At Leeds: Pull the wool over your eyes!

The dark satanic mills of Leeds. I realise that William Blake's poem, "and did those feet in ancient time" not only refers to the weight of industrialised Britain but also to those working under it.

Sam read quotes from a handful of the thousands of children that worked in one of the original textile mills in Leeds. To his horror, he realised that a child had lost 3 fingers in one of the weaving machines, although the accident book had written more detail about the damage to the blood stained cloth than to the injured child.

All three of my children would have been employed. A tiny child would have started by collecting the 'shoddy' (bits of wool under the thundering machines above). The chances of being caught up in the mechanism was all to easy. Sam continues, "another child, her clothing caught in above her. She was stripped and ripped, her legs tangled. The machine re set… I remember the colour of her bloomers"

We realise now that wool held fabric of society together for a while. From the printing press, laces, fabrics, suits, to the woollen judicial wigs. Judges were said to have the wool pulled over their eyes. This apparently came from judges wearing wool wigs that slipped over their eyes so they became blind to the facts of the case.

Sam had his eyes opened today. I suggested that he may like to stay and work for a while and send home his salary. He looked puzzled, "but you are supposed to give me pocket money?" How times have changed…….x

ps: I word pressed more pic HERE