Imagine what your life could have been like in the late 1800s.
Meet Gertrude
The year is 1880.
Gertrude is nearly 9 years old.
She is wearing a pinafore to keep her dress clean.
She is carrying an earthenware bowl to her mother who is baking.
Gertrude’s Story
Gertrude, as a child, spent her time playing in the fold outside their house, when she was not helping her mother with washing, cleaning or baking. The lived in a block of small back-to-back houses.
It was dirty and dark in their fold. The block was built in amongst other blocks, right up against the mills.
She would have loved to live in the the new houses that had just been built in Copley. Edward Akroyd wanted his workers to live in good houses – they even had indoor toilets.
Gertrude wondered where she would manage to get work when she got a bit older. Her sister, now 12, had just started work as hurrier in a mine. Gertrude thought that must be a horrible job. She hoped she would get to work in a mill.
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