Theresa Schistal’s Story – a new home in Saltaire

Theresa Schistal came to Saltaire from Austria shortly after the Second World War. The first part of her story is told in a separate post. Her story once she arrived in Saltaire continues here…

Theresa’s accommodation was on a dedicated floor of Salts ‘new mill’, situated below the main mill on Victoria Road, with other Austrian and some Italian women. Theresa made firm friends with a woman called Trudi Peterson, a particularly bright girl with a strong personality. Together they quickly learned to stand up for themselves. On one occasion Theresa was short changed after buying bread at a baker’s shop on Victoria Road, Saltaire and Trudi insisted she go back and demand having the right change because their finances were always very ‘tight’ and every penny counted.

Nevertheless, the young women were well looked after, albeit that the two ‘matrons’ in charge of the hostel were strictly in control of their lives. Theresa’s son, Mark, recalls his mum reminiscing about that the two women employed to look after the young women in the hostel, who were apparently very strict and maintained a 9 pm curfew when all had to be in the residence. Many of the girls would creep out of the windows once the all clear was given!

They all availed themselves of the local amenities and some a little further afield. As some of the photographs of Theresa show, the young women were smartly dressed and clearly enjoyed Saltaire and its amenities. The photograph of Theresa and her friends show them posing near Saltaire boathouse at a time when hiring a boat was still possible.  They also enjoyed time in the sun at Bradford’s Lido in what is now Lister park.

Initially Theresa was given employment in the spinning department at Salts Mill but she found the work to be technically difficult so was moved to the burling and mending department – work that she enjoyed. Here Theresa learned new skills and became a ‘passer’ – looking at the work of others and using chalk to circle any patches in the cloth that needed to be re-worked. She learned to pass the work to the most skilled women to correct these pieces. All the women called the pieces of cloth ‘pigs’ and eventually this work began to affect Theresa’s eyesight a little – particularly when working with mohair – a very fine cloth difficult to work with and requiring keen eyesight and strong nerves.

Whilst Theresa lived in Saltaire she met Ronald Mortimer at a local dance and later married him. Ronald worked at International Harvesters, which was a major employer in the Shipley Area, as a planning engineer. After the birth of her son, Theresa worked in several Bradford’s textile mills – for example Star Mills for 18 years – until she was finally made redundant as a textile worker and took a job in Bradford’s town hall.

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