Mill Apprentices Learning Journey

You are seven years old and snuggled up to your mother. She is holding you tight against her, stroking your hair, and you love the warmth and the faint smell of lavender from the tiny sprig she has pinned to her grey dress. You never want to let her go but you know that in half an hour the man in the dark coat will come for you and take you on a long journey far away from your mother and you have no idea when you will see her again.


See also Mill Apprentices at Quarry Bank Mill

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Mill Apprentices Learning journey Step 1: Signing up Bessie had stood shivering while her mother put her mark on the big white piece of paper that lay on the desk. Her mother couldn't read or write but Bessie had listened carefully while the man in the dark coat explained to her mother what the words on the paper said. Bessie was to be apprenticed to go and work in a cotton mill near Manchester. She would be well treated and given food and lodging; and after she had been there a year she would be paid a penny a week. The mill owner was a good man, the man in the dark coat told her mother, and he would see that Bessie went to church every Sunday. If Bessie worked hard she might also learn to read and write. She would be allowed to see her mother six times a year and when she was twenty one she could leave the mill if she wanted and go back home. Twenty one sounded like a lifetime to Bessie.

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