3-011-518 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Cotton Famine: the sewing-class at the Manchester and Salford Provident Society's rooms, 1862. Unemployed Lancashire textiles workers. 'I visited one school or sewing-class of this kind at the Phoenix Mill, St. Jude's parish, where 160 women and girls above sixteen years of age received 2s. 6d. a week, the relief committee adding 1s. 2d., or at least so much as brought the sum total to 3s. 4d...The sewing-school here contains 152 young women, who read, write, and work by turns. The needles are employed for the most part on the new material; but the inmates are also allowed to mend their own clothes. The ladies who manage the class have arranged to give the girls a meal at noon for 1d...The girls work five days a week...each district has its sewing-classes, giving employment to 500 or 700 girls, who receive 3s. 4d., a penny dinner, and some elementary teaching...These classes are generally held in the mills: they are perfectly unsectarian; the spirit that pervades them is excellent; and the young women recognise with lively gratitude the efforts which are being made for their comfort and instruction...they had been accustomed to receive from 7s. to 12s. a week, and were doing their best to make the most of the present scanty pittance'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.