4859 x 3400 px | 41,1 x 28,8 cm | 16,2 x 11,3 inches | 300dpi
Aufnahmedatum:
14. Oktober 2013
Ort:
Airdie, Scotland, UK
Weitere Informationen:
Weaving cloth was a part of Airdrie life for over 200 years Airdrie was founded as an agricultural market town by Robert Hamilton of Airdrie House towardsthe end of the 17th century. But it was as a “Weavers’ Town” that Airdrie grew up during the 18th and early 19th centuries.Handloom weavers were a well paid, well educated and independent lot. They called themselves “thearistocracy of the Working Class”. They did more than just build the town, they shaped its character Airdrie’s Mill Road, which runs at right angles from Chapel Street. The original Chapelside School, once was the site of a huge cotton spinning mill, powered by two enormous steam engines. The Cotton Works site was large, at 8 acres plus 2 more acres for the mill dam formed on its west side by damming the North Burn with a sandstone dam and sluice gates placed a little distance from where the Mill Road enters the Thrushbush housing estate. The main buildings were further up Chapel Street, behind where the Moyhall Social Club stands. Indeed the outer walls of the old mill still surround a mixture of small businesses, bringing employment for 50 or 60 people, where once 1000 had jobs. In the 1700s and early 1800s a large part of the population of New and Old Monkland were involved in the weaving trade. By 1815, the end of the Napoleonic War, an adult Airdrie weaver who owned his own loom could earn between 17/- and 26/- (85 pence and 130 pence) per week. If he was married and his wife was tambouring (embroidering) he could make an extra 5/- (20 pence) weekly. This compared favourably with the 12/- (60 pence) earned by a labourer and 19/- (95 pence) by a tailor. However, after 1815 the Airdrie weaver’s wage began to fall and by 1820 the average wage was about 14/- (70 pence). This decline in the weaver’s wages was repeated nationally.
