Fabric to Fashion: uncovering stories of manufacturing

Due to open on September 21 and running until January 5, 2025, it aims to uncover the stories of local manufacturers, focusing on the staff they employed, with pictures of them working or celebrating in the working environment.
The plan is that the exhibition will bring in local family members and ex-workers from these industries to retell their stories for an archive for a later date.
Newsquest, publisher of the News & Star, is supporting it with historical images, which are shown here.
The first picture, taken in 1945, is of the early days of uniform manufacturer H Edgard & Sons (London) Ltd, known as Edgards, in Whitehaven, when the business was located in Catherine Mill.
It shows the top floor at the south end of the factory where workers are busy making leather jackets and jerkins for truck and tank drivers in the forces. In the back row, from left to right, are Doreen Calvin, Frank Lewthwaite (standing), John Ennis, Eunice Cartmell, Alice Bainbridge and Mr Hirst (standing).
In front, from left, are Maureen Haile, an unknown woman, Vera McCourt, Grace Benson, Joan Wilson and Clifford Smitham (standing).

Also pictured is Edgards’ Christmas party in 1949.

Another memorable name in manufacturing was Kangol, and the Duke of Kent is shown on a visit to its seatbelt factory in Norfolk Street, Denton Holme, Carlisle, in the early 1980s.

A group of supervisors is captured at the same time.

The West Cumberland Silk Mills, known as Sekers after founder, Miki Sekers, was formed in 1938 to manufacture high quality silk and rayon fabrics for the fashion trade.

Pictured are the mill in Hensingham in the 1940s and staff receiving their long service awards in 1980, along with Alan Litt being presented with his retirement gift in 1992.

More modern pictures show staff on the factory floor and in the office in 1997.