This film was donated to the YFA by Donald Eke, who made a number of films of the scouts in the Leeds area in the 1930s. Donald was a member of the Pudsey Civic Society, who acquired the film. The film was conceived during the war, around 1942/3, when the owners, the two Parker brothers, were both in the Homeguards, and met up there with a photographer called Rayner, who suggested making the film. From the film stock, it appears that the film was made over a 3 year period between 1946 and...

This film was donated to the YFA by Donald Eke, who made a number of films of the scouts in the Leeds area in the 1930s. Donald was a member of the Pudsey Civic Society, who acquired the film. The film was conceived during the war, around 1942/3, when the owners, the two Parker brothers, were both in the Homeguards, and met up there with a photographer called Rayner, who suggested making the film. From the film stock, it appears that the film was made over a 3 year period between 1946 and 1948, presumably as a promotional film, but also as a record of the company’s history. Nothing is known of the filmmakers, Norman Riley and Frank Laycock, who presumably would have been local, and the firm of Parkers went out of business some time ago, leaving little evidence of their existence save the memories of those who worked there (and perhaps the odd garment now to be found in a charity shop).   

Abraham Parker wasn’t one of the really big textile players, like the Taylors of Batley, Crowthers of Marsden, Amblers of Bradford, Hirsts of the Colne Valley, Crossleys of Halifax or the Fosters of Queensbury. These vied with one another as to who could build the most impressive house out on the moors. But there were plenty of smaller family firms as well, now lost in the mists of time.   Abraham Parker originally started out with his three brothers before branching off on his own. In 1910 he moved to Carlyle Road, Pudsey, before moving a short distance to Cemetery Road in 1933, the Grove Fabric Mill.  It held its sport day in Queens Park, and would play cricket against other mill teams, as seen in the film. 

Its heyday was between the beginning of the Second World War and about 1951 when demand was high (demand tends to go in cycles in the textile industry), and when it employed between 70 to 100 workers. It specialised in rayon (earlier known as ‘artificial silk’) which it brought in principally from the largest manufacturer, Courtalds, as either viscose or acetate. The local area was dominated by woollen mills which, because of the heavier material and more greased machinery, had dirtier workplaces. The material would be sent to London where the dresses were made, although the firm thought it would be a good idea to do a fashion show to advertise its products.  For more on the woollen industry see the Context for Wormald and Walker Blanket Mill (1932).

The film shows each stage of the process with the warp, having first been steamed, loaded onto the looms on beams by the men overlookers. The weft was wound onto the bobbins, crossing over the warp to produce the pattern which was controlled by cards. Rayon is a very fine fabric and the weaving was done by women who had smaller hands.  Each woman operative worked four looms, which was increased to ten per worker when they become automated.  Dress material was made on the Jacquard. Much of their material was exported, usually to places where the textile industry was weak, such as Africa, Australia and, as seen in the film, Canada. 

Albert Parker’s grandson, Roland Parker, who was to eventually take over running the firm with his brother-in-law, was mainly in charge of exports. He relates, on the ITV programme The Way We Were, that he spent two years familiarising himself with all the different aspects of the work, and was taught weaving by Amy Fenton and Bertha Johnson. It was his uncle who played Albert Parker in the film, and one of the mannequins at the end was a cousin.

The film also shows the beginnings of the firm, with employees living in factory accommodation, which was not unusual at that time. This was probably preferable to living in the crowded back-to-back houses that sprung up and insanitary conditions produced by jerry builders out to make easy money. Titus Salt was progressive in this respect, building a model village for his employees; although he was less so when it came to other issues like child labour and trade unions.

The Parker family too, running through three generations, were also quite enlightened employers, involving the workforce, through the foreman and works committee, in any changes. They also provided cheap food in the canteen and a game room. They joined the local tradition of mill outings, going every year to Blackpool where they would have a meal together and then enjoy races and have fun on the beach.

In the early days, when work started at 6.30 am, either bells, to get workers up early, or a ‘knocker up’ were common. Mitchell provides a good description: “In some areas the knocker-up, usually a decrepit man, shuffled around the streets wakening the occupants of certain houses for a charge of a few coppers a week. He rapped on bedroom windows with a long rod topped by wires, or used a long bamboo pole to which some rubber was attached; when the rubber was applied to the window ‘it made an awful squeak’.” (Mitchell, p 17) I suppose an alarm clock is ‘progress’ compared to this! What the film doesn’t show is the children, boys and girls from 12 years of age upwards, who worked part time; a practice that lasted until 1922.

The West Riding is of course famous for its mills and textile industry, which grew immensely with industrialisation in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The whole area was dotted with mills and factories, especially in the five valleys of the Colne, Holme, Calder, Spen and Aire rivers. Bingley was especially well placed as it is on the Leeds and Liverpool canal. The main era of factory building was between 1853, when Titus Salt established his mill at Saltaire, and 1873, when Lister’s Mill was founded in Manningham. Beginning in 1890, Parker and Co were relatively late on the scene. In fact it may not have been the best time to start a business as the US imposed a tariff on imports which affected trade. Yet in 1900 Britain claimed a third of world trade in cloth, and a third of this came either from Lancashire cotton or Yorkshire wool. 


The film gives a good idea of what designs were being made by small producers like Parkers. In the aftermath of the Second World War there was a radical change in textile design, as evidenced in the exhibition put on by the V&A in 1946, Britain Can make It. The UK was at the forefront of the so-called Contemporary design in the 1950s, with Lucienne Day’s wonderful Calyx of 1951, exhibited at the Festival of Britain, leading the way.  In fact Lucienne Day’s designs, which become so popular over the next twenty years, such as the 1951 pattern Flotilla, were printed by Heal's Fabrics. This leadership in fabric design began during the war, when Enid Marx was made textile designer for the Design Panel of the Utility Furniture Advisory Committee established in 1943. Her designs were usually geometric or abstract with small-scale repeating patterns. 

These ideas were taken up by the Festival [of Britain] Design Group, who were influenced by the abstract art, and bright colours, of Paul Klee, Joan Miro and Alexander Calder. In fact textile manufacturers began to directly use artists to make designs, led by Alistair Morton of Morton Sundour fabrics who commissioned many young artists to create designs for both clothing and furniture.


Yet, although there is little, if any, evidence of the remarkable Lucienne Day in the designs on display in the film, many are clearly of a modern inspiration. This is not so with the paisley in evidence in the film – named after the Scottish town that started using it in the mid nineteenth century. This design goes way back to India and Persia, although it became fashionable again in the heyday of the psychedelic late 1960s.

Rayon was first produced commercially by Courtalds in 1905, with the name ‘viscose’ (becoming rayon in 1922). It only really took off with the development of high-tenacity rayon in the 1940s, and it became a wartime substitute for silk, enabling cheaper clothing and fabrics. Rayon is easily confused with polyester and other man made fabrics, whereas rayon is a natural fibre (a polymer) deriving from regenerated cellulose, usually from wood pulp – hence semi-synthetic. It does however have most of the advantageous properties that man-made textiles have, such as strength, durability and ease of use when being manufactured – being able to be made into high quality yarn. Although it has some disadvantages – it loses strength when wet, and is prone to shrinking and creasing – it is easily dyed and is very versatile: it can be made to look and feel like cotton, linen, silk or wool (see Lyle).

 

Rayon is still used extensively. The largest producer of rayon today is Grasim of India, with European countries and the US making up most of the rest. It might be thought that with global warming using a material that derives ultimately from trees might not be a good idea. However, one assessment of the overall environmental impact of the production of rayon concludes: “The renewability of their [rayon fibres] main raw material, their overall energy efficiency, their lack of dependence on fossil fuels, their long history of safe use in hygiene applications, and their easy disposal and natural recyclability make them strong contenders for tomorrow's textile industry.” (Woodings)

As in most other places, the mills have mostly gone from Pudsey and Bingley: either demolished or turned into apartments.  A Leeds City Council document on Conservation areas in Pudsey from April 2009 states that the Allan Brigg Mills on Lane End and the Grove Works on Cemetery Road should “only be demolished in the most exceptional circumstances.” (p 18)  In Bingley the one exception is the Damart mill, easily visible with its tall chimney. The possible brothers of Albert Parker, Parker & Partners of Park Road Mills in Bingley in the 1920's, before moving to Argyll Mills, closed by 1946. 

With the closing of the mills, so too has gone much of the clothing industry, with much of our clothes now coming from countries having cheaper labour – posing shoppers the ethical dilemma of whether buying from these sources is helping the poor there or reinforcing bad pay and working conditions. Fortunately the number of clothing producers working according to (some) ethical guidelines is increasing, and there are still plenty of more local ones to choose from.

References

Mitchell, W.R., Yorkshire Mill Town Traditions, Dalesman, 1978.

Ngozi Ikoku, The Victoria and Albert Museum’s Textile Collection: British design from 1940 to the Present, V&A Publications, 1999.

Dorothy Siegert Lyle, Modern Textiles, John Wiley and Sons, London, 1976.

Lucienne Day Obituary in the Guardian

C R Woodings, The Environmental Aspects of Solvent-Spun Cellulose Production and Use, Courtaulds Research, Coventry, England.

Where to buy ethical clothing, The Guardian

Pudsey: Conservation Area and Management Plan, April 2009 (large file)