Description
This photograph was staged during an arranged visit to a mill. It was impossible for Humphrey Spender to be a secret observer in work places and homes. It is likely that this mill belongs to the Barlow family who helped to fund the Mass Observation study in Bolton. If you can help us to identify this mill then please leave a comment below.
Although I wasn’t born until 1948, the mills of Bolton were very familiar to me. I was always told that all of the mills in Bolton were cotton spinning – multi-storey brick buildings – except for one “weaving shed” in Kirkebrok Road which I used to walk past every morning on the way to school in the very early 1950s. The weaving shed had to be a single-storey building because of the weight of the looms. The building is still there, but now divided into industrial units.
That makes me think that Humphrey Spender’s photos might be of at least 2 separate mills – one spinning and one weaving.