Message In A Bobbin And Other Stories

The Belle Vue Mill held a prominent place in the Yorkshire Dales town of Skipton. Close to the Eller Beck, the canal and the railway station it was owned by Dewhurst's - better known as the maker of the Sylko cotton reel. I searched through the British Newspaper Archive to find reports that might give clues on what it was like to work there, but found only a small handful of stories or advertisements. These didn't give me the information I sought, but still, they brought up some points of interest. I decided to use four reports from the Yorkshire Post, dating from the 1920s and the 1940s, as story springboards. The five stories that I have written for this book are completely fictional and none of my characters existed in reality. But they were inspired by these little asides in the history of the Belle Vue Mill. 'Message in a Bobbin' - Parts I and II - were inspired by the story of a teenaged worker at Dewhurst's who put her name and address into a cotton bobbin. This turned up in Australia five years later. I wondered what it was like to be only 14, 15 years old and to know that life only held the Belle Vue Mill for the foreseeable future. To stand at the same production line day after day with no variety. What would the girls have done to liven their dreary existence up? Harbour unrealistic dreams of being whisked away? Teased and tormented each other out of sheer boredom? And then the big question...there are so many bobbins out there that remain unused...could any contain unseen messages? 'Through the Mill' was inspired by the wartime call for more workers to return to Skipton's cotton industry. Women were needed to meet the demand for textiles and they were offered part-time work and time off for shopping to make it easier for them. In this story, a young mother wants to work at Belle Vue Mill but meets the perennial brick wall of child care problems. Even in a time of national emergency, it was a huge effort to shake off the traditional ties that bound women to the life they may not have really wanted. 'Temperance' also takes us back to World War Two, when the Belle Vue Welfare Hall was turned into a hostel for soldiers. This was put into place for those arriving back into the town too late to make their way to their homes in the dark and inhospitable Dales. The WVS provided tea in the Temperance Hall. I wondered about the meetings that might have taken place there after the late train rolled into Skipton. Finally, 'Clara and the Company' is based at the company's Drama and Operatic Society. Like 'Message in a Bobbin' perhaps this was one way of alleviating the boredom of the production line for workers at the Mill. Perhaps some dreams were born and faded on the stage at the Welfare Hall. But as a former member of an amateur drama society myself, I know that acting is not the only talent that can emerge when a play is put on. We follow Clara, a girl who can barely speak up for herself, as she finally finds her way in life.

• | Author: Sarah Walters
• | Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• | Publication Date: Jun 22, 2018
• | Number of Pages: 56 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 1721755195
• | ISBN-13: 9781721755196