A PROJECT bidding to chart Huddersfield’s textile heritage wants help.
Organisers have put out a call for old photographs.
Textiles in Town is involving school children in telling the story of the area’s history of industry and how textile mills shaped the Milnsbridge and Paddock areas.
The lottery funded project is being led by Paddock Junior Infant and Nursery School in partnership with Crow Lane Primary, in Milnsbridge, and Cowlersley Primary Schools.
The schools’ pupils have already begun working on LS Lowry-style drawings of local mills and are now calling for old photographs of the mills or of working in the textile trade from the early 1900s to 1980s.
They are particularly keen on any images of people spinning, knitting, weaving, crocheting or felting at mills in Golcar, Paddock, Longwood, or Milnsbridge.
Youngsters are also speaking to former textiles workers about life in the local mills and working with wool.
They are also visiting the archives department at local libraries to discover the fate of the mills in the area, and hosting a range of artist-led sessions all about the mills.
The culmination of this work is a mobile exhibition that will be launched at Paddock Primary School in July next year.
The exhibition will look at the textile industry in the community together with the extracts of people’s experiences of working in the mills.
Anyone with any images you think might be of interest, or anyone who would like to share experiences of working in the mills is urged to contact Lee Bray on 01484 222240 or email lee.bray@kirklees. gov.uk before the end of November.
