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Borders textile industry |
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Although this was a prosperous time for the Borders, and mill owners lived well, life was hard for the mill workers. 
Textile Mill workers
Cloth being packed into bales ready for dispatch in Gardiner's Mill, Selkirk
© Scran |
They typically worked 6 days a week with only Sunday off, and although most mill owners gave days off for events such as the Common Ridings, paid holidays were not given until the 20th Century. Lamplighters, usually teenage girls, began the day at 5.45am, getting the factory ready for the workers.
If workers were not in the factory by 6.00 am, they were locked out and received no pay. Mill work concentrated on turning shorn fleeces into wool through several processes. Sorting and scouring were concerned with cleaning the wool.
Fleeces came into the mill dirty, often with tics embedded into the wool which meant that there was a risk of infection. Wool was then resorted according to consistency in the blending process. It was then teazed and carded, converting the fibre into useable strands of wool which was sent out of the mill to the spinners and then onto the weavers. Finally, weavers sent the cloth back to the mill to be finished.
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