Edwardians at Work

A rich impression of a vibrant Midlands works, in an unusually elaborate 'factory gate' film.

The streets of the Cheshire town are lined with spectators to see their fire brigade.

Shift change at Edwardian Britain's most important glassmakers, at the heart of the Merseyside town.

Unruly shipworkers defy direction from Mitchell and Kenyon's showmen partners.

The luxurious RMS Lucania is bound for New York in one of Mitchell & Kenyon's most elaborate and striking films.

A well-staged exit of workers from a Leicestershire manufacturer for the transport industry.

Where was this Edwardian paper works?

The all-male workforce heads home from a factory in Victorian Birmingham.

The hustle and bustle of Edwardian lace-workers heading home after a morning shift.

Victorian women workers (and a few men) hasten through the gates of the hosiery works after their shift.

An early film showing men and boys leaving a Nottinghamshire metals factory.

Edwardian workers file out of a naval shipyard at Barrow-in-Furness.

Grimy miners head home at the end of their shift in the days before pithead baths.

A surprisingly calm 'factory gate' film, shot outside a factory in the Ayrshire town, famous for its wooden furniture making.

It's all sunshine and smiles for the Lincolnshire agricultural equipment makers at home time.

Two horse-drawn fire engines gallop past the camera.

Edwardian engineers and their marvellous machines at Britannia Ironworks, Lincolnshire.

Hoards of workers funnel through the great arched entrance to Robey's works in Lincoln.

Victorian industrial workers leave their factory after a demanding day.

A slice of Edwardian working-class life outside a factory in Cork.

A staged demonstration shows the Cork Fire Brigade leaping into action, rescuing people from flames in front of an intrigued crowd.

Very early footage of a vast industrial site in Ripley, and the folk who manned the machines.

Edwardian textile workers leave a Dundee mill.

Some infectious youthful high spirits outside an engineering factory in Victorian Manchester.

Tired Edwardian workers finish their shift at a Kingston-Upon-Hull paint factory.

Countless men, women and children spill out on to the screen from "The Plant" at the heart of the Yorkshire railway town.

Workers of all ages depart Oldroyd's wool mill – and the filmmakers' camera is a subject of curiosity.

Workers are marshalled past the gate of one of Yorkshire's biggest steel firms.

Infectiously lively film of a Yorkshire mining community's grand day out.

Hometime for thousands of Teesside shipbuilders.

An Edwardian Leeds crowd enjoys a spectacle of wanton destruction.

A tide of flat-capped rail factory workers is ushered past the camera after a day's work.

A Mitchell and Kenyon film of workers in their home town, intriguing despite (or because of) the poor lighting conditions.

Athletic young Lancashire cotton weavers show off outside their Victorian mill.

Locals line the streets for the fire brigade's procession through Edwardian Preston.

Victorian ironworkers leave their Derbyshire factory in carefully stage-managed fashion.

The dinner time hustle and bustle of a Salford street at the dawn of the 20th century.

A vibrant impression of dinner hour at an Edwardian cotton mill.

Men and boys (and one woman) outside an Edwardian engineering factory.

A rare snapshot of the daily routine of the workers of a Lancashire textile mill.

Widnes workers take a well-earned dinner break.

Edwardian miners are filmed leaving their Lancashire pit at the shift's end.

Operatives heading out of Berry's Blacking Works.

Wet weather fails to dampen a thrilling show of horse-drawn fire wagons.

An orderly exit from one of the biggest hat factories in Edwardian Stockport.

A fire drill for the benefit of residents of Edwardian Rochdale - and the camera.

Workers emerge from a huge ironworks in Edwardian Salford with some relief on a hot and sunny day.

A chimney explosion in Edwardian Nelson, near Burnley, presents an exciting public spectacle.

Workers co-operate with the camera at a Manchester print factory.

Mounted police lead smartly uniformed firefighters past William Widdup's furniture store in Edwardian Nelson.

This Manchester 'factory gate' film has one mysterious addition...

Mill workers swarm into the July sunshine to enjoy a well-earned lunch break.

Spinners and weavers jostle through the exit of one of Stockport’s largest textile mills.

An astonishingly crowded Victorian street reveals the vast scale of Tyneside manufacturing.

Hungry and cold, Lancashire cotton workers trek home through the snow at dinner time.

Victorian cotton workers leave for their lunch break.

A visually memorable film of staff exiting a turn-of-the-century Lancashire machine factory.

Lancashire cotton-workers pile out through the mill gates at dinner time.

Millworkers bustle home, except for youngsters who are transfixed by the camera.

Workers surge through the great gates of a Victorian engineering works.

Workers of all ages emerge from a Salford mill.

Weary glassmakers head home after morning shift.

The lasses, and a few lads, surge out of a Victorian cotton mill after their shift.

Bicycles and broomsticks at the ready as workers finish shift at a marine engineering works in Victorian Hull.

Ironfounders and engineers head home after morning shift at Pagefield Works.

Home time for grateful workers in a Cheshire factory.

Eager youngsters burst out of the gates of a Victorian cotton mill.

A beautifully composed film of Edwardian factory workers as they rush for home.

A jovial crowd of Edwardian workers head home at dinner time in the Cheshire town.

Male and female millworkers - young and old - spill out after their shift.

Lancashire cotton workers hurry to lunch after morning shift.

Cheery child workers, averaging around 10 years old, leave the cotton mill after a shift.

Dinner time at a textile mill in Victorian Lancashire.

Workers at a Lancaster linoleum factory leave and the gate is firmly shut behind them.

Home time for cotton workers at a Lancashire mill.

Lively Lancashire millworkers, including young boys and girls, at the mill gates.

A glimpse of early filmmaking showmanship as James Kenyon marshals Lancashire textile workers.

Lancastrian workers spill out of a huge textile factory. 

A great surge of workers pushes through the gates of a Lancashire mill.

An all-male Edwardian crowd is filmed leaving work in the north western town.

A drizzly street scene outside one of south Yorkshire's major employers.

The largely female workforce of an Edwardian Lancashire factory parades past the camera.

Men and lads spill out at the end of their shift at a Lancashire iron works.

Workers and wagons pass through the main gate of an engineering factory in Edwardian Lancashire.

Royal Warrant biscuit-makers released after their shift.

Employees race out of a Jute works in Edwardian Dundee.

Filmed at a production plant for Edwardian ale, this unique footage carries a powerful scent of malt and hops.

Bustling scenes in Edwardian Lancashire, outside the mill gates and on the street.

Another shift ends in Victorian Lancashire, while children play in the street.

Crowds of cotton workers flow through the gates of the Clitheroe textile mill.

Well-heeled Edwardian workers head home after work.

Grinning textile workers head through the factory gates, another shift completed.

Scenes in Leeds city centre as Edwardian firemen roll through on drill.

Workers in Edwardian Lancashire become ghostly thanks to an odd camera effect.

Victorian textile workers at a mill near Manchester

Employees exit a Lancashire works on a drizzly day.

Their brass helmets gleaming, Edwardian firefighters in the West Yorkshire town demonstrate aspects of their job.

Employees of a South Yorkshire brassworks walk or cycle past the camera.

Victorian ironworkers emerge from the grand entrance of a long-established South Yorkshire firm.

The fire brigade springs into action for the benefit of the camera.

A tidy exit from an unidentified factory in Edwardian Barrow in Furness.

Victorian Manchester mill workers enjoy the novelty of a moving picture camera.

Glistening brass and galloping horses thrill the crowds at a municipal Fire Brigade drill.