Elizabeth Brown's grave in Barnoldswick
INDUSTRIAL health and safety 100 years ago was not what it is today.
The mills of Barnoldswick in those days were probably no better or worse than anywhere else. Bancroft Mill was opened in March 1920 and only ten months later it recorded its first, and, so far as we know, only fatal accident.
Monday, January 18, 2021 marks the centenary of the death of Elizabeth Brown, a weaver, of Cobden Street. She was 28, married to Herbert Brown, who we believe was also a weaver at Bancroft.
Their son Frank was just five years old. Elizabeth had left the weaving shed and was walking into the warehouse to collect more weft when she was struck by two metal-clad sliding fire doors, which had not yet been fitted.