M&D - Chapter 21 - The Golden Valley and Mills

[Elisabeth Romberg]

p. 207
«…that the Flow of Water through Nature (…) might be re-shap’d to drive a Row of Looms, each working thousands of Yarns in strictest right-angularity, (…) nor that every stage of the ‘Morphosis, would have it’s equivalent in Pounds, Shillings and Pence."


Stroud is the capital of the south western Cotswolds and located at the divergence of the five Golden Valleys (Chalford, Painswick, Nailsworth, Slad and Cam), so named after the monetary wealth created in the processing of wool from the plentiful supply of power from the River Frome. During the heyday of the wool trade the river powered 150 mills, turning Stroud into the centre of the local cloth industry.


Is this first paragraph about the inhumanity of the working conditions at the mills?
To the benefit of the few?

About the working conditions at the mills:
http://www.bacuptimes.co.uk/earlydays.htm
So sad.

Mills today:
http://plenty.mangoconsulting.co.uk/assets/files/press/2015/Cots%20Life%20Jan%2015%20-%20Stroud%20mills.pdf
http://www.visitthecotswolds.org.uk/general.asp?pid=22&pgid=822

"Britain from above" showing Fromehall and Lodgemore Woollen Mills and environs, in Stroud, 1938:
http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw059695?name=STROUD&gazetteer=STROUD&POPULATED_PLACE=STROUD&ADMIN_AREA=Stroud&ref=49
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