived as man and wife).[8] She had previously been convicted of stealing seven shirts from John W Burrell, a draper in 1877.[9] She was also convicted of stealing a shawl belonging to Mary Ann Stokes (and replacing it with an old one) [10] Prostitution and vagrancy were amongst her other convictions.[11] Despite being very drunk, she was acquitted of stealing a watch, guard and locket valued at 8s from David Jefferson in Barrow.[12] They both met in the Duke of Edinburgh public house and drank half a bottle of whiskey in a nearby field. She was told “she had had a narrow escape”. She was also acquitted of stealing 4’s from Harry Mawson in Otley.[13] The final record of her is in an article in the Knaresborough Post in September 1896.[14] Ellen was now an old woman and was charged once again with drunkenness after she had been found asleep near Dragon Farm. She stated that she was destitute and had sold her spectacles for a nights’ lodgings in the Poorhouse. The police inspector replied that she had promised to go to the workhouse the previous year but had been imprisoned the following day for drunkenness. She was told to keep off the drink and was sent to gaol for seven days. It seems that Ellen was unable to refrain from drinking and her colourful life was largely the result of it. She was not unique.

Other women, many of whom worked in the rag industries, had very similar lives to Ellen. Their stories can also be found in the archives and newspaper reports.

Endnotes

Dewsbury Reporter 14th January 1882

Ellen had a tough life and may have turned to drink as a way of forgetting her problems. However, this in turn led to numerous criminal convictions for drunkenness, disorderly behaviour and for being riotous. It also led to violence. Ellen was convicted in June 1883 in Bradford of being drunk and riotous. Her profession was given as rag picker. She had already had two previous convictions that year. [3] In 1879 Ellen and her husband assaulted three bailiffs, named Berry, Wallace and Green who had come 24

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1. West Yorkshire Archive Service (WYAS), Wakefield History Centre (WHC), Quarter Session Records, QS1/220/5, Petty Sessions records, P7/30, P18/6

6. Dewsbury Reporter: 8 December 1883 7. Sheffield Independent: 10 September 1879

8. Bradford Daily Telegraph: 10 January 1882 2. ibid: WYAS, WHC, C118/ 261. Calendar of Prisoners 1881-2 Ellen Tring noted to have had fourteen previous 9. Sheffield Independent: 13 December 1877 prison sentences, including for theft of shirts and three 10. Bradford Daily Telegraph: 26 February 1884 waistcoats 11. WYAS, WHC, C118 Nominal register 1880-1881.

3. WYAS, WHC, Wakefield Prison Female register C118/227, 1883-1884 4. Sheffield Independent: 19 March 1879 5. www.ancestry.co.uk: WYAS, WHC, Wakefield Prison Female Registers, C118/227, 1883-1884

Conviction 24th January 1881 in Barnsley

12. Lancaster Gazette: 30 June 1880 13. Wakefield Archives Q51/220/5: Bradford Daily Telegraph: 29 June 1881 14. Knaresborough Post; 19 September 1896 (Dragon)

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A

s part of a community engagement session we looked at the story of Ellen and the industrial broadside ballads of the period. They were produced as inexpensive single sheets of paper between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Sometimes known as ‘vulgar ballads’ or ‘roadside ballads’ this alluded to their being sold by the side of the road. Historically a ballad told a story and they became a tool for sharing news. They were often performed in pubs and outside mills and factories, sung to common folk-song tunes of the day. Working with local poet Lee Thompson our group co-wrote the story of Ellen as a ballad, using the research uncovered about her life and paying attention to the particular language connected to the rag industries.

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The Ballad of

Shipped over from Ireland at a bonnie young age, Work conditions were shoddy, left her heart filled with rage, Freezing cold outhouse, she did what she could, But instead lost her rag with this girl Sarah Ann Wood, So she was cuffed, hauled down to Swaine Street, By the bobby that day, who was walking the beat, Two months hard labour, stop this you must!

Ellen just laughed, off her rags blew some dust, So won’t you all join me as I do sing, For this is the Ballad of the young Ellen Tring, Once was a Cameron but also a Quinn, She worked with a devil, watch her temper wear thin.

Money was tight not a rag to her back, When bailiffs came knocking she’d give ‘em a whack, If she saw it she’d take it, not shy of a brawl, Seven shirts, three vests and a lovely new shawl, A scrapper a fighter a young foul mouthed biter, The more she got nicked the more things got tighter,

Worn Stories: Material and Memory in Bradford 1880-2015

Worn to a frazzle no fixed abode, Drinks to oblivion to lighten her load, 21 days in prison was Jack, A small price for Ellen and the thrill of attack.

So won’t you all join me as I do sing..., At just five foot nothing you’d think she’s no harm, Then you’d see her scars and a tattoo on her arm, Yeah she’s damn shoddy, a thief and a punk, Like she gave a damn - every day was spent drunk, She may seem so evil – but what would you do?

No money, no home – No not even a clue?

So now we see an old lady – not a single thread to wear, Just another peasant mill worker – what do the rich care?

So won’t you all join me as I do sing, For now is the end of the old Ellen Tring, Neither a Cameron nor even a Quinn, But whose name fades away …

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• •• • • • ••• • • • • • •• •

• •• • • • ••• • • • • • •• • 28

Ellen Tring

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The Crimes of Rag Workers Tracey Williams

Working in the rag business was dirty, physical and dangerous. Many workers struggled to pay rents and feed their children. For some this led to a life of crime in order to survive. Some women also turned to prostitution in order to make ends meet. The prison registers, court papers and newspapers are full of offences where the culprit is described as a rag worker or collected rags. In Bradford in the late 19th and early 20th centuries many of the rag workers came from the Irish community or were recent immigrants to the city.

Working with rags provided many opportunities for casual theft by workers to cope with financial hardship. In 1883 James Harrison, a waste dealer, was committed for two months for stealing bag of rags from the warehouse of his employer. [1] He had been tempted to steal the rags as he had been unable to pay a grocer’s bill and he had a family of eight children. Bags of rags were often stolen from merchants and rag warehouses. Stolen rags and old clothes were easy to sell as second hand clothes dealers asked few questions about where items came from. In 1905 Elizabeth Jones stole a suit of clothes and hid them under her shawl.[2] Clothes were often purloined – boots, overcoats, shirts and vests, with many being taken to pawnbrokers. Even the poorest who absconded from the workhouse made sure to take the clothing either to wear or to sell.[3] There are also several examples of rag dealers having their goods stolen and sold onto other dealers. In 1883 Mary Quinn aged 60 stole a quantity of rags from a warehouse yard.[4] Anthony Jennings was charged with stealing a quantity of Botany wool bagging from New Lane Mills in Laisterdyke. [5] Three young lads, aged between seven and ten, were charged with breaking and entering the rag warehouse of Eli Sellars, a Bradford rag dealer. Their punishment was to be flogged in front of their parents. [6] In some instances those whose property was stolen were not always pillars of respectability and there are numerous cases of rag dealers acquiring stolen goods.

For example, Eli Sellars appears in the court papers again charged with receiving 23-4 cwts of brass stolen from Newlands Mill in 1883.[7] Rag workers did not confine themselves to the theft of rags or clothing. Stealing small but valuable items that could be easily pawned was commonplace. Rag workers who turned to prostitution were often more interested in stealing from the client rather than provide sexual services. Watches, money, walking sticks and rings were all items commonly stolen. The money made from these stolen goods was often spent on drink rather than paying rent. Drunkenness amongst many rag workers is well 30

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documented. Many were convicted of ‘riotous behaviour’, ‘obscene language’, drunk and disorderly’ and ‘common assault’.

In 1909 Barbara Haigh, a 30 year old rag sorter, was charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm on Mary Foran, whom she hit with a red hot poker after quarrelling with her. Mercy was recommended but she was warned to keep away from drink.

[8] Sentences for these, and other offences, could vary from a fine, for example 40 shillings, or being imprisoned for between one to three months with hard labour.

Some rag workers were frequently in court and were well known to the police.

Some even became minor local celebrities and were often dealt with more leniently.

Rag workers Elizabeth Kershaw and Caroline Smith made their 49th and 52nd appearance before the court in 1882, both were charged with drunkenness.[9] The Bradford Daily Telegraph reported that officers would sooner give the latter money to pay for lodgings rather than lock her up as she would spend all night screaming and attempting to strangle herself. On being sentenced Caroline was removed to the cells screaming at the top of her voice! [10] In 1903 it was reported that Barbara Logan made her 102nd appearance “which establishes a record as far as Bradford is concerned”.[11] By 1908, Barbara had made her 111th appearance. A well known character, she was described as making a scene again and was charged with using obscene language.[12] For some rag workers a life of crime was unremarkable and a normal part of everyday. Poor housing, low pay and few opportunities for better work trapped these tattered fringes of society into a cycle of crime.

Endnotes 1. Leeds Times: 17 March 1883

7. Bradford Daily Telegraph: 20 February 1883

2. Bradford Daily Telegraph: 10 March 1905

8. Bradford Daily Telegraph: 8 October 1909

3. Bradford Daily Telegraph: 22 July 1904: 27 July 1904: 4 9. Bradford Daily Telegraph: 21 February 1882 August 1904 10. Bradford Daily Telegraph: 17 January 1882 4. Bradford Daily Telegraph: 9 May 1883 5. Bradford Observer: 21 February 1882 6. Bradford Daily Telegraph: 18 October 1889

11. Bradford Daily Telegraph: 9 March 1903 12. Yorkshire Evening Post: 13 April 1908

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Materials and the industry Claire Wellesley-Smith

‘Woollen rags undergo many peculiar metamorphoses. They are successively converted into mungo, shoddy and devils’ dust, then reappear as ladies’ superfine cloths from which they degenerate into druggets and are then used for the manufacture of flock paper. Finally the agriculturalist uses them as manure on account of the large amount of nitrogen they contain… Thus do old rags enter upon a fresh career, and it seems as if there was no limit to the means by which this waste product may be utilised.’

Textile Manufacturer, March 1882

Materials are at the centre of the Worn Stories project. Their use in the reuse and recycling industries informed our research project; we used them to make and remake textile objects and garments during practical sessions; materials from archives and from our own homes were used as starting points for reminiscing about the heritage of the city and stories from own lives. During the two years of the project we discovered processes unfamiliar to us, learned and revisited textile techniques from the last two centuries, and explored contemporary issues relating to the global textile trade. The language of end-use textile recycling has thrown up some interesting words and phrases some of which are defined in our glossary at the end of this publication.

Materials and the industry 32

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Today when hearing the word ‘shoddy’ it is most likely to be in the context of an adjective describing something badly made or done, or even something sordid or lacking in moral principle. For our project however, we have explored its original meaning, ‘a textile material produced from old rags and textile mill leftovers’.[1] In the early nineteenth century recycled and other textile waste were turned into ‘new’ raw materials in the ‘shoddy towns’ of West Yorkshire. Situated between Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield, the most significant locations were Batley and Dewsbury described

by Samuel Jubb in 1863 as ‘…the famous rag-capital, the tatter-metropolis, whither every beggar in Europe sends his cast-off clothes to be made into sham broadcloth for cheap gentility. Of moth-eaten coats, frowsy jackets, reecky (sic) linen, effusive cotton and old worsted stockings – this is the last destination. Reduced to filament of a greasy pulp, by mighty tooth cylinders, the much-vexed fabrics re-enter life in the most brilliant forms.’[2] These towns of the Heavy or Low Woollen district, as it came to be known, were the nexus of rag recycling and repurposing in the region. However, far less research has been done into these industries in Bradford.

Nicknamed ‘Worstedopolis’ in the nineteenth century after the high-quality worsted (a fine wool fabric) produced there, Bradford was at the centre of wool Worn Stories: Material and Memory in Bradford 1880-2015

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textile production in the region. The success of this industry is partly evidenced by the fastest expansion of population in an English city during the industrial revolution (1801 census population 13,364, 1851 103,778).[3] During the period from 1850 until the outbreak of the First World War, the city was associated with great wealth derived from its textile industry and trade. While many research and community-based heritage projects have looked at the history of worsted cloth production in the city and the diversity of production in the 350 mills operating (c.1900), little attention has been paid to the businesses and workers lower down the production chain that serviced the huge industry of rag recycling and re-manufacture in the region. This industry evidences the value of seemingly useless materials, where everything, once reconditioned or broken down for another purpose, can be used again or sold for profit.

When considering shoddy and the Bradford textile industry it is important to recognise that the woollen industry in the region was able to grow due to the increasing use of wool waste or recovered wool in its production processes. This waste came in three categories: from processing raw materials, from tearing up yarn, and from tearing up post-consumer waste (previously used cloth). This final category is the most important, coming from torn up cloth, knitwear and ‘tailor’s clippings’ from the manufacturing process. The use of this waste material is described by a local company in the late 1950s, ‘Clothes to suit the majority of pockets have for generations been cut from cloth which is a mixture of virgin wool and shoddy – wool recovered from cast-off clothing… After centuries of technical progress, the cloth manufacturer still depends on a plentiful supply of rags.’ [4] Rags were sourced from a number of places, at a domestic level the rag-and-bone men or ‘tatters’ would have collected rags, offering trades in cheap crockery, toys and ‘donkey stones’ to housewives. These were sold on to a marine store dealer, general second-hand tradespeople, who would sort the rags on their premises prior to selling on to a rag merchant. After more specialised sorting they would be sold on to the trade for reprocessing. In addition large volumes of rags were imported from all over the world in response to high demand for Yorkshire recovered wool cloth.[5] The sorting process was done mainly by female workers, at speed and using considerable skill. Cloth garments were taken from a pile, buttons and other fastenings cut away with a blade, linings and pockets removed. The fabrics would be sorted by type, cotton in one pile, woollens in another. Sometimes the sorters would be working 34

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with up to thirty differently classified piles of materials. ‘The rag sorter, unlike most other aspects of this and other parts of the textile industry as it developed over the century, was… a very human kind of job. The goal was to, in as short order as possible, place them into ‘grades’ by colour, fabric quality, state of disrepair and so on. Touch, smell, actions such as rubbing a cloth against itself by pinching between thumb and forefinger – these were all the kinds of gestures that helped the sorter work efficiently, and the shoddy industry to maximise its potential.’[6] The sorted rags would move through the system to be torn and reused in tearing machines or ‘devils’. Mixed fibre cloth including cotton and wool did not suit this machinery and went through a process of carbonising. This treatment used sulphuric acid to destroy the cotton but left the wool material. This process was a key part of William Baxter and Co’s business in Leeds Road, (written about in more detail on page 36). Cloth remade using carbonised wool was of the poorest quality, blue, brown and drab, sometimes known as union cloth. Samuel Jubb describes its use in workhouse and prison uniforms, something of an irony when considering the numbers of rag workers who moved in and out of these institutions.

During the Worn Stories project we explored the area around Leeds Road, where through our research, we discovered many people employed in the rag industries and living in the area. Today there is still an industry connected to discarded clothing and to the production of modern shoddy. This is now full of materials like polyester, made from old clothes of mixed natural and synthetic fibres. These are collected by contemporary businesses like Randisi Textile Recycling Ltd. 40% of the donated second hand textiles they deal with cannot be resold as garments. They are sold to be shredded for car insulation, mattress fillings, and carpet underlay.

Bradford today continues to be an area with many recycling industries and affiliated businesses. A participant in the project observed, ‘It makes it current, that stuff from over a century ago, how it reflects on us in the UK now…the rag recycling in India today, it’s basically the same as it was here where women sit there with rusty big blades pulling the clothes to bits. What goes around comes around.’ (F, 54) Endnotes 1. Shell, 2014, p.375

4. Roberts, 1960, p.7

2. Jubb, 1863, p.24

5. Jenkins and Ponting, 1982, p.301

3. Hall, 2013, p.57

6. Shell, 2014, p.379

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William Baxter and Denton Waring – Rag Magnates Caroline Perry

If the image you get in your head when you think of a rag merchant is of a raggedy man with a cart then think again. By the mid-nineteenth century rags were big business. In Bradford the trade was characterised by a significant number of small independent businesses in fierce competition with each other. Many of these entrepreneurs were not educated men and it did not require vast capital to set up as a rag merchant. To succeed in this environment they had to be naturally astute businessmen, well connected and resilient and ready to strike a deal whenever the opportunity arose.

One business of Waste (Scrap) Dealers, Rag Merchants, Wool Extractors and Shoddy Manufacturers was active for nearly 60 years, from about 1860 to 1918.[1] William Baxter & Company operated out of Raglan Mills, Gibson Street just off the Leeds Road. Over this period two families established and developed the business: the Baxters and the Warings.

William Baxter was born in 1802 in Bradford.[2] The 1851 Census states he worked in the textile industry but by 1861 he had established himself as a wool and waste dealer and extractor of wool from cotton. On 15 February 1865 he bought Raglan Mills, together with a boiler house, extracting works, warehouses and land.[3] The mill, constructed of brick and four stories high with an attic, was built in about 1855 by Peter Tattersall, a local builder.[4]

By 1880 the mill had been rebuilt and the company was flourishing under Denton Waring’s stewardship. He ran two companies, had interests in at least two others and managed an extensive land and property portfolio.[11] In 1875 he had been elected as a Conservative member of the City Council and served in local government until the mid 1880s.[12,13] He lived in a substantial villa, Thorn House, with his extended family.[14] From 1886 Denton Waring’s health began to fail. On 14 June 1893 Articles of Partnership were drawn up between him and the three sons from his first marriage, John Brooksbank, Frankland and Denton junior, who increasingly managed his businesses.[15] In 1899 fire destroyed parts of Raglan Mills again.[16] The damage was extensive but this time Denton Waring was insured. The mill was repaired, although the top storey and roof were never replaced. In 1902 Denton Waring died.[17] In his will he left William Baxter & Co to his three sons, with other siblings having shares in the business.[18] Denton Waring was buried in Undercliffe Cemetery in a prominent position alongside many other leading Bradfordians.[19]

In 1867 Denton Waring bought an equal partnership in William Baxter & Co [5] and they developed the business, jointly purchasing land and property in and around Gibson Street [6] and submitting patents for adaptations to processes and machinery.7] In 1872 William Baxter died suddenly and left his estate to his wife, Sarah,[8] who later sold her share in the business to Denton Waring.[9] In 1875 a fire, thought to have started in the attic where the rags were stored, destroyed the mill. An article in the Bradford Observer states that the damage was estimated at £25,000, the equivalent of £2.8 million in today’s money and Denton Waring was not insured.[10] The article states that he bought the mill for £4000 and invested £3600 in alterations and additions and that at the time of the fire the mill held bags of rags and wool worth £5000. All his stock and capital was therefore tied up in the mill and business and was “the result of many years continuous hard work”. The article states that “people speak of him as a considerate employer and a kind-hearted friend”.

Bradford Daily Telegraph – Thursday 8th June 1899

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Within six months of their father’s death the partnership between the brothers was dissolved.[20] By this time John and Frankland Waring were already effectively running William Baxter & Co. and by 1911 the other siblings had given up their shares in the business, so they had sole ownership.[21] The business prospered and in 1911 Frankland Waring moved to Crow Trees, a large estate on Killinghall Road.[22] Then, in 1917 they sold land and buildings around the mill to Arthur Henzen, a local wool merchant. In the deed of this transaction Frankland Waring is recorded as a “retired wool extractor”.[23] On 15 January 1918 the business, remaining land and property was sold to Walker Huggan and Co Ltd., worsted spinners with premises on Gibson Street.[24] Baxter & Co continued to be listed in trade directories until about 1923.

In 1926 A Notice of Appointment of Liquidators was lodged and the company was dissolved in 1934. [25] The William Baxter & Co trail then disappears from the records.

Since 1970 Raglan Mills, now called Laurel Works, has been occupied by Wm Spence (Sheet Metal) Ltd. Raglan Mills still stands today, fundamentally unchanged since 1899. It is a testament to the men who rarely figure in Bradford’s textile history. This is just one story, and there are many other rag merchants in Bradford who turned everyday rags to riches.

Endnotes 1. Bradford Local Studies Library, Kelly’s and Post Office 13. WYAS, Bradford Archives– City of Bradford Year Books Bradford Directories 1850 – 1934 1876-1882 2. B aptism 17 March 1802. West Yorkshire Archive Service. 14. Electoral Roll and UK Census; Bradford a Local Studies Bradford. St. Peter’s Bradford 40/D/1/19 Library 3. W est Yorkshire Archive Service (WYAS), Wakefield 15. WYAS, WHC, WRRD - Index 1888-1900 History Centre (WHC), West Riding Registry of Deeds 16. Bradford Daily Telegraph 08.06.1899 (WRRD) Year 1865, Volume YM, Page 626, Document 17. Bradford Daily Telegraph 28.02.1902. Denton Waring number 706 died on 27 February 1902 4. Bradford Observer 24.12.1875 18. Probate Register 17 June 1902, proved at Wakefield.

5. WYAS, WHC, WRRD, Year 1867, Volume 35, Page 741, WYAS, WHC, Wills April – June 1902 Document number 706 19. WYAS, Bradford Archives, 28D77/14/1/91 Undercliffe 6. WYAS, WHC, WRRD, Condensed Index 1864-1872, for Cemetery Consecrated Burials 1901-1902 example Year 1868,Volume 614 Page 457, Document 20. The London Gazette 10.03.1903 number 537 7. Leeds Mercury 17.11.1868; Bradford Observer 07.01.1869 8. Probate Register 30 November 1872, proved at Wakefield. WYAS, WHC, Wills Oct -Dec 1872

Raglan Mills today (seen on the left in the picture above)

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21. WYAS, WHC, WRRD, Year 1902, Volume 52, Page 474, Document number 228; Year 1903, Volume 54, Page 524, Document number 242; Year 1911, Volume 21, Page 366, Document number 148

22. UK Census; Bradford Local Studies Library – Map 9. WYAS, WHC, WRRD, Year 1873, Volume 693, Page 429, 23. WYAS, WHC, WRRD, Year 1917, Volume 29, Page 470, Deed 502,503,504 Document number 170 10. Bradford Observer 24.12.1875 24. WYAS, WHC, WRRD, Year 1918, Volume 3, Page 236, 11. Probate Register 17 June 1902, proved at Wakefield.

Document number 80 WYAS, WHC, Wills April-June 1902 25. The London Gazette 31.12.1926 12. Bradford Daily Telegraph 01.11.1882 and various newspaper articles

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Dangerous Rags Tracey Williams

The rag sorting business was dirty and could be extremely dangerous for the workers who handled rags every day. The grinding process created an enormous amount of dust which would then be inhaled. Rooms were poorly ventilated and respiratory illnesses were common. Being poorly paid, rag workers often had to continue working when they were ill. Crowded hot workrooms provided the perfect conditions for infectious diseases to spread. In 1883 an outbreak of smallpox was reported at the home of David Murgatroyd, a rag boiler at a paper mill in Goose Eye, Keighley. The patient was his 17 year old daughter, a rag sorter at the mill.[1]

In some instances it was the actual rags that transmitted the diseases. “Shoddy Fever” had been identified in the 1840s as a form of bronchitis resulting from prolonged exposure to shoddy dust that led to repeated attacks Bradford Daily Telegraph, March 12 1888 of fever which weakened the lungs and could [2] lead to “pulmonary consumption”. Another source of infection came from imported rags. Imports from Spain in 1885 and Italy in 1887 were banned because of the fear of spreading cholera.[3] Rag workers also fell foul of anthrax or rag sorters disease, also known as the Bradford disease or wool sorters disease.[4] Rag Pickers Disorder was identified in 1888 amongst Austrian rag sorters, the condition producing symptoms of pleuro-pneumonia and patients dying within seven days.[5] Respiratory illnesses would have been a constant risk for rag workers, with fibres being inhaled from a wide range of textiles. Exposure to soiled rags, some stained with blood and other emissions, also put them at risk of infections. Working with scissors included the risk that any cut could easily become infected and septic.

Rag workers were also exposed to other dangers in the workplace. The drying room at Raglan Mill was the scene of an accident involving two young men, John Devine aged 17 and Alfred Studhall, 23.[6] An explosion of a chemical substance used in the drying of rags resulted in the men being seriously burnt and being taken to Bradford Infirmary. The rag warehouse of Arthur Pickles was also the scene of the death of John Sweeney who fell into a fire there in 1904.[7] 40

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A major risk for rag merchants and their workers was the danger of fire. These not only caused damage to premises and loss of stock but also temporary loss of work to the rag workers. Often the cause of the blaze was the spontaneous combustion of rags. The fires often spread rapidly because the bales of rags were often tightly packed together and were improperly stacked. The presence of grease was also a contributing factor. Other factors included timber flooring, dilapidated buildings and limited means to extinguish fires once they had started. Local newspapers are full of reports of fires in rag warehouses.[8] A fire at a rag mill in Drighlington belonging to Middleton, a rag extractor, was caused by refuse from the machines overheating and setting fire to bags of rags.[9] The roof fell in but the damage was covered by insurance. Quick work by firemen at the premises of rag merchants David Thomas & Co in January 1881 meant that the fire was speedily extinguished and damage did not exceed £40.[10] In November 1899 a fire broke out at John Richard Burrows rag warehouse on Gratton Road in Bradford. The potential cause was attributed to a pile of greasy rags.

[11] The fire was discovered by two policemen who had seen thick smoke coming from the building and called the fire brigade. Part of the building was occupied by two women and a child and the policemen braved the suffocating smoke to rescue them. The damage had been minimal and the financial impact would also have been temporary as rags were a cheap stock to replace. The rag merchant, John Richard Burrows, continued to use these premises until 1929.

It is difficult to know just how many of the Bradford rag workers suffered in later life from illness or injuries incurred during their time in the rag industry.

Endnotes 1. Bradford Daily Telegraph: Monday 12 March 1888 2. AB Reach “The Yorkshire Textile Districts in 1849”, edited by C. Aspin (Helmshore Local History Society, 1974), pages 7-10 3. Leeds Mercury: 30 December 1885 www.ivybridgeheritage.org/archive/the-use-ofrags-in-paper-making

6. Bradford Observer: 22 April 1882, Yorkshire Post & Leeds Intelligencer: 22 April 1882 7. Bradford Daily Telegraph: Monday 21 November 1904 8. For example Bradford Observer: 8 July 1874: Bradford Daily Telegraph : 22 May 1903 9. Bradford Observer: 4 September 1882

10. Bradford Daily Telegraph: 14 January 1881 4. Richard M Swiderski “Anthrax : a history”,(MacFarland 11. Bradford Daily Telegraph: 22 November 1899 & Company Publishers), pages 10-29 5. Hull Daily Mail: Wednesday 26 September 1888

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Exhibition: Industrial Museum, Bradford

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John Marshall Tracey Williams

The life of John Marshall had many similarities with the lives of his contemporaries in Bradford in the late 19th century. He had a number of different professions before he started dealing in rags. At various times in his life John is listed as herbalist, greengrocer, rag dealer, rag merchant and marine store dealer in the Bradford trade directories and census returns.

In the 1881 census he was described as a herbalist and greengrocer. He lived at 13 Ingleby Street with his wife Grace, and their two children, Mary Elizabeth, a worsted spinner and William Henry, a scholar. A newspaper report revealed that in June 1890 John was in the dock of Bradford Borough Police Court charged, under the Worsted Act , with having possessed a quantity of wool which he was suspected of having purloined or embezzled. [1] However, it appears that the evidence was inconclusive and he was discharged.

In the 1891 census John was described as a widower and lived alone, his children having married. His daughter had become a rag picker and her husband a rag dealer.[2] He had set up business as a rag merchant although the census described him as being neither employer nor employed. In the electoral register for 1894-5 he was listed as occupying both 13 & 120 Ingleby Street.[3] The following year he was only occupying the latter address. In 1898 he suffered another loss with the death of his daughter.[4] By the 1901 census he was described as being a herbalist and rag dealer on his own account but he also employed a housekeeper, Mary Brannon aged 50, who was also a rag sorter. It was at this time that events in his personal life took a serious turn.

On 20th November 1901, at the age of 59, John became the subject of a Bastardy Order.[5] He was accused by Margaret Cooper of fathering her child. He was ordered to pay 3 shillings a week for the maintenance and education together with £1. 4s. 6d in costs and 10 shillings for expenses relating to the birth of the child. Prison records show that the following day John attempted suicide by trying to cut his throat with a razor whilst under the influence of drink.[6] Suicide was a criminal offence at the time and those attempting to take their lives were often sent to prison or asylums. John was remanded in custody for a week.

Newspaper articles suggested that the maintenance order had a depressing effect on him and that he had become ‘strange’ telling his son that ‘I shall do away with myself before I shall pay it’. A report in the Bradford Daily Telegraph described how

he had prepared to shave himself at two o’clock in the afternoon.[7] His housekeeper became suspicious as he had only shaved the previous evening. When questioned he replied that he was ‘shaving himself forever’ and that ‘I shall do it and pay ‘em off.’

He was found by his housekeeper with blood gushing from his throat having tried to sever his own windpipe. It was stated that he said he was sorry he had not ‘finished it’ and would do so again if he got the opportunity. Although there seemed little hope of recovery he did indeed survive.

John was later discharged by the court and moved in with his son William, his wife Emily and adopted daughter Florence Barwick. William had promised the court that he would look after him, he may have had a good reason to be concerned about his mental state. [8] In the 1911 census John was described as a licensed peddler, herbalist and hair specialist in business on his own account, living at 81 Bingley Street, a road running parallel to his former homes on Ingleby Street. He no longer worked with rags but had lived a life torn apart by loss and despair.

Endnotes 1. Bradford Daily Telegraph: 17 June 1890 2. 1891 census RG12/3632 3. Burgess Roll 1894-95, MAN/1/1066 (Manningham Ward. Polling district No.1 p1066) 4. GRO ref: Oct-Dec 1898

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5. West Yorkshire, England, Bastardy Records, 1690-1914 (P/16/7/16 Court Orders 1901) 6. A Calendar of Prisoners Tried at the General Quarter sessions of the Peace for the Year 1902 7. Bradford Daily Telegraph: 21 November 1901 8. Bradford Daily Telegraph: 10 January 1902

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Abraham Topley Tracey Williams

Abraham Topley’s handwritten will

Abraham Topley wrote his will on the day he sailed from Southampton, disembarking at Le Havre the following day. [1] But who was Abraham Topley?

One thing we do know is that he worked as a rag gatherer and lived at various addresses in Bradford. We know this because he was listed in the Creed Registers of the Bradford Workhouse.[3] These registers survive from 1869 onwards and record the religious beliefs of inmates so that appropriate arrangements could be made regarding their education and/or burials. Names were listed alphabetically, along with the year of birth, their trade, their last known residence and the name and address of their nearest relative. Their admission date was also given together with the date of discharge. Sometimes a reason for discharge was given, for example death or removal to a different workhouse/asylum.

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Abraham was admitted to the workhouse on 26th July 1907, for a week. He lived at 6 Adelaide Street and worked as a wool comber. He was admitted for another week on July 9th 1907. In 1913, his trade was given as rag gatherer and he was admitted three times:

1st April 1913 for 20 days, with his home address given as Adelaide Street.

6th May 1913 for 14 days, with his address given as Sackville Street.

19th June 1913 for 11 days, with his address given as Abraham Gate.

The changes of address may indicate that he lived with other members of his family, friends or in a lodging house.

In 1914, again working as a rag gatherer he resided at Westgate, he was admitted on 29th June for 14 days. In his last entry in the Creed Register on 14th October, he had returned to Sackville Street and he was admitted for 3 days. For each of the entries his father Harry is listed as being his nearest known relative, residing at 50 Oswald Street.

Named after his grandfather , Abraham was born in 1878 , the year his parents, Henry or “Harry” (a card grinder) and Harriet Goodwin, were married. [6] He had seven siblings. (Eva, James, Duke, Amy, Harry, John and Harriet). [7] In the 1891 Census he was 12 years old and worked as a wool spinner and lived with his family at 50 Oswald Street. In 1901 he lived at the same address with his widowed father and his siblings but he worked as a wool loom hand.[8] [4]

[5]

Life would appear to have been hard for Abraham. In January 1903 he was convicted of breaking and entering the warehouse of James Stafford and stealing an apron and other articles for which he was sentenced to three months with hard labour. [9] On his release he stole again, this time an overcoat and watch for which he received two periods of six weeks hard labour. The Leeds Mercury 17th November 1903 reported that Topley admitted his offences but he said that the thefts were committed on account of his poverty. The 1911 Census lists him as working as a labourer in a dye house and boarding at 17 Rawson Road.

Perhaps a shilling a day as well as proper food and clothing, together with favourable living conditions, appealed to Abraham, as a month after leaving the workhouse he joined the 6th West Yorkshire Regiment on 11th November 1914. [10] Indeed, he may have been inspired by his brother James, who had signed up in 1902. [11] He may even 48

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have been influenced by death of his wayward brother William who took his own life in September 1905 at the Methodist Chapel on Ingleby Road.[12] Whatever the reason, his army record described him as 5 ft 3” with a 35” chest. He had brown hair and eyes with good vision and good physical development. He had a fair complexion and a tattoo on his left forearm. He weighed 135lbs and his religion was Church of England.

However, there is a discrepancy with his age as he gave it as 30 instead of being 36 and this may have been to make sure that he was signed up.

In 1915 he trained at “the Dukeries” in Nottinghamshire and later moved to Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain for battle training. However, his record shows that during this time he struggled with army life. Charges were brought for being absent from the tattoo and from duty, drunkenness, insolence and damaging government property.

His record shows that he did see active service and was at Etaples and Amiens. He was discharged on 20th May 1919. However, the following day he enlisted in the Labour Corps at the age of 40. He was later discharged on 26th April 1920.

It seems ironic that after serving for his country, receiving the Victory Medal and the British War Medal, [13] the last thing known about Topley is a letter written by him stating that he had not received his discharge papers and consequently could not get anything at the Labour Exchange. His life probably continued to be precarious and dominated by poverty.

Endnotes 1. War Diaries (France, Belgium and Germany) 1914-1920 for Prince of Wales’s Own (West Yorkshire) Regiment 7. www.ancestry.co.uk Census return: RG12/3636 image 704 . Image of his will reproduced from www.

8. www.ancestry.co.uk Census return: RG13/4159 Ancestry.co.uk The National Archives (TNA): British Army WW1 service Records, 1914-1920 9. Yorkshire Evening Post: 17 April 1903: Leeds Mercury: 18 April 1903 3. West Yorkshire Archive Service (WYAS), Bradford Archives Board of Guardians Creed Registers BU6/4/10, 10. www.Ancestry.co.uk TNA, British Army WW1 service BU6/4/11, BU6/4/12 Records, 1914-1920

4. www.ancestry.co.uk Census Return: RG11/4467

11. ibid

5. www.freebmd.org.uk GRO ref: Jul - Sep 1878 Bradford 12. Bradford Daily Telegraph: 4 September 1905 9b.155 13. www.ancestry.co.uk TNA, British Army WW1 Medal 6. www.freebmd.org.uk GRO ref: Jan - Mar 1878 Bradford Roll Index cards 1914-20 and 9b.288 WW1 Service Medal & Award Roll 1914-2

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Stories from the charity shop Kelly Etherington

Between 1992 and 1994, I studied the history of the Industrial Revolution at GCSE level. I passed with a B, learning things about the city I grew up in along the way.

From the remarkable technological progress to the dreadful plight of the human labour caught up in this time. However, I feel I have learned far more about Bradford today (and how it came to be) through a combination of years in the charity shop sector and by engaging these experiences in the Worn Stories Project.

seen various films and programmes devoted to the rag trade – especially overseas, as the presenters weave through the bustling marketplaces, inspecting the wares. Karl Pilkington rhapsodising over a British Gas engineers’ top was a highlight! [1] To see the bewilderment, fascination and curiosity of the workers in India in one documentary [2] , as they marvelled over the XXL clothing, the bejewelled dresses, the alien script of various slogans and statements – once adorning the walking billboards of clothing companies based thousands of miles away. Other parts of the project focused on the past. I really enjoyed the task of creating a ballad for Ellen Tring – a worker whose life would be considered shockingly deprived by today’s standards, but was fairly normal for the time.

The project has shown that people come a long way, both in the quantities of clothing the world can now produce thanks to advances in machinery, to the variety that even the poorer sections of society now have access to. However, the dangers, poverty and lack of basic rights have not improved worldwide. The industry still has many questions to answer. It needs the courage to look inward, as do the people who make the purchases. What did one child have to suffer to make clothes for another?

This project has taught me a great deal about the work I took for granted. It has added a new layer of purpose to the role. For that, I will be eternally grateful.

Oral history recording, Hive

Jobs, after a while, become mechanical. Little thought goes into the work. I had long since stopped thinking about the process. Only through this project has my mind awakened once more to what I do. The inspection of the garment. The value of one piece of cloth over another – often little more than whose name is on it. The sheer volume of what comes through the door that is classed as throwaway. Tops that cost less brand new than a large coffee. Jeans designed for just one fast fashion moment. Even the coat – once seen as an investment piece – is now only “good” for the winter that went before its arrival through our door.

We sell what we can. Ultimately the garments we receive are to raise money.

But we can’t save it all. There are no machines for cleaning the dirty clothes, not enough volunteers to carry out even the simplest of sewing tasks, no hope for some of the donations that come through. Too threadbare, too stained etc. This means the rag man is never going away with an empty van. The Worn Stories project has made me think more about what happens once we lock our fire doors behind the rag merchant and they go on their way. I have read several articles, 50

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Kelly recorded two oral history interviews as part of the project about her experience of working in the charity shop sector. Transcripts are available on our website.

Endnotes 1. An Idiot Abroad, Season 2, Episode 5, 21st April 2011 2. Unravel: The final resting place of your cast off clothing, Aeon Film, Dir: Meghna Gupta, 2016 https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=bOOI5LbQ9B8

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Wardrobe Dealers: Women and Second-Hand Clothes Jennie Kiff

Rag businesses in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were largely run by men with women working as employees in the lowest paid parts of the process. However, women dominated another aspect of textile recycling, second hand clothes. Some had their own businesses, and they are often referred to in the records as Wardrobe dealers.[1] These businesses were scattered across Bradford and many were on the fringes of wealthy areas, such as Manningham. The gender orientation of this business is reflected in the 1912 directory where there are thirty three female wardrobe dealers and just fifteen men.[2]

Sorting clothes at Randisi Textile Recycling Ltd. 52

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Alice Burrows (1830 –1890)

There is evidence that at least one family in Bradford straddled both parts of the recycling business. The Burrows family were active as rag merchants and wardrobe dealers. Their success as rag merchants from the 1860s to the 1930s, led to the business expanding to take over rag businesses in Batley.[3] The founder of the rag business was Ephraim Burrows and his wife, Alice Whitaker.[4] By 1861 they were both working as ‘dealers in rags’ at 1258 Bradford Road.[5] Alice may have been unable to write her Worn Stories: Material and Memory in Bradford 1880-2015

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own name but this was not a barrier to running her own business.[6] A Bradford trade directory in 1879 listed her as a ‘Clothes Dealer’ at 364 Leeds Road.[7] It is unclear how long this business lasted. After Ephraim’s death in 1884 she appears to have reverted to housekeeping for her son John Richard Burrows.[8] A studio photograph taken in Bradford shows Alice dressed in mourning and was probably taken between 1884 and 1890. Although Alice appears to have retired her sons continued to run the family rag business and her daughters worked as wardrobe dealers.

Alice’s eldest daughter was Narissa who married Jonas Walton in 1877.[9] Her initial business may have faced problems as in April 1880 a notice in a Bradford newspaper suggests that Narissa had incurred debts.[10] Jonas Walton worked as a new and old clothes dealer in 1883 at 11 Bolling Street. [11] By 1887 Mrs Narissa Walton had resumed work as a clothes dealer at 20 Buck Street and Jonas had a separate business as an old clothes dealer at 61 Broom Street.[12] In 1890 Narissa married John Adams but kept her former surname for business purposes. [13] In the census returns for 1891 and 1901 Narissa is recorded as a wardrobe dealer and by 1911 Narissa, now listed as Adams and a widow, lived at 45 Wakefield Road. She is described as an employer at home working alongside her eldest daughter, Narissa Elizabeth and son in law, Horace Silver, both wardrobe dealers. Narissa Adams died in 1926 and divided her estate between her daughters and her son, George Whitaker Walton. Her will, written in June 1917, provides a fascinating insight into her possessions included a square oak dining table, blue plush suite in the drawing room, a large hand painted screen and a piano. [14] Her business was handed over to her daughters Narissa Elizabeth and Gertrude Naylor, her daughter with John Adams.

Mary Ann was another daughter of Alice and Ephraim Burrows and had her own business prior to her marriage in 1902. In 1887 Mary Ann Burrows was listed in a Bradford trade directory as a rag merchant at 15 Poole Alley. Her name appears alongside her brothers, John Richard and Henry Burrows. Female rag merchants are unusual and it seems to have been a temporary expedient in response to the sudden departure of her brother George.[15] In the 1891 census Mary was listed as a shop assistant, but we do not know if this was in a second hand clothes shop. On her marriage certificate in 1902 her profession is given as a second hand clothes dealer living at 364 Bowling Back Lane.[16] 54

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Alice Emma was another daughter of Alice and Ephraim Burrows. She married Thomas Throup in 1883 at the age of sixteen and her sister Mary was a witness. [17] Alice does not appear in the trade directories as a second hand clothes dealer until 1898. Her business premises were at 49 Bolling Street, the same street that Jonas Walton had run his business in 1883. [18] In 1911 the census listed Alice Throup as a wardrobe dealer living at 44 City Road and in 1912 she had moved to 49 City Road.[19] The Burrows family operated in different aspects of the rags and clothing business but they also remained physically close in the 19th century. In 1881 John Richard Burrows lived at 21 Guy Street not far from his sister Narissa. [20] In 1887 he lived at 24 Robert Street and his sister Mary Ann Burrows lived at 27 Robert Street. [21] The daughters of Ephraim and Alice Burrows, Narissa, Mary Ann and Alice all lived and worked in close proximity. They were a family business and rags were at the heart of their success.

Endnotes 1. The term ’wardrobe dealer’ and ‘second hand clothes dealer’ are interchangeable in the Bradford Trade Directories.

12. Bradford Post Office Directory 1883, White’s Trade Directory 1887. It is possible that Narissa and Jonas had separated by this time.

2. Bradford Post Office Directory 1912

13. The marriage was registered Oct-Dec 1890. No death

certificate can be found for Jonas Walton, it is possible 3. Jennie Kiff, ‘From Rags to Riches: The Burrows Family’, that the marriage to Adams was bigamous.

The Antiquary (Bradford Historical and Antiquarian Society, no 79, 2018) 14. West Yorkshire Archive Service, Wakefield History Centre, Wills Oct - Nov 1926. Probate proved 6th 4. April 1st 1849 at St. Peter’s, Bradford. Alice was November 1926. eighteen and Ephraim twenty five, both were in textile trades.

15. On 26th January 1886 he was charged with the receipt of stolen goods knowing them to be stolen. Released on bail he fled to New York where his son was baptised 6. Private correspondence with Alice’s descendants who on 24th April 1886. believe that she was deaf and dumb but I can find no 16. Mary Burrows married Charles Frederick Peachey firm evidence for this.

17. 15th June 1883, they were both sixteen and lived in 7. Whites Trade Directory Bradford 1879 Garnett Street, Bradford.

8. Ephraim died on 25th November 1884 at the Union 18.

Post Office Directory Bradford 1898 workhouse infirmary in Horton, at the age of sixty 10. 29th July 1877 at St. Peter’s Bradford. Jonas, a stoker, 19. Post Office Directory Bradford 1912 5. RG 9/3317 1861 census

was aged twenty eight and Narissa aged twenty four

20. Post Office Directory Bradford 1881

11. Bradford Observer - Thursday 22 April 1880. It stated 21. White’s Directory of Bradford 1887 that Jonas Walton will not be responsible for any debts of his wife Mrs N Walton.

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Warehouse, Randisi Textile Recycling Ltd. 56

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Conclusion: Contemporary Rags Claire Wellesley-Smith

‘We live in an age of disposable materials, I’ve realised how valuable cloth used to be.’ Project participant

cloth and clothing as inspiration for innovatory materials development and trend prediction.

The Worn stories project used the heritage of textile recycling in the city to inspire and encourage new ways of thinking about the textiles we use today. Far from being a project that looked backwards it aimed to bring the past and present together through conversations and the use of materials. In the community-based projects and at the bi-weekly ‘Talking Textiles’ sessions based at Hive we were able to offer practical and creative activities, informal conversations and textile reminiscing, and opportunities to talk about the issues related to the global textile industry today.

A Hive volunteer, who also has a long history of working in charity shops, offered for project participants a step-by-step description of the journey of discarded clothing from the doorstep charity bag pick up to the shop floor and the rag man. She commented, ‘The charity shop remains one of the most inclusive elements in society.

Everyone, regardless of skill set is welcome to work there. Everyone, regardless of personal wealth is welcome to shop there. They provide an affordable, ecological and personality-focused (rather than being one of the herd) environment in which to shop.’ A textile recycling hub was also developed at Hive where we specifically recycled textiles to be used in creative projects. Fabrics for dressmaking, creative textile activities, wool and threads were all available. Project participants and Hive members were encouraged to make use of, and donate to, the recycling hub. Items from the hub were also taken out into the community for ‘Craft Pick and Mix’ stalls where children could collect things for making projects at home.

Upcycling and mending clothing to be worn again and reinventing waste textiles is a small part of the jigsaw in the currently unsustainable global textile industry. When first developing the Worn Stories project we looked at Bradford Council’s ‘Municipal Waste Minimisation and Management Strategy’ (2014) that covers all areas of waste reduction in the city including textiles. It acknowledged that ‘The success of waste reduction and reuse messages will largely depend on the level of involvement by the public and the communities they live in,’ emphasising the need for ‘Special provision … needed to cover the significant student, transient and ethnic groups, if the messages are to reach all of the district.’ The project was planned in the lead up to the WRAP Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP) 2020 commitment. SCAP’s ambition is to improve the sustainability of textiles and clothing across their lifecycles. Worn Stories worked to address some of the issues identified as challenges to communities, namely the 700,000 tonnes of textile waste generated in the UK annually the doubling of global clothing production between 2000 and 2015, and the 36% decline in the average number of times a garment is worn before disposal. [1] The practical sessions delivered during the project included activities related to the issues connected to our consumption of clothing, the value we attach to our garments, textile life cycles and socially beneficial ways of sourcing clothing (charity shops, swaps, lending…). The project took us from the stories of nineteenth century rag workers to the contemporary clothes recycling businesses based on the same street today as Wm Baxter and Co in 1880. The movement of rags in and out of the city in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was explored alongside mapping the life cycle of a polyester blouse. Textile undergraduates at Bradford School of Art took part in a live brief working with the themes of the project and visited Hield Brothers Ltd, Bradford-based weavers since 1922. They used historical recycling and re-use of 58

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The Talking Textile groups were encouraged to explore their wardrobes and in ‘Open Wardrobe’ sessions were asked to bring a garment from home to talk about.

Often these sessions were illustrated with photographs of the garment being worn, sometimes decades ago. We heard stories about a Clothkits duffel coat, a nineteen sixties playsuit, a snakeskin handbag, a smart tweed suit, and some very colourful patchwork shorts. ‘I have really enjoyed the sharing of bits of our family histories via garments or textile objects from the past generations.’ (F, 23) Looking at ordinary clothing and telling stories of everyday life, sometimes mundane, sometimes extraordinary, offered an opportunity to talk about the changing ways we buy, wear and dispose of our textiles today. The same group explored ways of mending, repairing and embellishing garments. This led to an interesting discussion about the current textile trend of ‘visible mending’. This embraces the idea of showing the process, the age and use of a garment perhaps with a vibrant mismatched patch on an elbow, or a darn stitched to be seen. Talking Textiles is a multi-generational group and social attitudes to mending and repair varied hugely. A member of the group who grew up in Bradford in the 1950’s commented, ‘Only someone who can afford not to mend something would show a repair off… there’s nothing glamorous about poverty.’

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clothing. Discussion of fast fashion raised conflicting views in the Roshni Ghar group when we discussed the changing domestic roles of women when managing household textiles. ‘Is cheaper stuff good? It’s less work for women but nobody has skills anymore. Machines speed everything up. Poverty meant that materials were important, we are not poor like that here in the UK but some are still poor back home [in Pakistan] and materials still get reused. Fashion is faster too we are always seeing new styles, new stuff. We like to have matching shoes and accessories. The young people in our community are always throwing things away [she holds up handbag] this was my granddaughters. It is frustrating.’

At Hive, our Polyester Project was inspired by the Top 100 Project at Chelsea College of Art. Polyester, a synthetic fibre, is popular but problematic as it could take 200 years to decompose in landfill. It is cheap to buy and is often disposed of quickly despite being hard-wearing and easy to wash. Our groups were challenged to upcycle a collection of polyester garments sourced from local charity shops. Many of the garments, mostly shirts and blouses, had been deemed too poor quality to sell on the shop floor and would have instead been sold to the local rag merchant. Disperse dyes, printed and painted onto recycled paper and then ironed onto the garments, embroidery and other embellishments were used to transform these items. As a group we talked about how we can give ordinary garments more longevity.

The Worn Stories project allowed us to look at textile stories in detail and have sometimes challenging conversations about clothes, class, clothing poverty and what this means today. As a participant at the SHINE group observed ‘When there is profit and supply and demand how can you change a system? It’s the global economy. Whether you buy cheap or expensive it’s still sweated labour.’ Using this underexplored and sometimes difficult heritage as a ‘way in’ to our discussions about the textile industry today gave an additional depth to our projects and community conversations.

‘I wish I could get other people to realise how everything is interconnected and how important Bradford history is and how it can potentially bring people together.

Talking about our heritage is all our shared heritage and if you can only get people engaged with that potentially you can break down barriers.’ Project participant Endnotes 1. WRAP http://www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/valuing-our-clothes-the-cost-of-uk-fashion_WRAP.pdf

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Textile bank, Laurel Street, Leeds in Road Worn recycling Stories: Material and Memory Bradford 1880-2015

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Glossary

Selected bibliography

Botany / merino wool – A fine wool from the Merino sheep, an early name for imports from Australia and New Zealand. Widely used in the production of worsted cloth.

Brooks, Andrew. Clothing Poverty: The hidden world of fast fashion and second-hand clothes. London: Zed Books, 2015

Devil – Local term for a machine that grinds up rags (soft and hard). It had a cylinder set with sharp iron teeth and revolved rapidly tearing up the rags. The rags were converted into a fibre or flock suitable for being mixed with sheep’s wool to make shoddy and mungo.

Burrows, Hermann. A History of the rag trade. London: Maclaren, 1956

Devil’s dust – Waste made during the rag grinding process.

Donkey Stone - A scouring block made from pulverised stone, bleach powder and water. Used mostly in the mill towns of Northern England to clean and decorate stone front door steps.

Hemmings, Jessica. Cultural Threads. London: Bloomsbury, 2014 Hills, Richard Leslie. Papermaking in Britain 1488 – 1988: A Short History. London: Bloomsbury, 2015 Hall, Alan. The Story of Bradford. Stroud: The History Press, 2013 Jenkins, D.T. and Ponting, K.C. The British Wool Textile Industry 1770-1914. London: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd. 1982

Druggets – Coarse woollen felted fabric.

Jubb, Samuel. A History of the Shoddy Industry. London: Houlston and Wright, 1860

Mungo – Material made after a process of tearing up hard rags. Poorer quality than shoddy. The name is attributed to Benjamin Parr of Batley who, when told by his workers that a tightly woven cloth would not go through his machinery, replied ‘It mun go!’ [It must go]

Richmond, Vivienne. Clothing the poor in nineteenth-century England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2013

Noils – Short wool fibres from worsted combing processes.

Rag grinding/ pulling – process by which rags were reduced to a fibrous state ready for blending and spinning.

Shalwar kameez – Traditional outfit originating from the Indian subcontinent. When worn by women it comprises a head scarf, shalwar (trousers) and kameez (long shirt).

Shell, Hanna Rose, “Shoddy heap: A material history between waste and manufacture”, History and Technology, vol. 30, no.4, (2014) pp. 374 – 394 Robert Thornton and Sons (Dewsbury) Ltd. A Story of Woollen Rag Sales 1860 – 1960.

London: Harley Publishing Company Ltd. 1960 http://www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/valuing-our-clothes-the-cost-of-uk-fashion_ WRAP.pdf

Shoddy – fibrous waste obtained by mechanically tearing soft rags, such as hosiery but also worsted fabric then blended with noils or new wool to make a heavy woollen cloth.

Wardrobe Dealer – Second-hand clothes dealer.

Wool extraction (carbonising) a method of extracting wool from mixed fibre rags removing the cotton using hydrochloric acid . The wool remaining was very poor quality.

Worsted – A fine, smooth yarn spun from a combed long staple wool, often merino, and the cloth made from this yarn.

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About Hive Worn Stories was co-ordinated by Claire Wellesley-Smith, the historical consultant was Jennie Kiff and sessions were supported by CarolAnn Allen, Carolyn Fateryha, Simon Allan and Lee Thompson.

Hive has worked for over 35 years to promote and deliver activities across Bradford. In our unique non-traditional learning environment, with access to all areas of visual arts and crafts, we provide opportunities for personal development through courses and a creative space. Our outreach projects use creativity to engage participants in activities that address wellbeing, better mental health, community cohesion and heritage.

Acknowledgements National Lottery Heritage Fund Hive staff and volunteers Roshni Ghar, Keighley Community Works, Undercliffe SHINE, West Bowling St Walburga’s R C Primary School Bradford Refugee Action Bradford Local Studies Library West Yorkshire Archives Lizzie Llabres and Lauren Padgett, Bradford Industrial Museum Worn stories volunteers – Kelly Etherington, Caroline Perry, Ann Colley, Helen Collier, Carolyn Knowland, Alison Cook, Liz Porter, Elisabeth Macdonald, Susan Oliver, Tracey Williams, Amanda Szekely, Judy White, Lila Jovanovic.

Hield Brothers Ltd. Randisi Textiles Recycling Ltd. William Spence (Sheet Metal) Ltd. Bradford Hannah Lamb and Bradford School of Art Photography: ClaireWellesley-Smith, John Stainton, Carolyn Mendelsohn (cover image).

Design and artwork: White Mountain Creative. www.white-mountain.net Printed by Kolorco, Bradford. www.kolorco.co.uk on 100% recycled paper stock. www.hivebradford.org.uk 64

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