Woolen Mill Occupations

[glennaa]

My grandfather, who grew up around Morley in Yorkshire, spent his childhood working in the area wool mills before moving on to the coal mines. His history talks about being transferred from "piecening" to what looks like "raggie filling"? I have attached a copy of his notes with the writing in question in the box. I know that a piecener would be tying broken threads back together, but is the other "raggie filling", or something else? and if so, what would a raggie filler do?

[SandraL]

What is the name of the person you are tracing. Do you know his birth and death dates as well?

[thewideeyedowl]

Hi and welcome...

Maggie Land Blanck has an informative site about the 19th century Armley Mill (near Leeds). Haven't found "raggie filling" but "piecing" is explained here: https://www.maggieblanck.com/Land/Mill.html. (You need to scroll down a bit to get there.)

The whole site is very interesting and well illustrated.

Owl

[geneius]

PIECENER / PIECER
worker in a spinning mill to piece together any threads which broke

[glennaa]

What is the name of the person you are tracing. Do you know his birth and death dates as well?

Hello Sandra, I am researching the history of my grandfather. His name was James Edward Austerfield. I know most of the pertinent details of his life, since I have his birth and death documents, his Territorial Army records from WWI, his discharge certificate from the same, his immigration date from the Ellis Island database. He left a 6 page handwritten personal history, and I'm trying to decipher his handwriting.

[glennaa]

Hi and welcome...

Maggie Land Blanck has an informative site about the 19th century Armley Mill (near Leeds). Haven't found "raggie filling" but "piecing" is explained here: https://www.maggieblanck.com/Land/Mill.html. (You need to scroll down a bit to get there.)

The whole site is very interesting and well illustrated.

Owl

Thanks for the link. I have tried Googling "raggie", but everything comes up as reggae or misspellings of the same!