Work Gallery

Woad production, Algarkirk, Lincolnshire NMR02_01_00009

Algarkirk, Lincolnshire. A group of man and women cropping woad and collecting it in large wicker baskets. The earliest woad production in Britain dates from the Iron Age. By the 19th century, cheap production and imports of blue dye from indigo plants in Asia led to the woad industry's decline in Britain. The last commercial woad production in Britain was recorded in 1932 in Lincolnshire. Lantern Slide Collection, undated

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Comptometer Room, Stratford Cooperative Society 1914 BL22762

STRATFORD CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY, Maryland Street, Stratford, Greater London. Interior view of the Comptometer Room at Stratford Co-operative Society, showing girls and boys working on model E compometers, manual calculating machines. The comptometer, invented in 1887 by American, Dor Felt, was the first successful manual calculating machine. The children in the photograph could be employed in work, with the school leaving age only being raised to 14 in the Education Act of 1918. Photographed by Harry Bedford Lemere, 1st July 1914

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Two women filling Sirocco roaster with coffee beans BL24300_001

CADBY HALL, Hammersmith Road, Hammersmith, Greater London. Two women filling a Sirocco roaster with coffee beans at the factory of J Lyons and Company. This photograph was taken for J Lyons and Company who purchased Cadby Hall, a former piano showroom and associated manufacturing buildings, in 1894. These women workers are contributing to the war effort. Photographed by Bedford Lemere & Co in July 1918

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