Employees of Messrs Lumb and Co. Leaving the Works, Huddersfield (1900)
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Having worked the looms all morning, Victorian wool workers head home for a well-earned dinner break.
This is one of only two Mitchell & Kenyon films to represent the West Yorkshire woollen industry. It is unique in the collection for its inclusion of languid cutaway shots of the River Colne and boys playing on the bank at the start of the film. This goes against the filmmakers' usual habit of cramming as many people as possible into the frame for marketing reasons.
This film was later presented to audiences by the charismatic travelling exhibitors Loder Lyons and Ralph Pringle at the Huddersfield Town Hall. It won praise from The Huddersfield Examiner which described it as "...a capital picture of the workpeople of Messrs Lumb and Co leaving the works." The other factory gate film representing the West Yorkshire woollen industry is Workers Leaving Oldroyd & Sons Mill, Dewsbury.