Interview for Italian article with Andy and Yvonne
PARALLEL REGIONS, IMPRESSIONS OF BIELLA FROM YORKSHIRE
Andy Abbott and Yvonne Carmichael from Yorkshire in North of England, write about their impressions of Biella, and the past experiences in England that have shaped their perspective of a textiles towns in different countries.
Childhood, family, and location. Growing up with Textiles.
AA: I was brought up in Derbyshire, an area south of Yorkshire, but like Yorkshire it was an area that was responsible for great changes in textiles production at the time of the Industrial Revolution. This meant that when I was very young a lot of my school projects were about people like Richard Arkwright who was responsible for building the first ever textiles mill in nearby Cromford, and for the widespread use of the 'Spinning Jenny' in the late 18th Century.
YC: I was born in a small town in the middle of a valley in Lancashire famed for being the most well preserved mill town in Britain. Many of my relatives worked in the mills from a very young age, my great Aunt Alice worked in textile mills for 46 years growing up, so I heard many anecdotes about what it used to be like working in the mills.
AA: Although no members of my family were involved directly in textiles it was a constant presence throughout my education and changed the landscape of the areas I grew up in. Mills, factories (functioning and disused), water wheels and chimneys were all common features in the towns I grew up in. Around the time I left school some of my friends worked for textiles manufacturers like John Smedley who were at that time internationally renowned and boasted Whitney Houston as one of their clients.
Moving to Leeds, first impressions and the city lifestyle
AA: I moved to Leeds in 1999 to work after graduating from high-school. My first job was working in a warehouse packing clothes. The company didn't actually manufacture or produce anything. My days were spent removing identical items of clothing from their packaging, inserting a coat-hanger and then repackaging them to be distributed to shops across the country.
Leeds was an exciting place to be for me because I am interested in music and there is an excellent 'DIY' or underground culture, particularly in the area I lived, known as LS6. However the culture in Leeds outside of this close-knit music community left me with a different impression. As is the norm for people of our age in Leeds, my friends and I worked in variety of call centre and office administration jobs in temporary positions. This would provide us with money to spend on drinking and shopping, which appeared to be the main sources of entertainment in Leeds.
Access to history in Leeds
AA:I started to take an interest in the history of Leeds when I studied art at University. I began working on a project about Industrial architecture, with a focus on how redundant Chimneys now act as monuments and landmarks. However prior to this research I admit I was ignorant to the fact that Leeds had such a strong textiles history, in fact upon moving to Leeds a friend of mine commented that 'there doesn't seem to be much historical presence in Leeds'.
YC: When I was 18 I moved to Leeds to study art. I became interested in how the history of textile manufacture is represented in Lancashire (where I was born) and Yorkshire (where I had moved to). Through this research I realised how separated people feel from their past, especially when living in a city like Leeds. I began to research museums like Armley Mills in Leeds and other industrial or textiles museums that attempt to make the history of the area more visible.
Although local history museums are a valuable resource for the North of England, one of the problems I encountered whilst doing this research was that museums are always never neutral. The manner in which the curator presents the facts can change the way people see their own history. This is one of the reasons why I prefer talking to or interviewing people, instead of using books and museums as a source of information.
A move to Bradford.
AA: My interest in local architecture and history was accelerated when I met Yvonne who was working on similar art projects in Leeds. This interest in local history culminated in us moving to Saltaire earlier this year. Saltaire is a model village built in the 1850s in between Leeds and Bradford.
The village is developed around a textiles mill built on the river Aire by a Bradford industrialist called Titus Salt. Salt is famed for his humanitarian approach and contribution to improved welfare in industry. In addition to the large, clean houses he built for his mill workers, he also provided Saltaire village with schools, a church, and facilities for intellectual and recreational pursuits. However he disliked alcohol and banned pubs and drunkeness in the village.
In the 1980's Bradford suffered greatly as the textiles industry crumbled due to competition from abroad (particularly from Italy) and many people were left unemployed. My impression of the Bradford I visited upon first moving to Leeds in 1999 was that of a depressing and grey place. There were many empty warehouses and factories and it lacked the cosmopolitan feel that Leeds possesses thanks to its popular Universities and population of 'young professionals'.
YC: It is common in the north of England to attempt to ignore the decline and closure of the mills as if it is an unimportant stage in the development of industries. Some local history museums even keep all the old textiles machines in full working order to a level where they could actually produce material, meaning that visitors museum doesn't recognise how and why the mill closed down.
AA: During our time in Saltaire and Bradford we have discovered a surprising amount about the history of the area. In contrast to Leeds, Bradford seems to have maintained a strong link with its industrial past (it was the largest centre for textiles production in the world in the 19th century) and appears proud to both present this past and allow it to characterise modern day Bradford. For these reasons I currently feel a closer relationship with Bradford and Saltaire than with the gentrified feel of larger and more famous cities like Leeds and Manchester.
This is not to say that Bradford is wallowing in its past or is slow to develop a new economy. Indeed, the saving grace for Saltaire following the decline of the textiles industry was the transformation of Salts mill into a complex of art, restaurants, and book and gift shops. Salts Mill has been an incredible success, helped along by the endorsement of internationally famed and Bradford raised artist David Hockney, and is responsible for UNESCO granting the village World Heritage Site status in 2002.
Biella and the Yorkshire connection.
AA: My first impressions of Biella were gained from research about the area in preparation for the residency we are currently working on at Cittadellarte. When we learnt that the area had an important textiles industry we immediately felt a connection with the town. Since arriving in July we have discovered many parallels in the development of both the industry and the town, from smuggled weaving machines, similar natural resources and a mutual respect for the other's architecture to unpredictable weather and a strong work ethic.
However it is the things that make Biella unique, or different to Yorkshire, that most fascinate me; the local artisans and the products they make, the beautiful paving stones and well kept roads, the cleanliness of the town and the breathtaking scenery. Of course, the food, the ice cream and the beer are also of particular interest to us Britons. Most importantly, this knowledge of what characterises the place of Biella has left us with a strong desire to find out what characterises the people of Biella and their outlook on life. We hope to satisfy this desire in the coming months and share the findings with other people in Yorkshire who would no doubt find it equally as fascinating that there is a place in another part of the world with which we can so pertinently compare and contrast our lives.
YC: They clearly have a lot in common, but are maybe at different stages in the same process. Bradford has been through a similar crisis to that that is facing Biella, and its just now finding its feet again after some very hard times. In this way we hope that the relationship between Yorkshire people and the people of this area will run deeper than pure novelty and have some constructive and useful implications.
Andy Abbott and Yvonne Carmichael from Yorkshire in North of England, write about their impressions of Biella, and the past experiences in England that have shaped their perspective of a textiles towns in different countries.
Childhood, family, and location. Growing up with Textiles.
AA: I was brought up in Derbyshire, an area south of Yorkshire, but like Yorkshire it was an area that was responsible for great changes in textiles production at the time of the Industrial Revolution. This meant that when I was very young a lot of my school projects were about people like Richard Arkwright who was responsible for building the first ever textiles mill in nearby Cromford, and for the widespread use of the 'Spinning Jenny' in the late 18th Century.
YC: I was born in a small town in the middle of a valley in Lancashire famed for being the most well preserved mill town in Britain. Many of my relatives worked in the mills from a very young age, my great Aunt Alice worked in textile mills for 46 years growing up, so I heard many anecdotes about what it used to be like working in the mills.
AA: Although no members of my family were involved directly in textiles it was a constant presence throughout my education and changed the landscape of the areas I grew up in. Mills, factories (functioning and disused), water wheels and chimneys were all common features in the towns I grew up in. Around the time I left school some of my friends worked for textiles manufacturers like John Smedley who were at that time internationally renowned and boasted Whitney Houston as one of their clients.
Moving to Leeds, first impressions and the city lifestyle
AA: I moved to Leeds in 1999 to work after graduating from high-school. My first job was working in a warehouse packing clothes. The company didn't actually manufacture or produce anything. My days were spent removing identical items of clothing from their packaging, inserting a coat-hanger and then repackaging them to be distributed to shops across the country.
Leeds was an exciting place to be for me because I am interested in music and there is an excellent 'DIY' or underground culture, particularly in the area I lived, known as LS6. However the culture in Leeds outside of this close-knit music community left me with a different impression. As is the norm for people of our age in Leeds, my friends and I worked in variety of call centre and office administration jobs in temporary positions. This would provide us with money to spend on drinking and shopping, which appeared to be the main sources of entertainment in Leeds.
Access to history in Leeds
AA:I started to take an interest in the history of Leeds when I studied art at University. I began working on a project about Industrial architecture, with a focus on how redundant Chimneys now act as monuments and landmarks. However prior to this research I admit I was ignorant to the fact that Leeds had such a strong textiles history, in fact upon moving to Leeds a friend of mine commented that 'there doesn't seem to be much historical presence in Leeds'.
YC: When I was 18 I moved to Leeds to study art. I became interested in how the history of textile manufacture is represented in Lancashire (where I was born) and Yorkshire (where I had moved to). Through this research I realised how separated people feel from their past, especially when living in a city like Leeds. I began to research museums like Armley Mills in Leeds and other industrial or textiles museums that attempt to make the history of the area more visible.
Although local history museums are a valuable resource for the North of England, one of the problems I encountered whilst doing this research was that museums are always never neutral. The manner in which the curator presents the facts can change the way people see their own history. This is one of the reasons why I prefer talking to or interviewing people, instead of using books and museums as a source of information.
A move to Bradford.
AA: My interest in local architecture and history was accelerated when I met Yvonne who was working on similar art projects in Leeds. This interest in local history culminated in us moving to Saltaire earlier this year. Saltaire is a model village built in the 1850s in between Leeds and Bradford.
The village is developed around a textiles mill built on the river Aire by a Bradford industrialist called Titus Salt. Salt is famed for his humanitarian approach and contribution to improved welfare in industry. In addition to the large, clean houses he built for his mill workers, he also provided Saltaire village with schools, a church, and facilities for intellectual and recreational pursuits. However he disliked alcohol and banned pubs and drunkeness in the village.
In the 1980's Bradford suffered greatly as the textiles industry crumbled due to competition from abroad (particularly from Italy) and many people were left unemployed. My impression of the Bradford I visited upon first moving to Leeds in 1999 was that of a depressing and grey place. There were many empty warehouses and factories and it lacked the cosmopolitan feel that Leeds possesses thanks to its popular Universities and population of 'young professionals'.
YC: It is common in the north of England to attempt to ignore the decline and closure of the mills as if it is an unimportant stage in the development of industries. Some local history museums even keep all the old textiles machines in full working order to a level where they could actually produce material, meaning that visitors museum doesn't recognise how and why the mill closed down.
AA: During our time in Saltaire and Bradford we have discovered a surprising amount about the history of the area. In contrast to Leeds, Bradford seems to have maintained a strong link with its industrial past (it was the largest centre for textiles production in the world in the 19th century) and appears proud to both present this past and allow it to characterise modern day Bradford. For these reasons I currently feel a closer relationship with Bradford and Saltaire than with the gentrified feel of larger and more famous cities like Leeds and Manchester.
This is not to say that Bradford is wallowing in its past or is slow to develop a new economy. Indeed, the saving grace for Saltaire following the decline of the textiles industry was the transformation of Salts mill into a complex of art, restaurants, and book and gift shops. Salts Mill has been an incredible success, helped along by the endorsement of internationally famed and Bradford raised artist David Hockney, and is responsible for UNESCO granting the village World Heritage Site status in 2002.
Biella and the Yorkshire connection.
AA: My first impressions of Biella were gained from research about the area in preparation for the residency we are currently working on at Cittadellarte. When we learnt that the area had an important textiles industry we immediately felt a connection with the town. Since arriving in July we have discovered many parallels in the development of both the industry and the town, from smuggled weaving machines, similar natural resources and a mutual respect for the other's architecture to unpredictable weather and a strong work ethic.
However it is the things that make Biella unique, or different to Yorkshire, that most fascinate me; the local artisans and the products they make, the beautiful paving stones and well kept roads, the cleanliness of the town and the breathtaking scenery. Of course, the food, the ice cream and the beer are also of particular interest to us Britons. Most importantly, this knowledge of what characterises the place of Biella has left us with a strong desire to find out what characterises the people of Biella and their outlook on life. We hope to satisfy this desire in the coming months and share the findings with other people in Yorkshire who would no doubt find it equally as fascinating that there is a place in another part of the world with which we can so pertinently compare and contrast our lives.
YC: They clearly have a lot in common, but are maybe at different stages in the same process. Bradford has been through a similar crisis to that that is facing Biella, and its just now finding its feet again after some very hard times. In this way we hope that the relationship between Yorkshire people and the people of this area will run deeper than pure novelty and have some constructive and useful implications.
posted by Abbott and Carmichael at 31.10.06
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