Workpeople Leaving Ordnance Mill, Blackburn (1900)

Cheery child workers, averaging around 10 years old, leave the cotton mill after a shift.

It's all smiles as crowds of workers spill out of this Blackburn mill. Many of them appear remarkably young - certainly below 12, the then legal minimum age for the employment of children. This film was advertised in the local press as "Something new for Blackburn - splendid living pictures of workpeople." The mill was built on land formerly belonging to the Board of Ordnance, hence its name.