As well as beautifully printed calicos and cottons, Georgian
and Victorian customers also wanted dazzling white cloth. Bleaching employed
‘great numbers of children and Young Persons’ in places like in Bolton and Bury, where most bleach-works and finishing
works were concentrated in 1850s Lancashire.
Traditionally, to bleach cloth, it was ‘bucked’ or ‘bowked,’ i.e.
soaked for several days in a strong, heated alkaline solution made from
vegetable ashes in a ‘kier’ or copper vessel. Then it was ‘soured’ to
neutralise the alkali by soaking it in buttermilk for at least a week.
‘Crofting’ was the next stage; the cloth was spread out
across the fields (bleaching croft), and soaked repeatedly with water, so the
sunlight could bleach it, which could take months. In late Georgian times,
industrial methods of bleaching were introduced which greatly speeded up this
process; artificial soda ash was used instead of vegetable-based alkalis, and
sulphuric acid was used instead of buttermilk. The invention of dash-wheels,
and later, washing machines, made it much easier to wash large quantities of
cloth (formerly done by hand by womenfolk in all weathers).
At the bleachworks, the ‘grey’ cloth was first sent to the
dressing-shop. The cloth was marked with the customer’s name or initials with a
needle. The ends of several pieces were sewn or pasted together to form one
long piece suitable for processing by machine; next, the cloth was ‘dressed’,
that is, passed over a hot plate or gas jets to singe off nwanted fibres.
After dressing, the cloth was bleached as above, then went
through the finishing processes: mangling, drying and clamping (stretching),
beetling, calendering (an ironing process in which the cloth passed between
heated rollers to give it a glossy finish), then making up and packing. Beetling was a special, lustrous finish for
Holland cloth used for blinds, achieved by hammering the cloth
Hours were exceedingly irregular; in the 1850s fourteen year
old Mary Partington’s hours varied anything between 56 hours and 76 hours per
week at Ridgway Bridson Bleachworks, Bolton, which employed over 200 people.
You can find out more about the story of the industrial revolution in Lancashire here, tracing Lancashire ancestors here, and the fight to improve children’s working
hours and conditions in The Children History Forgot.
Illustrations from author’s collection.
Llewenni (Lleweni) Bleachworks, Denbighshire, designed by
Thomas Sandby for Thomas Fitzmaurice. Engraving by Thomas Sandby, 1792. Possibly one of the grandest bleachworks ever
built.
Dash wheels, and Calendering. Pictorial History of Lancashire, 1844.
Today I'm a guest blogger on Austen Variations, courtesy of Jane Odiwe, whose new book Mr Darcy's Christmas Calendar is out now. Austen Variations, a website for writers and readers, focuses on 'Austen-related fiction, the Regency Period and Romance'. My guest post 'Chit-chat and Quarterly Reviews' looks at reading habits in Jane Austen's day. There's a competition to win a free copy of my new book A Visitor's Guide To Jane Austen's England, so do take time to leave a comment - it's free to enter! 
