The town of black silk

Used with permission

Mildred Hume worked in Courtauld’s Silk Factory in Halstead in the 1950s and the discovery of her Granny’s birth certificate has sparked her interest. She wants to develop her family tree and know how far back her silk connections go.

Nick's first step is to find birth and marriage certificates and census returns to flesh out the bones of a family tree Mildred already has. Jonathan explores the remaining industrial building of Courtauld’s Halstead Empire and Miranda tries her hand at weaving. Nick is very successful at finding Mildred’s great grandmother and proving both her Gran and great Gran worked in the silk factory. But he has more to do.

Miranda meets a couple of local historians who provide her with photographs and stories that show the conditions for the workers in the 19th Century silk factory. Jonathan finds some architectural industrial salvage and investigates what buildings remain that the Courtauld family built. Miranda visits a direct descendent of the founder of the factory.

While Jonathan explores the houses that workers lived in and then paints a picture of the factory that was demolished, Miranda joins Nick in the archive.

Nick has found the factory records and Mildred’s families’ careers and has been doing a bit more on the family tree. He has found Mildred’s great, great grandmother and has an unexpected twist to the story. Mildred’s great, great grandfather died at 22 from Scarlatina Maligna and his wife remarried. So there is a whole new line to Mildred’s family tree she doesn’t know about.

What will her response be to all this new information?