East Mill Photographs

A set of recently donated photographs show a group of East Mill workers enjoying their breaks away from work in the 1960s. Discover why Strutt’s North Mill Volunteer Christine says these images are her favourite object in the collection of Strutt’s North Mill.

Although once a common part of life during the 20^th century, photographic prints are now very much a thing of the past for many people. One of the more recent donations to Strutt’s North Mill museum is a collection of black and white photographic prints taken during the 1960s of English Sewing Cotton Company (E.S.C.C.) workers in the Belper River Gardens and in the East Mill. North Mill volunteer Christine Smith has chosen these prints as her favourite object from the collection.

Construction began on the East Mill in 1911. Over a decade earlier, with a dozen other companies, the Strutts had formed the English Sewing Cotton Company and the Belper mills, a collection of buildings many over a century old dating back to the early periods of the industrial revolution and thoroughly out of date, had been transferred to company ownership. The East Mill was an attempt to modernise the site and to create the space needed for newer machinery. Its red Accrington bricks, chosen for their strength, and the tower on the south corner, finished in light sandstone to hold the water tank for its fire suppression system, gave the building its distinctive appearance, one that is more in keeping with the mills of Lancashire than the Derwent Valley. With this new building the E.S.C.C. hoped to modernise the site and continue production in Belper well into the coming century.

Two work colleagues enjoying their free time in front of the Swiss Tea Rooms

The photographic prints show a group of young mill workers from the early 1960s. Taken in the River Gardens which are adjacent to the East Mill, while probably on a lunch break, they show workers enjoying their free time, while one print shows the interior of the East Mill, captioned as taken on a Friday during the weekly cleaning of the mill.

The winding machines that the women worked can be seen, with one of their co-workers dressed in a long dust / work coat.

Part of the Swiss Tea Rooms can be seen in the background of some of the images. Opening at the same time as the River Gardens, the building was based upon Scottish crofts that were part of the Strutt family’s estates in Scotland. Originally the tea rooms had a thatched roof, but this was soon replaced due to frequent leaks. Other images show the flower beds that form part of the gardens original design and still there today.

The prints are out of focus, a regular problem before automatic focus cameras became common, but this would have been unknown to the photographer until they received their developed prints back from the chemist.

Strutt’s North Mill volunteer, Christine Smith nominated the photographic prints as one of Our Favourite Things:

‘My favourite recent acquisition is a collection of six black and white photographs dating back to the summer of 1962. They show various poses of a group of four mill workers enjoying their lunch break in the River Gardens. Two of the girls are in overalls, two wear typical summer outfits of the time, with full swirling skirts (probably buoyed up by several net petticoats) and the carefully- set hairstyles of the period. These two possibly worked in the offices. They look directly into the camera lens, with the simple enjoyment of young people released from work for a while on a lovely day, and having fun with friends. There is none of the pouting self-consciousness of modern-day ‘selfies’. The final photo shows a group inside the East Mill, captioned as ‘cleaning day – probably a Friday’ The group looks happy and good humoured at the prospect of the end of the working week. All of these remind me of the days when there could be a week’s delay between taking the photographs and getting the developed snaps back from the chemist. There was always an excitement at seeing how they had turned out, even if they were not perfect.’

Although perhaps not of quite the same historical importance as some of the other objects that have featured as part of ‘Our Favourite Thing’s these photographic prints provide an informal – and happy- record of the workers in the East Mill. They give a window into the past and record a moment in time for a group of friends in the River Gardens enjoying their free time.