St. Peters Junior CofE School, Ruddington, visited the Museum recently. Here are some of their comments:
Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for showing us round your intresting museum and teaching us many new things. We also appreceate you letting us work the grizwolds and letting us take the finished product home. Another thanks for teaching us how to finger-knit, we have been trying it at school!
Our scarves are lovly even though some have holes in.
Thanks again! You really made our morning a good one!
Yours sinserly,
The letter was signed by some 23 children, and they included some of their work.
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The life of a framework knitter by Amber
I'm called Ronald Bonnington. It is 6 o'clock in the morning and I am just going to collect some water and coal for my mum so she can keep the fire lit and have some water for a drink.
Now I need to go and light the candles at the workshop. The workshop is where all of the men and young boys work. They work on framework knitting machines too. I put a glass jar at the back of the candle so that it reflects the light back into the room. They need light to heat the room and machines up a bit and because the stitches are so fine in the knitting, they need light to see them.
Because I am 10 years old I have to work a machine. The machines are really, really loud and my hearing has gone down hill ever since I started working here. Some of my family have completely lost there hearing from it as well. It makes you get back ache because you are sat at the machine for 14 hrs every day. You can't lean backwards either because there is another working machine behind you.
It is 10 o'clock at night and I am just going home after 15 hrs of work. My back is aching and I am really tired..
I have just got home and I am having a wash with the last bit of water I collected this morning, getting my pyjamas on and reading the bible as we have to do every single night, and then going to bed.
I have to wake up at 6 o'clock tomorrow morning as well so I best get some sleep. I have to do the same work tomorrow as what I did today.
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Max wrote:
Dear diary,
I had to get up at 5.00 am this morning to go to work and now it is 9.00 pm and I have just got back from a day of hard work. I am a fully grown man now so I get the hardest work that you can get. My back is really hurting from where I have been sitting down working on a machine all day. I also lost my finger because it got trapped in the machine and it was really painful. I am really tired so after I have wrote this letter I am going to have supper and get into bed and have a good nights sleep.
My hearing is getting really bad because the noise of the machines in incredibly loud and even worst, youve got a machine making a racket and one in front of you. My eyesight is going weird from where I have been focussing on the thin thread so much. It is really hard to understand what people are saying to you when they are trying to lip read to you.
I live on one of the cottages next to the factory but the thing is I have 8 children to look after in a very small house. We do not have very much money so we have toast potatoes and meat most of the time. We have to go to the toilet in the cubicles and have to use newspaper when we have finished. To wash we have to use a dollie and then squeeze the water out with a wheel.
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Christopher wrote:
Dear Diary,
I was shattered this morning. I had to get up at 5 o'clock. I hate my job. Work started really boring: Ted who works behind me couldnt stop with the lip reading telling me about his son getting in the chapel boys football team. We have to lip read because the noise from the machines is so loud you can't hear anything. After a well deserved dinner break I had to hit my target of twenty tableclothes a day. My ears are killing me I think I could go deaf soon. Then I went home with me and my work friends complaining about the rubbish pay then I had some lovely bacon from outside and then I went to my cold bed.
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