Mick Hartley

Mee-mawing and fluing gangs. Daniel Meadows’ photos of one of the last remaining steam-powered cotton weaving mills in Lancashire:

In 1975 Daniel Meadows began a two-year post as photographer-in-residence to the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire. Here, he found himself drawn to Bancroft Shed, the last remaining steam-powered cotton weaving mill in the district.

Against the backdrop of a declining industrial landscape, Meadows began documenting the life of the mill and speaking to the people who worked there. From the retired weaver Bessie Dickinson to the engineer Stanley Graham, flue cleaner Charlie Sutton and steeplejack Peter Tatham, he created a remarkable portrait of Bancroft Shed’s workers and their disappearing trades.

Shuttles, Steam and Soot was first exhibited in 1978 as part of the Half Moon Photography Workshop’s radical programme of affordable, portable touring shows. Sent from galleries to community centres, from the Shetland Islands to Germany, the exhibition was eventually lost.

Fifty years on, Meadows has been working with Four Corners gallery in east London to recreate the original touring exhibition. Shuttles, Steam and Soot: a cotton mill in Lancashire runs to March 29. Free admission, Exhibition opening hours 11am to 6pm, Wednesday to Saturday at Four Corners, 121 Roman Road, Bethnal Green, London E2 0QN.

Peter Tatham, steeplejack, 150 feet up atop the stack and shortly after starting the demolition process

Melfar Manufacturing Co, Colne

The engine house at James Nutter & Sons, Bancroft Shed, with Stanley Graham, mill engineer, sleeping in his armchair beside the low pressure tail slide

View from the southwest during demolition of the weaving shed and warehouse

Stanley Graham, mill engineer, with the double-acting cross compound condensing engine, made by William Roberts & Sons of Nelson and commissioned in 1919

A weaver “mee-mawing” at Queen Street Mill, Harle Syke, Burnley. Mee-mawing was a form of speech with exaggerated movements to allow lip reading employed by workers in weaving sheds in Lancashire in the 19th and 20th centuries

Jim Pollard’s drawing hook — older than his marriage

Stanley Graham, engineer, “blowing off” and “blowing down” the Lancashire boiler (emptying it) ready for fluing

Only the feet of the engineer Stanley Graham can be seen as he works on the fire bars in the Lancashire boiler

A loom sweeper at Bancroft Shed

A member of the Weldone gang from Brierfield taking off his rags

The engine house with Stanley Graham, mill engineer

An insurance company boiler inspector on top of one of the furnace tubes inside the Lancashire boiler

Charlie Sutton, boss of the Weldone fluing gang from Brierfield, taking a break
[Photos © Daniel Meadows]