The most important workshop on the second floor was the Shroud Room, which the ladies who worked there more commonly called the Sewing Room. This occupied the whole of the front range, and its height maximised the available light. This was almost exclusively the domain of women; at least 15 ladies worked in the room. Here were made the funerary robes in which the deceased would be dressed, and the pillows and linings for the coffin. On the shelves are the roles of material, originally silks, cottons, satins, swansdown and lace, but by the later years all largely synthetic.

Scroll through the images below to see some of the key features in this room.

The windows above the bench provided the seamstresses with good natural light, but the bottom panes are made of opaque glass, either reeded or frosted, so that the ladies wouldn’t be distracted (indeed many of the windows in the factory were designed in the same way).

Elizabeth Weaving, who used to work in the Shroud Room, remembered how cold it used to get:

“In winter it was very cold in here, because of the old Victorian windows. In the summer, it was the reverse, because you’ve got all this glass, and it’s really hot. And I know sometimes it could be that cold that you could actually see frost gathering on the inside of the panes, and you’d sit with your jacket on, or run across to the fire, especially when we had our breaks. And stand like the Victorian gentleman!”