by Selena Davies

When I was young, I worked in Boulton cotton mills in Lancashire, England.

After a cup of early morning tea, I started off to work. It took me ten minutes of walking to get there. I wore clogs, a shawl and a hat to keep me warm. My job began at six o’clock in the morning, we had a lunch break at noon and I ate the lunch I brought from home. The mill didn’t provide anything for us, they figured we were working for them, they weren’t working for us. After lunch, we kept on until six o’clock at night. We were used to the work, didn’t think anything of it.

Many visitors came to see the mill – we had groups of people visiting every day.

All of us working girls had a good time together, never a cross word among us.

After we got off at six, we would go out and have a good time, seeing whoever we could catch.