Mills: The mill owner, the factory girl and their lasting love

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A love affair, which crossed the class divide, shocked a well-known Derby mill owning family back in the 1930s when such a relationship was considered taboo. Nearly 70 years on, the couple who created quite a stir, look back on a long and happy marriage. Pat Parkin reports.

IN the 1930s, when tens of thousands were unemployed, lots of working class families had to feed and clothe their families with the help of their daughters.

Though mill girls were not always held in the highest esteem compared with young women who worked in offices or shops, it was their wages from hours spent in hot factories – sewing, spinning, weaving, dying, sizing, making up and packing – which were needed to help keep the wolf from the door for many households.

One of the best known employers in Derby at the time were the Lilley family.

The business was founded by by Horatio Lilley back in 1885. Generations of the family – fathers, brothers and cousins – went on to run six factories which made tapes, webbing and other accessories for furniture and carpets. Over the years, the mills provided work for thousands of Derby folk.

One of the last of the family to be involved with the mills was Eric Lilley, Horatio’s great-great-grandson. He followed his grandfather and father, both named Charles, into running the Parliament Street mills.

It was while he was learning the trade in the 1930s, working in every department, that he met and fell in love with one of the girls employed at the factory.

Vera Knight was a teenager living in Littleover and she would walk nearly four miles a day, to and from work, to save a few pennies in bus fare.

The pair got to know each other through walks in the park and visits to the cinema. But when their friendship turned to love, it caused quite a furore in the Lilley family.

The divide between the working classes and their bosses was one which was rarely breached in those days and his family’s disapproval was made apparent.

Despite this, Eric proposed and Vera accepted and soon they had started a family.

Nearly 70 years later, they have four daughters, seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, and are as happy today as they were as teenagers.

Said Vera (86): “The Lilleys didn’t think it a very good idea at the time. I don’t think they thought I was good enough. That was the way things were in those days, but once we all got to know each other, there were no problems.

“I used to say Eric was born with a silver spoon in his mouth but it didn’t make any difference to the way we two were together. Everyone called him by his Christian name and he certainly didn’t have any airs or graces.”

Said Eric: “I worked in the mill with everyone, learning to do all their jobs and I still reckon I could do each and every one, even today. That’s how the family ran things, believing that you had to know how to do everything if you were going to tell others what to do.”

At Parliament Street Mills, Eric’s grandfather and, later, his father and cousin Harry ran the business side while he ran the day-to-day operation.

For years it was highly successful. But later, as times changed, he was left to run things on his own.

“I wasn’t as knowledgeable with running the business side as they were and it was very sad when we had to close down in 1972 and people lost their jobs.”

Eric went to work for a cousin in Draycott until he retired and eventually all the family’s mills closed.

They included: C Lilley, Boyer Street; Parliament Street Mills; Agard Street Mills; Rykneld Mills, Dean Street Mills and City Textiles, Harvey Road.

Vera went to work at the factory when she was 15. She was one of eight Knight children who lived in North Street, Littleover, and all went to St Peter’s CoE School.

Their father, Howard Knight, was a painter and decorator and, at the time, was considered to be one of the best grainers in the area. He used to work on the houses of some of Derby’s wealthiest families, many of which were in Littleover, a very desirable village just outside Derby’s boundaries.

“It was quite a posh place with very many large houses occupied by doctors, dentists and businessmen, but there were also quite a few small cottages like ours.

“It really was a lovely place to live and everyone was very friendly. Everyone spoke to you, whoever they were.

“I used to walk along Burton Road to school. There was very little traffic then. We used to play hopscotch and whip and top in the road.

“There was a stables behind one of the cottages and I was often late for school because I used to stop to watch them shoeing the horses.

“I remember the shop which was pictured in Bygones recently. I would pass it every day. People were very kind and generous. They would sometimes give us kids a penny or two to spend.”

Life changed after her marriage to Eric, although, when he went off to war, she was left for almost six years on her own bringing up their three daughters. A fourth girl was born after he returned.

Later, they moved into a large new house in Littleover.

The couple would always go along to the numerous dinners, dances and outings which the mill ran for their employees.

Said Vera: “It used to be one big happy place. I used to always remind our daughters to always be friendly to the workers. We lived off the work those girls did and so they should always remember that.

“Mind you, the Lilley name was so well-known in Derby that, when they met a young man, they sometimes wouldn’t tell him their surname in case he felt he couldn’t afford to go out with them,” she laughed.

The closure of her husband’s mill in 1972 brought the realisation of a lifelong dream for Vera.

She had always wanted to be a nurse and work with children, but training had to be paid for and when she was young, before she married, her family couldn’t afford it.

So, in her early 50s, after her children were off her hands, Vera trained to be an auxiliary nurse. After qualifying, she worked at the City Hospital and, later, the old Queen Mary Maternity Home, on Duffield Road, Derby.

“It was helping young mums with their new babies, which was just what I had always wanted to do. I loved every minute of it. It was very rewarding.”

Did you have a relationship or marriage which crossed the class divide? Maybe you worked at one of the Lilley mills? Write to us at the address above.

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