Workforce at Horrocks Miller & Co. Preston (c.1901)

A vibrant impression of dinner hour at an Edwardian cotton mill.

Preston children carry lunch baskets for their working parents or siblings in a routine event made living history by the presence of Mitchell & Kenyon's camera. This film was commissioned to be shown at the local Whitsuntide fair. The Preston Guardian regretted the displacement of the fair's "wild beast, ghost, and marionette shows" by such novelties as "a pretentious cinematograph exhibition".