STOP PRESS…….
October 2024
Ann Gill has been in touch and has recognised her mother in one of the photos of the opening of the Stanley factory.
Ann says
“My mam is in the photo, she is in the back row with the straight cut fringe. Her name was Barbara Sayers.
She worked there when the factory was opened in June 1959 when she would have been nineteen. She left two years later to start a family.”
Barbara is seen here in the back row with Lord Lawson the local MP at the opening of the new factory at Stanley on June 18th 1959.
The company was quoted in the local press at the time as having opened the factory largely due to the “faith of the directors in the quality and skill of the work of the Stanley girls” and of course Barbara was one of those highly skilled girls.
October 2024
.......girls or gloves like these anymore
Two pairs of beautiful Pinkham gloves found their way to the collection last month.
Clearly unworn they are in new condition and again show exactly why Pinkham gloves were considered to be the finest of their time.
The gloves belonged to Lancashire lass Mrs Ida Pilkington née Tomlinson.
Ida was born in Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire in 1918 and caused quite a stir when she was the first woman to wear trousers in the village and the first woman to drive a car in the village.
Both of which were considered scandalous at the time and certainly shows the measure of the girl.
These striking evening gloves were found by her granddaughter Rosalyn Cropper following Ida’s passing in 2015 at the age of ninety seven.
Rosalyn said
“Granny P was pushing sartorial boundaries even then.
She was a fantastic lady and very creative and artistic and stylish so I am not surprised the lovely Pinkham gloves appealed to her!
Despite being a farmer's wife she was really into swanky events and took Grandad, kicking and screaming to recitals and all sorts of shows. I imagine, as he was 19 years older than her he was not as refined!
The fact that the gloves have never been worn must mean she was probably saving them for a special occasion. After all she was a farmer’s wife.”
If only the gloves could tell us their side of the story!!!
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