GRACE-EVANGELINE MASON

'In Her Own Valley'(2019) is a cantata in five movements for combined youth and children’s choirs. The work is inspired by the life and principles of Hannah Greg (née Lightbody) (1766 – 1834), a female philanthropist and activist based in Liverpool and Manchester during the industrial revolution. Hannah, born into a wealthy, mercantile, middle-class family, was progressive, interested in the politics of her day and determined to make positive reformations.

The piece follows the lives of young factory children and workers who have often previously laboured at the docks, in the squalid conditions of the workhouses or live in neighbouring parishes. The arrival of Hannah and her husband, Samuel Greg, brought great hope as their innovative approach to labour relations, mostly as a result of Hannah’s work, was thought to lead to a better quality of life as they were both considered to be enlightened employers for the period. At Quarry Bank Mill, established by Samuel to spin cotton, they hired child apprentices and built a model village for their workers, which included housing, a chapel and a school. Fed by weekly labour, the valley was a vision for how life should be.

While her husband pioneered new ways of running a cloth mill, as he was quick to adopt innovations in the rapidly developing technologies of manufacturing, Hannah oversaw the housing and conditions of the employees, including the education of the child workers. Her life was shaped by British Unitarianism,a denomination of English Dissenters who have always valued education for girls as well as for boys. Hannah believed she had a duty to look after the education of her workers so that they could progress, however the education they received was often used to instil middle-class virtues and mould them into the ideal worker instead of to emancipate them. Social hierarchy was paramount within the factory system, and therefore they encouraged workers to desire to do well within their role but not to aspire beyond their status. However, Hannah encouraged the children with their literacy, which brought new hope for their workers.

Built on the back of child labour, these picturesque surroundings at the Mill were not all positive. The Gregs prided themselves on the superior conditions in their mill but, despite their best efforts, many of the children were unhappy as apprentices as the children were legally bound to the mill owner and were forbidden from leaving. The workers themselves had no rights; neither the working conditions or hours were enforced by law. The work was sometimes dangerous, with fingers being severed or limbs crushed by the machines. ‘In Her Own Valley’ explores the horror of these accidents, which causes Hannah to reflect upon life at the mill and the choices she made.

Also lying beneath the surface of Britain’s industrial success was a dark past, as the great wealth of a lot of the major northern cities was built upon the profits of the slave trade. Many mill owners, such as Samuel Greg, benefitted from this history.The extended family of the Gregs were also involved in slavery: some with the Triangular Trade and some with abolition. Samuel owned an empire of mills across the North West of England and Hannah, due to her impressive ideals, worked hard to improve the conditions and the lives of the working class within them, but to what cost is the secret to their industrial success? 

Supported by her wealthy background, Hannah sought to use her position to help make change beyond the restrictions placed upon her by her gender or expected marital role. Hannah’s legacy made an immense difference and provided hope for future reform both in her own valley, in Liverpool and beyond.’ ©G.E.M.2019