Nostalgia: Moving in to help the mills in the 1940s

Thursday, 15 July 2021 15:06

By David Jones

The Chronicle was reporting that local cotton mills were so short of labour that one was ‘importing’ workers from Ireland.

It started in the spring of 1946 when four women from Dublin and Enniskillen ‘clocked on’ at Sumner’s Mill.

The High Street West company had a government-approved scheme to help the UK economy following the Second World War.

It also included accommodation with meals provided at Redcourt, a former mill owner’s home on Hollincross Lane.

The scheme was so popular that by the summer of 1946, another 35 women from Ireland had moved into the hostel and had a job at Sumner’s.

Also brought in to work at Sumner’s were six men from Merseyside, although they were not living at Redcourt.

They were staying at the mill until their employers could find them somewhere more suitable.

Sumner’s, better known as Wren Nest, was Glossop’s biggest cotton mills, but by the 1960s/70s most had closed as trade declined.

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