Lillian Moorhouse was born in Shipley, West Yorkshire in 1923. At the age of 14 Lillian left school to work in a mill in Saltaire. It was not the job that Lillian dreamed of, but at that time you more or less had to do what your parents told you, and most young girls would work in the mills, of which there were many in the surrounding area.

In her interview, Lillian focuses on four main areas:

Lillian takes Anna to see the house in which she grew up. It was ‘two up two down’, originally with gas lighting, no bathroom but an outdoor toilet. Before electriciity was installed, food would have been cooked on an open fire.

Lillian talks about her regular visits to the Victoria Hall in Saltaire to dance, and the annual ‘Conversazione’ ball. Each mill would have its own brass band which would play at local events.

When Lillian started work at Titus Salt’s mill in Saltaire she was 14. She started work at 7.00am. Although she earned 12 shillings (60 pence) a week, she was expected to give her mother 9 shillings to cover rent and food. Lillian said that she was first struck by the noise of the machines; the women who worked there learned to lip-read; many of them became deaf later in life because of the noise. Lillian also mentioned how dangerous the working environment was, as there were fast-moving parts on the looms. After the Second World War the cotton industry fell into decline: factories in Asia began to produce cheaper material, and the demand for wool suitings and flannels declined. Today there is only one working mill in the area.

Titus Salt was born in 1803. By the age of 31 he had opened his first mill, and was on the way to becoming a millionaire. He had the reputation of being a good employer — he paid good wages and built a new town, Saltaire, for the workers to live in, away from the pollution of nearby Bradford. The town was officially opened in 1853.

Titus Salt had very high expectations of his workers in terms of behaviour — he refused to allow any public houses in Saltaire; but he encouraged other activities like fishing, cricket and gardening. He also built a concert hall, a library and a school.

Lillian would never have met Titus Salt (he died in 1877), but she remembered his reputation as a good man who had helped to build the community into which she was born.

Saltaire, according to Lillian, is now green and clean. When the mills were operating, the chimneys belched out smoke and the buildings were black with grime. Lillian believes that Shipley and Saltaire is a much better place to live now than it was when she was growing up.