by Becky Cherriman
The Leeds 2023 brief for Any work that wanted doing was to create artworks that responded to the stories of disabled millworkers and related research by curator Gill Crawshaw[i]. Textile artist Becky Moore and I worked together on My sisters hugged me to work, a multi-art piece, which is exhibited alongside other artworks at the Leeds Industrial Museum from 8th September 2023.
We were clear that we wanted the poem not just to reflect but to incorporate the voices of disabled mill workers. I began by seeking out the stories which feature in the Factory Inquiries Commission[ii] and a Sadler Report on regulating the labour of children in the mills and factories of the United Kingdom[iii]. It was harrowing to read relentless accounts from young mill workers of how long hours of standing at work from as young as 5-years-old had made them crooked or of how, as William Kenworthy articulated it, they were too hard worked for [their] meat[iv]. Given that their jobs often involved bending over or under machinery, workers were always upon the stretch[v] and this placed excessive stress on their joints and soft tissues, inevitably leading to chronic conditions. Workers suffered from respiratory conditions caused or worsened by their working environments, such as byssinosis[vi].
I have Joint Hypermobility Syndrome (JHS), and a history of pneumonia and respiratory problems so phrases like relaxed muscles[vii], I breathed quite short, and I did not get better of my crookedness resonated with me[viii]. These issues did not affect everyone, which suggests that some people may have had a genetic vulnerability to these changes. Perhaps some even had JHS or other forms of Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, although the condition was not named until 1936[ix].
In the factory commission, the way workers expressed the impact of their work ranged from very emotive, I was like killed with it: my legs were like to break in two to matter of fact – we were reckoned unlucky[x]. It was necessary for most disabled people from the working classes to work[xi]. Overlooker Joseph Gaskell commented in the Factory Inquiries Second Report, I do not see what they could do, or what they are fit for, except some work in factories[xii]. The bodies of workers like William Pickles were so changed by their work that they had to be half carried or hugged to the mill as bobbins were hugged up stairs [xiii].
Reading the dialect and diction of those who worked in the mill, Becky and I realised where some of the phrases we use today must have originated. For example, the heckling room was where fibres are split and straightened. It would have been loud and hectic like a comedy gig with people shouting and subjecting comedians to rough treatment.
As a poet, I am in love with the sound of words as well as their meaning. During my research, I came across delicious words that I only understood through their context e.g., we were straight as loichs before[xiv]. If anyone knows what a mill worker would have meant by a loich, let us know! I only hope I’m pronouncing it right when I read the poem. Mill language is wealthy with metaphor and the potential for ambiguity, which allows a poem or phrase to work in multiple ways at once. I enjoyed being playful with job titles like say maker and scribbler, which could equally apply to poets as to mill workers. I would like to think that excavating the language of the mill workers and repurposing it can play a small part in helping to preserve part of history, which is in danger of being lost. Perhaps it could even give those phrases a new life?
During our research trip to the archives at Sunny Bank Mills, Rachel Moaby the archivist explained that mill language was so sophisticated that each mill had its own individualised code book[xv]. This would have performed the dual function of reducing the risk of competitors from other mills gaining insider secrets whilst making telegrams cheaper to send due to the use of fewer characters. Becky and I wanted to hint at this history in the piece while lightly subverting the capitalist system it sprang from. As it is code, you will have to look closely at the work to find it!
With thanks to my artistic partner Becky Moore; curator Gill Crawshaw; Leeds 2023; writer support from Matthew Hedley Stoppard, Jessica Wright and Lynne Cade; Leeds Industrial Museum; Rachel Moaby; Sunny Bank Mills; and oral histories from June Pearce, Ronald Philip Teale, and David Pugh.
N.B. Parts 2 and 3 of this blog are to follow.
References
[i] Crawshaw, G. 2023, Any work that wanted doing. [Online] [Accessed 17.8.23]. Available from : https://anywork.org.uk/#:~:text=Any%20work%20that%20wanted%20doing%20is%20an%20exhibition%20that%20brings,2023%2C%20at%20Leeds%20Industrial%20Museum.
[ii] The House of Commons (1833a). FACTORIES INQUIRY COMMISSION. FIRST REPORT.THE CENTRAL BOARD OF HIS MAJESTY’S COMMISSIONERS appointed to collect Information in the Manufacturing Districts, as to the EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN IN FACTORIES, and as to the Propriety and Means of CURTAILING the HOURS of their LABOUR: The House of Commons.
[iii] The House of Commons (1832). REPORT FROM THE COMMITTEE ON THE "BILL to regulate the LABOUR of CHILDREN in the MILLS and "FACTORIES of the United Kingdom. The House of Commons.
[iv] Ibid, , p.78.
[v] Ibid, p.33.
[vi] Harris, T.R., Merchant, J.A., Kilburn, K.H. and Hamilton, J.D. (1972). Byssinosis and Respiratory Diseases of Cotton Mill Workers. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 14(3), pp.199–206. doi:https://doi.org/10.1097/00043764-197203000-00001.
[vii] The House of Commons (1833b). FACTORIES INQUIRY COMMISSION. SECOND REPORT 1833 Reports of medical commissioners. The House of Commons.
[viii] The House of Commons (1833a). FACTORIES INQUIRY COMMISSION. FIRST REPORT, p.38.
[ix] Parapia, L.A. and Jackson, C. (2008). Ehlers-Danlos syndrome – a historical review. British Journal of Haematology, 141(1), pp.32–35. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2141.2008.06994.x.
[x] The House of Commons (1833a). FACTORIES INQUIRY COMMISSION. FIRST REPORT. , p.72.
[xi] Ibid.
[xii] The House of Commons (1833b). FACTORIES INQUIRY COMMISSION. SECOND REPORT, p.6.
[xiii] The House of Commons (1833a). FACTORIES INQUIRY COMMISSION. FIRST REPORT, p.63.
[xiv] The House of Commons (1832). REPORT FROM THE COMMITTEE, pp.226-228.
[xv] Moaby, R. (2023). Discussion about History of Sunny Bank Mills. 22 May.
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