Wigan Album
Pit Brow Lasses
5 Comments
Photo: Rev David Long
Item #: 29638
The dress of these sorters from a French pit at Lens is clearly very different from that of our lasses - I think it was the trousers that made such an impression on the French... maybe it was even seen as risqué to publish pics of girls showing so much leg, even if covered up!
Thank you , Rev David for this collection,fascinating. Strange to think some of my forebears could well be among the Wigan lasses !
One of my maternal ancestors was a coal drawer on the 1841 census.
Somehow the French women look more feminine in the way they present themselves in this photograph despite the rough clothes. Not for them posing with one leg up and resting on a spade and wearing trousers. But French women have always been known for their ability to appear 'chic' with their silk scarves. That's not to say some of our own lasses weren't beautiful. I think Lundy liked to see them posing as Amazons!
Should have said Mumby- Arthur Mumby- he liked to collect images of 'unbecoming' women'. He was also an amateur painter and was fascinated by working class women and liked to sketch them. Personally I thought he was a bit strange!!
Seeing that a couple of these ladies of the French coalfield are holding colliery oil safety lamps, did their employment also require them to work under ground. I believe that practise had ceased in the U.K. long before 1902