A historical background to The Mill, Series 2

2 July 2014

Chartism

Chartism was the largest working-class political movement of the 19th century. A huge gathering was organised by union leaders at Kersal Moor near Salford on 24 September 1838 to allow working class people to listen to Chartist speakers – a meeting we see in Series Two of The Mill. The People’s Charter contained six demands, all aimed at making elections fairer and inclusive of all men of all classes. These included the demand to allow all men over the age of 21 the vote. In 1842, after the Charter was rejected twice by Parliament, factory and mill workers across the country went on strike in retaliation.

1842 General Strike

The 1842 General Strike started among miners in Staffordshire and soon spread through Britain affecting factories, mills and coal mines in 14 England and eight Scottish counties, principally in the Midlands, Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire and the Strathclyde region of Scotland. The strike was influenced by the Chartist movement. There were outbreaks of serious violence, including the destruction of property and the ambushing of police convoys. The government deployed soldiers to suppress the violence and several Chartist leaders were arrested. During the late summer of 1842, hundreds were incarcerated. The strikers were eventually defeated by the practical consequences of lost earnings, however, and were left with no choice but to return to work to support their families. The General Strike began with the Plug Plot Riot – in an attempt to stop the machinery in their factory or mill, workers began removing boiler plugs from the steam engines, as well as vital nuts and bolts.

At Quarry Bank, Robert Hyde Greg closed the mill as a precautionary measure. When 500 ‘turnouts’ arrived at the mill, they demanded that the workers be released. Official reports stated that none of the workers at Quarry Bank wanted to join the strike. After three weeks the ‘turnouts’ moved on and the workers returned to the mill.

Slavery

By the middle of the 18th century British ships were carrying about 50,000 slaves a year. These ships sailed from Africa across the Atlantic where slaves who had survived the journey were sold to plantation owners in the West Indies and the southern colonies of America. They spent the rest of their lives working to produce goods like cotton, tobacco, sugar cane and coffee which were shipped back to Britain to be sold at a vast profit. The slave trade brought in huge amounts of money to Britain, and few people even knew what was going on in the plantations, let alone cared. After 1830, when the mood of the nation changed in favour of various types of reform, the antislavery campaign gathered momentum and in 1833 the Abolition of Slavery Act was passed.

Samuel Greg's brother-in-law owned a slave ship, while his uncle John Greg founded a sugar plantation in Dominica in 1765, known as Hillsborough, which had 71 male and 68 female slaves. Samuel and his brother Thomas inherited the plantation in 1795 after their uncle died. The plantation continued to be managed by John’s widow, Catherine, until her death in 1819. In January 1814, 20 slaves absconded. They were recaptured and punished with 100 lashes for the males and 50 for the females. In 1833, the Gregs freed their 128 slaves in accordance with the Emancipation Act, but back in England Quarry Bank Mill continued to use cotton picked by enslaved Africans in America.

Women

The status of women in the Victorian era is often seen as an illustration of the striking discrepancy between the United Kingdom's national power and wealth and what many, then and now, consider its appalling social conditions. During the era symbolised by the reign of British monarch Queen Victoria, women did not have suffrage rights, the right to sue, or the right to own property. At the same time, women participated in the paid workforce in increasing numbers following the Industrial Revolution. Feminist ideas spread among the educated female middle classes, discriminatory laws were repealed, and the women's suffrage movement gained momentum in the last years of the Victorian Era.

Costume

“Paintings of the working and poor, both contemporary and from earlier centuries – by artists ranging from Murillo, Velasquez and Chardin, to works by 19th century British painters on display in the Manchester Art Gallery – all provided inspiration for the costume for the second series of The Mill. Clothes and fabric in the collection at Platt Hall in Manchester were also useful reference. However, there are very few examples of working-class clothing existing from the 1830s, as clothes were worn till they were no longer wearable, and then used for patches and rags. Most clothes were obtained second-hand, if not third or fourth-hand, and many towns had a thriving trade in apparel. This was often recorded by contemporary artists to illustrate the plight of the poor.”

“Garments would be mended or altered as necessary, as sewing was a widespread skill among most women. Girls were taught it alongside basic numeracy and literacy in schools, such as those set up by Hannah Greg. Alternatively, the garments could be cut up and remade at home, or very occasionally made new from inexpensive fabric, using simple shapes and techniques. The materials used would be linen, cotton or wool. There were basic styles and shapes of country clothing which remained unaffected by fashion well into the 19th century. Clothes worn by the poor would therefore always appear old-fashioned in cut and shape, and it was indeed considered presumptions or morally dubious to appear too fashionable. Only the better-off, such as the Gregs or James Windell, have clothes dating from 1838 onwards, when Series Two begins.”

Rosalind Ebbutt, Costume Designer