Silk Piecer

Time to pick out another job, which is interesting - Silk Piecer.
These are all relatives of mine and at some point in their life gave their occupation as "silk piecer", they are all from the maternal side of my family. I have also included the age at which they first gave their occupation as silk piecer.

Jane Elizabeth Goodwin (1851-1896) 3rd great aunt (age 30)

Sarah Griffiths (1835-1909) 2nd great grandmother (age 16)
Charlotte Griffiths (1838-    ) 3rd great aunt (age 14)
Maria Griffiths (1839-    ) 3rd great aunt (age 12)

Ann Hammond (1836-1912) 3rd great aunt (age 14)
Mary Hammond (1841-1911) 2nd great grandmother (age 24)
Sarah Hammond (1846-1880) 3rd great aunt (age 23)

William Hooley (1813-    ) 3rd great grandfather (age 22)

Sarah Sherratt (1815-    ) 3rd great grandmother (age 21)

Mary Meakin (1826-   ) 3rd great aunt (age 15)
Sarah Meakin (1829-    ) 3rd great aunt (age 18)
Frances Eugenia Meakin (1855-1925) 2nd great aunt (age 15)
Elizabeth Ellen Meakin (1859-1939) 2nd great aunt (age 11)
Sarah Meakin (1869-    ) 2nd great aunt (age 11)

Women and children were usually employed as silk piecers. Piecers had to lean over the spinning-machine to repair the broken silk threads. They worked in huge sheds, filled with long rows of spinning-frames, with thousands of whirling spindles. These slid continuously backwards and forwards, hour after hour. When the threads broke, the broken ends had to be instantly repaired; the piecer ran forward and joined the threads.

A researcher of the time, claimed that a piecer could walk twenty four miles a day, as they ran backwards and forwards piecing the threads together.

It is interesting reading about how the employment of children as piecers in the mills was justified.

In 1834, E. C. Tufnell,  a Factory Commissioner, wrote that "three-fourths of the children employed are engaged in piecing, which, when they have receded a foot and a half or two feet from the frame, leave nothing to be done. If a child remains during twelve hours a day, for nine hours he performs no actual labour.

In 1835, Edward Baines, a journalist defended the employment of children as piecers, saying that "the work did not require constant attention, the position of the body is not injurious and that the children can walk about and have the opportunity of frequently sitting if they are so disposed."

And in 1849, Angus Reach wrote that he had spoken to two medical gentleman regarding factories and health and in their opinion the poor health was not due to the work in the mills, but to the defective domestic arrangements for cleanliness and ventilation.

Information found in the article Piecers in the Textile Industry