wageearners as well as mothers of large families, but they managed this dual role with more ease then the modern woman at work, principally because of the cheekby-jowl lives, typical of the district and the period.
Grandma down the road. or Mrs. So-and-So next door took in the little ones whilst mother went to the mill to augment the family income. The mill in any case was just round the corner. and little time was lost in travelling to it. The children, cared for by relatives or well-known neighbours. had no big adjustments to make, as the modern child has, transplanted to a shining and hygienic nursery and left with strangers.
The rent is an ever-present worry, their standards of living forced upwards willy-nilly by the move. They find shopping harder, clothing the children more difficult, the church further away, their neighbours strangers, their relatives separated from them by a bus ride. their husbands travelling long distances to work.