Accessibility and Archives: A Handsome Testimonial
In this, the 15th in a sequence of blogposts around disability and inclusion from the Accessibility working group of ARA’s Diversity and Inclusion Allies, Gill Crawshaw writes about a zine she’s produced recently, funded by Unlimited, the disability arts commissioning organisation, which not only shares hidden histories of disabled people but links them to contemporary issues.
A Handsome Testimonial is a zine structured around the life of James Scott, a 19th century Deaf mill worker in Yorkshire. James led a fairly ordinary life in the small town of Horbury, near Wakefield. So he might not be an obvious subject to focus on. In fact, he’s an excellent example of a disabled person who contributed to society, supported others, and led a productive life.
I’m a curator based in Leeds, my practice is influenced by my past experience of disability activism. I became interested in the intersection of textiles and disabled people’s lives a few years ago when I organised Shoddy, an exhibition by disabled artists. Since then, I’ve been researching a number of textile-related topics, including hidden histories of disabled mill workers.
I wanted to challenge stereotypes of disabled people as dependent and needy. This narrative really took hold in the Victorian era, once industrialisation was well established, but it continues to influence attitudes towards disabled people today.
As well as this, a common assertion in disability studies is that industrialisation excluded people from the workplace. However, we know that harsh conditions meant that industrial injury was a feature of factory work. So there would be a high proportion of workers who had some sort of impairment as a result. This wasn’t necessarily equated with a lack of productivity, and many of these workers continued or returned to work. They would have wanted to avoid the even harsher conditions of the workhouse if at all possible. The workhouses were run on the principle of “less eligibility”, meaning that the standard of living there was lower than anywhere else.
Of course, there were people whose injuries meant that they were no longer able to work, and did end up in the workhouse. But many other disabled people stayed in work, through sheer necessity, to meet the demands of the industry, or simply because they could.
The Sadler Commission of 1832 and the Factories Inquiry Commission the following year investigated conditions in the mills. Their reports led to legislation reducing children’s working hours and establishing factory inspectors.
The commissioners gathered evidence from workers across the north of England and Scotland. Many of them were still children, and had become disabled through long hours and punishing work as piecers, preemers, doffers and spinners. Their testimonies are grimly repetitive, telling of the toll that mill work had taken on their bodies. Yet they continued on, because they and their families needed their wages.
By giving evidence to the commissions, often in the face of intimidation from mill owners, these disabled people played their part in the movement for factory reform. They were active contributors to change, not bystanders or victims.
As well as those workers who became disabled, there were other Deaf and disabled people who took up jobs in the mills. James Scott was one of these. I discovered James, and many other Deaf mill workers, in a report by the Yorkshire Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, as it was then known. This Doncaster school took in children from across Yorkshire. To show that their teaching methods were effective in turning out useful members of society, they carried out a survey of employers, family members and others, to find out what their ex-pupils were up to. The first survey was carried out in 1844, with updates into the next decade.
The brief survey returns are interesting because they give an insight into the lives of scores of Deaf workers across Yorkshire, who were employed and often thriving in a range of professions and industries.
James’ employer, Richard Poppleton, owner of a large mill in Horbury, sent back a statement about James, who worked as a hanker of worsteds, measuring lengths of yarn and twisting them into hanks. His response stands out amongst the others because it’s a glowing report. Despite a rather patronising and paternalistic tone, reflecting attitudes of the time, we can learn something of James from this testimonial. He was a reliable worker, “attentive” and “very obliging” who had also impressed his previous employer. He was far from being needy or dependent, in fact other people depended on him. He was the main wage earner in the household and supported both himself and his mother.
The information in the Institution’s survey reports - names, ages, home town - means that many of these ex-pupils can be found in the census. From 1851 the census started to collect information about certain groups of disabled people, including Deaf people, recorded in a column on the right. It makes identifying people that much easier.
In the case of James, he appears in the census throughout his life, and his baptism and burial records are also available. Having such a complete record, along with information about James’s family, gives a real sense of the person. We can tell that James was dedicated to his job and to his family. He continued to work in mill jobs for at least 30 years. It may be that he stayed working for the Poppleton family at Albert Mill in Horbury Bridge, in the worsted dyeing and spinning business.
The zine, A Handsome Testimonial, gives more detail about James’s life and puts it into context, exploring education, work and attitudes of the time. And it points out how these attitudes still influence thinking about disability and disabled people today. The disabled people’s movement, which had its beginnings during James’s lifetime, works to challenge negative and limiting stereotypes, fighting for respect, dignity and equal rights for disabled people.
A large print version is also available: https://issuu.com/gillcrawshaw/docs/a_handsome_testimonial_large_print
If you’d like a print copy of the zine, contact Gill at gill.crawshaw@gmail.com
Contributions to this series are welcomed, particularly if you have experience of working with records of Deaf or disabled workers. If you are interested in contributing to a similar post, in the first instance contact diversityandinclusion@archives.org.uk .