Fabulous New Series

The Clarks Factory Girls At Work by May Ellis is a fabulous new series which focuses on the Clarks family in Street, Somerset during 1914 and 1915.

We follow three young girls who work at the factory. They come from three very different families but are firm friends who support each other.

The plight of women was very different a hundred years ago. Women were definitely inferior to men. They earnt less, were not in positions of responsibility and were supposed to submit to men. There were snippets of talk about suffragettes. A young girl has to hand her wages over to her father until she is twenty one.

The plight of a widow with young children was precarious as they lived hand to mouth.

In another household, the father is cruel. He drinks his wages away and is handy with his fists.

We drop in on discussions about the various denominations. The Clarks family were Quakers as were many of the community but some were Church Of England. The community was divided, no one wanting inter-marriage between the denominations. It seems alien to the modern reader.