Artistic insight of former mill girl

A former mill girl turned teacher is giving local art-lovers an insight into a textile industry which is fast disappearing.

In “Not Just Run of the Mill” at Saddleworth Museum and Art Gallery, Janis Bowie lifts the lid on the Pingle Mill at Delph, one of only two remaining woollen mills in Saddleworth.

There are 24 mill interior pictures ranging from big canvasses to small watercolours.

But Janis has employed an expert eye on all of them. From the age of 17, she worked for several years in quality control at Pingle Mill before being made redundant as the textile industry declined.

Janis has been a teacher at Saddleworth School in spells since 1982 and now teaches art. But she has also taught design and technology.

Janis, who is married with a daughter and lives in Greenfield, has never lost sight of her industrial roots.

She said: “I used to work in a wool-spinning mill at Pingle and such mills are now very rare. Certainly this is the only one in the area although there is another woollen mill in Saddleworth.

“Without a visual record, there will be little to remember these places by — and I remember them as light and airy places with that certain smell of grease from the wool.”

Janis has already exhibited her mill interiors over the past five years in Oldham, Manchester and Hebden Bridge.

The mill collection exhibition runs at Saddleworth Museum and Art Gallery from Sunday, February 21, to Sunday, March 22.