General Chat

Does anyone out there know what a card master in a cotton mill would do. Tried googling but no luck. Any ideas welcome.

At a guess it might be something to do with keeping the threads in the loom in order......or used in the process of making the raw cotton into thread.........

Bob

Card Master In charge of the carding room in a cotton/wollen mill

Thanks Bob, you could be right - I haven't got a clue. I wished I'd listened to my late Aunt's tales about the cotton mills - might have learned something!

Hi pollypoppet, can I pick your brains again. What would they do in a carding room?
Regards

Cotton grows in balls, or boles and is unusable in that state. The fibres must first be untangled and straightened out. Carding involved getting all the fibres running in the same direction. This was a skilled process involving the use of a brush with spikes, and was originally done by hand, later using a carding machine. A carder was normally an experienced worker, as if done badly it was not possible to rectify later and the raw cotton would be wasted.

Thanks pollypoppet for your detailed answer. Can understand what job they would be doing now. Had ancestors working in cotton mills in Preston and Bradford - rather them than me!
Regards

Your welcome :)

Yes, I did things like this at school. Carding is also done with wool, a new fleece needs carding before it is dyed.

I used to work in the card room, the guy in charge was always called carder, but the card master was many years ago, my father worked in a woollen mille and he was known as the overlooker, the man who was in charge of the card room where I worked had to tell us how many beams were needed for an order, and he had to make a note of how many cans were needed for the cotton to be fed into... I loved working there such a lot of good friendships were made....

Jean x

Rats! Typed a reply then hit the preview button instead of submit!! smack, smack.
Thanks everyone for your input. On finding out that many of my ancestors worked in the mills of Preston and Bradford I've been intrigued at what work they all did. Must get to the Library and do some research. Although it must have been tough work at least it would have put food on the table and given work to all the families. I expect great friendships, romances etc would have been made.Once again thans all for info.
Regards

Rosemary, I find out lots of interesting things because I like reading novels set in the 1800s/early 1900s, and although there is a lot of other stuff around the info, it has obviously been researched so must be relatively accurate. Reading about the way they worked all hours and in such bad conditions is very sad at times, and the dreadful accidents that happened because of greed and ignorance, and young children being made to work to help their families survive, is saddening.
In one book I was reading it talked about the lacemakers of Buckinghamshire and how they would work outside their homes in summer and daylight to make lace to sell, to supplement the man of the house's income on the land or whereever. It also told of the nights the females of the family would work on the lace indoors, by candlelight. They needed the money so badly but would be ruining their eyesight because of the poor light from the candles. They couldn't let people know they worked at night as they wouldn't admit they were that poor.
I had lacemakers in my tree, my great grandmother and her daughters were listed on the census as lacemakers so it brought it home to me in a big way as they lived in a small village in Bucks.

If I come across any more stories with mill workers in or can remember which book it was I read about them last, I will let you have the titles in case you want to get a feel for the work and conditions.

Lizx

Hi Liz, thanks for your input. I agree that reading about conditions our forebears had to put up with makes us lucky to be alive now. As recently back to my grandmother in 1918, times were bad for some familes. My late father told me that when his dad died in the war his mother was left with 5 children under the age of eight. If she didn't work they didn't eat and many a time they packed up what little belongings they had and left their rented house before the rent man came. Tough times! When I see my grandchildren with all their comp games, mobile phones etc I often think of the children long ago who had such hard lives and were grateful just to be fed. I do find history so interesting as it makes us who we are. I've loved researching my family and find it rather addictive. Would love to hear about any books you consider a good read.
Regards
Rosemary

Hi Rosemary, when I get the chance I will check some books out for you, I hoard lots of mine cos I want to re read them, so just have to go through some and write down the titles.

Lizx

Thanks Liz, appreciate your help. Look forward to hearing from you.
Regards
Rosemary