Elizabeth Anne Saunders

GEDCOM Note

Barking Jute Mills Amongst declining industries of fishing and market gardening, threatened by the railways, the Abbey Works (Barking Jute Works) opened as one of the largest jute factories in Britain. A three storey fire-proof mill occupying over 12 acres, 220 foot long and 54 foot wide designed to bring industry back to Barking. The Jute works were opened in 1866 at the foot of Fisher Street (now Abbey Road) in what were then rather fine premises including the first large fire-proof mill in Essex (only demolished by William Warne in the 1980s). From the start, the jute works offered work to more than 1600 people. Most of these jobs were for women and boys. Moreover, since the skills required were unfamiliar to local workers, weavers had to be imported at the outset from Dundee, the home of the industry.

The jute works had 1,600 workers, almost a quarter of Barking’s population at the time. Because the skills were unfamiliar to Barking people, large numbers of workers came down from Dundee in Scotland, the other main centre of jute production in the UK.

Unusually, most of the workforce were young women and children, giving Barking an unusually strong female workforce.

With 207 looms clattering away, the factory would have been unpleasantly hot and very noisy. Whale oil was used to soften the jute and this gave the factory its strongest smell.

A local resident, Miss Steane, wrote a rich portrait of the jute women:

“I recall the tramp of clogs over cobbled stones as they were marching to work. They wore flounced and highly coloured dresses, braided and coiled their hair, and were hatless and shawled. Usually single and away from the control of their families, they determined to enjoy themselves.”

Later the Jute works changed hands and Indian competition and sporadic strikes led to poorly paid Irish spinners being brought in. Over a hundred more girls arrived straight from Cork in June 1882.