Taken from a broken glass plate. The women are working at winding machines made by Enoch Ruston of Macclesfield. The power comes from an overhead drive belt. Each long machine consists of a row of six sided ‘swifts’ carrying skeins of silk. These are being spun out onto the wooden bobbins at the top of the machine. Some doubt about which factory this is – probably Vanners in Girling Street in a part of the factory previously used for dyeing – note the gutters on the floor and the women standing on duckboards. Perhaps the concrete floor is damp. Early 1920s? (Derek Cooper Archive)