People at Work

A selection of images showing men, women and children at work. Check out our Teaching Activity How did WWI change the role of women in Britain?

Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR J Plater's Cart, Van and Carriage Works, Haddenham, Buckinghamshire The workers at this carriage works are assembled to have their photograph taken in 1903. Each holds the tools they use in their job. At this time craftsmen passed on their skills to boys who were apprenticed to them. The boys had to spend many years learning a trade.	Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Tootal, Broadhurst & Lee Warehouse, Oxford Road, Manchester These people are workers in Tootal, Broadhurst & Lee's pattern shop. They are making templates from drawings on paper to be used for making clothes. At this time men were often employed as machine operators leaving women to perform more mundane tasks. All the workers are smartly dressed and wearing aprons to protect their clothes. These jobs were skilled, indoor jobs rather than manual labour and this is reflected in the clothing.
Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Cunard Shell Works, Rimrose Road, Bootle, Merseyside With many men sent to fight in the War, companies came to rely on women to keep industry running between 1914 and 1918. Here an almost exclusively female workforce prepare shells for the war effort.	Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Frank Cooper's Works, Victoria Buildings, Park End Street, Oxford, Oxfordshire This is the interior of Frank Cooper's marmalade factory. This was his new factory where the company continued production and sales of marmalade after 1900. The photograph shows women and girls shredding fruit. They are wearing aprons over their everyday clothes. Some of them are also wearing removeable sleeves to protect their clothes. Coopers marmalade was previously sold from Frank Cooper's High Street shop and made at the back of the shop. The marmalade recipe was based upon his wife Sarah's recipe.
Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Delivery men, Osram Glass Works, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear The driver and his mate are posed by their steam-powered lorry outside the Osram Glass Works at about the turn of the 19th to 20th century. Judging by the lorry's tyres and the state of the road they would need to drive slowly to prevent breakages!	Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Harvesting in Oxfordshire A horse drawn reaping machine gathering hay, possibly taken as part of the Country Life series.
Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Pay day at Butlers Wharf, London Many people were paid weekly in cash until relatively recently. These men are waiting patiently on Friday afternoon while the paymaster looks on. For security reasons the wages were kept in a locked section of the works.	Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Queuing for work at Butler's Wharf, London A system of casual employment was operated in London docks whereby men would queue up to be taken on each day. This was unpopular, but continued well into the 20th century. Large numbers were required when trade was good because almost all the work of moving and loading goods was done by hand.
Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Haycock and Russell, General Store, Banbury Lane, Byfield, Northamptonshire This general store seems to have had a wide range of delivery methods. In this picture they have a pony and trap, a horse and cart, a delivery boy with a basket on wheels, and a small boy with a wheeled handcart. The shop was a bakers and confectioners, and also sold a variety of drinks and goods. They seemed to be having a promotion of Cambridge lemonade when the picture was taken.	Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Roddas Smithy, 15 Park Corner, Penzance, Cornwall An exterior view of the blacksmiths shop showing the men shoeing horses. The interior was too dark to photograph the men working so the photographer seems to have got them to do their work outside to get his shot.
Add to My Favourites Copyright Crown copyright.NMR Trollope & Colls Ltd, Pleasant Works, Liverpool, Merseyside Although World War I caused employees to rethink the jobs given to women, they frequently remained in traditionally feminine roles, like these women sewing the fabric onto aircraft wings. Elsewhere in this factory, however, women were beginning to work alongside men in jobs like carpentry.	Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Moulding glass, Osram Glass Works, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear Here a glass vessel is being formed in a mould. This method of glass manufacture has a history going back about 5,000 years. Glass production is often centred around areas rich fuels such as coal.
Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Workers at Osram Glass Works, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear This period picture shows workers clearing the broken glass and debris from machines at the plant while the apprentices look on. Note how young the apprentices seem to be.	Add to My Favourites Copyright English Heritage.NMR Barclays Bank, Norwich, Norfolk Financial institutions often use classical architecture on a monumental scale. With its gigantic arches and Corinthian columns this bank dwarfs the people working in it.
Add to My Favourites Copyright English Heritage.NMR Picking tulips near Fulney, Spalding, Lincolnshire The tulip was introduced into Europe in the 16th century from Turkey and takes its name from the French word for turban. Here two women remove the flower heads manually in order to promote bulb development.	Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Pouring molten iron, Backbarrow, Cumbria This period photograph shows an iron worker pouring molten metal into pig beds. The moulds used are nothing more elaborate than carefully shaped areas of fine sand. Note how the worker has no protective clothing.
Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Tate & Lyle Sugar Silo, Huskisson Dock, Liverpool Concrete is alternately poured into the ribs and then the walls of the silo. Many hands make light work of tipping the concrete from the container. They will have to pack down the building material while the crane raises the next load.	Add to My Favourites Crown copyright.NMR Underground wagons, South Crofty Mine, Cornwall The driver of this battery-powered locomotive is pulling wagons of ore from the loading point to the ore-pass. The mechanism to the right will tip the wagon's load into a chute, from where it will be sorted by size and then sent to the surface.