Workers at India Mills, Stockport (1900)

Spinners and weavers jostle through the exit of one of Stockport’s largest textile mills.

At its height the India Mill employed around 1500 workers, many of them children. When this film was made, though, the cotton industry was on the cusp of a sharp decline, and within a few years unemployment would affect thousands of Stockport mill workers like these ones. This is one of just two Stockport films in the Mitchell & Kenyon collection, despite the filmmakers' North West base.

The film was probably shot a day or two ahead of the annual Stockport Fair, which took place on 23 September 1900. Locals would have enjoyed the opportunity to recognise themselves on screen when this film was projected along with many others at the travelling cinematographers’ stand.