Hundreds of weavers and spinners gaze into the camera as it pans across the workforce of a typical West Riding textile mill in Sutton in Craven.  It’s on the eve of the Second World War, and the mainly female workers are remarkable for their almost identical sensible hairstyles, no doubt designed to accommodate their dangerous occupation.   They are joined by grandparents and children, with the men staying farther afield, to witness the company bigwigs make fine speeches.  The mill started...

Hundreds of weavers and spinners gaze into the camera as it pans across the workforce of a typical West Riding textile mill in Sutton in Craven.  It’s on the eve of the Second World War, and the mainly female workers are remarkable for their almost identical sensible hairstyles, no doubt designed to accommodate their dangerous occupation.   They are joined by grandparents and children, with the men staying farther afield, to witness the company bigwigs make fine speeches. 

The mill started out as a corn mill when it was acquired by the Bairstow family before being converted to worsted spinning and manufacture in 1838, building a new mill in 1888.  Like many large firms of the period they had an Institute with a billiard room, a reading room and a large swimming pool.  As their 1920 booklet has it: “in fact, everything is provided for the comfort and welfare of workers after their labour”.  They even had a hostel to house fifty female employees, “girls”, from out of the area, which had tennis courts and organised classes and concerts.  The original small village grew to become Sutton Mill, with the mill employing over 700 hundred staff.  The mill closed in 1970 and was demolished in 1996.