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.
![](https://calderdaleindustrial.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/MEET-GERTRUDE-1200x1300.jpg)
![](https://calderdaleindustrial.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/VALUABLE-VICTORIANS-VICTORIA-BISHOPGATE-1200x800.png)
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.
![](https://calderdaleindustrial.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/WOODS-COURT-CALDERDALE-MBC-1200x800.jpg)
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.
![](https://calderdaleindustrial.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/VALUABLE-VICTORIANS-BASEMENT-MINER-1200x800.jpg)
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