Fifty years at the sharp end of the Tweed industry stornowaygazette.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stornowaygazette.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Professor Paul Salveson is a historian and writer and lives in Bolton. He is visiting professor in ‘Worktown Studies’ at the University of Bolton and author of several books on Lancashire history International Women’s Day on Monday was a reminder of the many Bolton women who have played an important role in society – not just locally, but on the national stage. Four of them are Sarah Reddish, Alice Foley, Alice Collinge and Susan Isaacs Sarah Reddish (centre) with the the Bolton Women’s Co-operative Guild around 1900
Sarah Reddish Sarah Reddish was born in Westleigh (as it was then called - now ‘West Leigh’) in 1849 and left school at the age of 11 to work at home with her mother, a silk weaver. Her father, Thomas, was active in the Co-operative Movement and the family moved to Bolton where he became librarian and secretary to the Bolton Co-operative Education Committee. His co-operative principles rubbed off on his daughter.
The Weavers of Patwa Toli - And their IITian Kids ‘I will continuously move this handloom mill until my death’
GAYA: “Mask ki zaroorat nhi hoti to hamara mill khatam ho jata” – If masks weren’t needed now our mill would have been destroyed, says Jitendra Prasad Patwa, who heads the Patwa Samaj or Weavers Union in Patwa Toli, Bihar.
As the looms of Gaya district fell silent last March when New Delhi imposed a nationwide lockdown, the owners of the handlooms and power looms here were in a grim mood.
Chedan Babu, who has 11 handlooms in his factory along with powerlooms, says there are no skilled workers available to work the handloom machines.