International Women's Day Celebrations
- pritchardelaine
- Mar 7
- 4 min read
Can we find descendants of the 1914 Burton factory workers?
Elaine was honoured to be invited to give a short talk about the Vale Rawlings Project at Burton's International Women's day event organised by the town's SARAC charity on March 7. Here she explains more about it and the challenge she set for the audience at the town's Pirelli Stadium.
It might seem odd to speak about a man at a women's day event - but of course Vale's story is not just about a man, although it was very much a man's world between 1887-1940, when he lived. Women are very much front and centre in the story of his life and times in Burton.
Vale was born into a family of strong women. His mother and three elder sisters were a big influence on him and three of them worked in their own innovative home-based business. I think that's perhaps why he was a champion for the vote for women and why he was keen to support the striking women and young girls from the 'flycatcher' factory in 1914.
So when SARAC, one of the two charities that The Vale Rawlings Project CIC raises funds for, invited me to speak at its 2025 International Women's Day event, it was the women in Vale's story I chose to focus on. And I issued a special plea for help.
I am convinced that there must be living descendants of some of the young women who went on strike at the F. W. Hampshire factory that opened in June 1914 to make sticky, toxic flypapers on Mosley Street.
Four of the women gave evidence for Vale in his court case after he was arrested and accused of assaulting a police inspector on Mosley Street on a Friday afternoon when he was talking to the striking women workers. That's how I know their names and addresses. They appeared in newspaper reports at the time.
I told the audience, "If one of these women was your great grandmother, or great great grandmother, you might not know her maiden name. But if any of you ARE into family history you may be able to help me track down any living relatives still in the Midlands."
The four women are:
Mabel Barthway, aged 18, of Hawkins Lane.
Agnes Carroll, aged 15, of 25, Charles Street.
Amelia Brentnall, of 14, Mosley Street.
Rose Udall of 75, Wetmore Road.
Their testimony, and that of other eye-witnesses who said Vale did not strike the Inspector, was discounted by the magistrates who heard the case in the courtrooms at the top of Guild Street.
When the MP Keir Hardie asked questions about the case in the House of Commons, after Vale had been jailed, the Home Secretary told him the witnesses for the defence, including the factory workers, could not be considered independent or trustworthy.
In a world where women still face inequalities and injustice, the story of women facing their own battles in 1914 might be seen as less important. But I think Vale's story is still relevant today. It helps us to understand and appreciate the challenges our ancestors faced and overcame and it also spotlights what has NOT changed enough in the past 112 years. Sadly, the testimonies of many women and girls is still unfairly judged as untrustworthy by some authority figures today.
Piecework rates
If we look back at life for the women who worked in that factory in 1914 Burton, many of them only 13 to 18-years-old, we have to be amazed at what they were expected to do. For a 55-hour week, some of them were receiving as little as two shillings and sixpence. Others received far less than the 10 to 15 shillings a week they were told to expect when they were interviewed and taken on. This was because they were paid 'piecework' rates for what they produced. But the strong, powerful glue they had to use, and the toxic chemicals designed to kill flying insects, gave them headaches and made them feel sick. Calculations by the Burton branch of the Workers' Union - of which Vale was a founder member - found that to achieve the money promised by factory bosses, the women and girls would have to:
Paste 336 tops, every hour, for 55 hours a week.
Paste 518 boxes, every hour, for 55 hours a week.
Gum and roll 604 paper bands, every hour, for 55 hours a week.
Vale and his colleagues said the workers would have to be magicians to work at that speed and it left no time for fetching materials, making mistakes or taking comfort breaks.
So, if you are reading this, and you think one of these women may have been in your family tree, please get in touch. Vale's granddaughters and great granddaughters have been able to give me so much information about Vale's wife, mother and sisters and I would love to have more information on the women who worked on Mosley Street as well.