West Yorkshire Mill Towns: 1930s

Activities

Activity :1

Note making

Take notes on the programme in a table like the one below.

People: information

Anna and Lillian

People: what you think of them

Work

Housing

Entertainment

Environment

Activity 2:

Sorting out Lillian’s life

Sort out the statements below under the headings given. Some statements may belong under more than one heading.

Headings:

  • Tells about the houses Lillian lived in
  • Tells about the work Lillian did
  • Tells about the kind of person Lillian was

Statements:

  • Lillian’s house had no toilet indoors — they had to go to the toilet at the end of the yard.
  • Lillian started work every morning at 7.00.
  • Lillian enjoyed going to the local dances.
  • Lillian’s house had two rooms upstairs and two rooms downstairs.
  • Lillian earned 12 shillings a week.
  • Lillian gave most of her wages each week to her mother.
  • At first, Lillian’s house had no electricity — they had gas lamps and they cooked on an open fire.
  • Lillian said that the mills were very noisy.
  • Lillian did not really want to work in the mill, but decided to do what her parents wished.

Write a brief description of Lillian’s life. You have already grouped the information around the three headings, so it would make sense to write a paragraph about about each of these.

Activity 3

Research

Using the web links below, try to find out more about Saltaire.

http://www.bradford.gov.uk/tourism/trails/saltaire/saltaire.html

http://www.bitc.org.uk/rth/saltaire.html

http://www.methodist.org.uk/hall.royd/shipley/saltaire.html

Select a picture which you might want to send on a postcard to a friend. Print the picture or paste it into a blank postcard.Then write a brief message about Saltaire, using the information which you have discovered from your Internet search.

Activity 4

Life stories

Talk to an older relative or friend about their earliest memories of work. (It doesn’t matter how old they are, but it is important that you find out in which year they were born.)

Find out as much factual information as you can. What job did they do? How long did they work each day? Did they need any training or qualifications to do their job? How much did they get paid? Also try to find out about their opinions and feelings. Were they happy in their work? Were they treated well by their employers and fellow workers?

It would be a good idea to discuss as a class the kinds of questions you might ask, before talking to the relative or friend.




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