This edition of the St Luke’s Gazette is packed with discoveries, local legends, and vivid glimpses into the lives of the people who built St Luke’s as we know it today. Our Futures Past Heritage Project has unearthed remarkable stories from St Luke’s Road and Crescent — tales of bustling pubs, bustling families, steep steps and steeper struggles, and the colourful characters who once called our streets home.

In the 1800s, the majority of women living in and around St Luke's Road worked from home earning a pittance in 'sweated trades'; these mainly involved sewing and seamstress work. A women's group working as part of the St Luke's Community Heritage Project 2024 have created approximately 50 pillow-cases printed and embroidered in memory of just some of these bygone women. Their work can be seen along St Luke's Road adjacent to the worker’s former homes - demolished in 1962 to m

by the St Luke's Heritage Group for Futures Past Struggle for equality and emancipation, Totterdown 1867 - 1918 As we have seen elsewhere in our project, the impact of the 1867 Voting Reform Act was felt in St Luke’s among the newly enfranchised male builders working along the road (see Edwin Bennett). But this act also bookends the struggle for representation for women up to the 1918 (first) Voting Reform Act. Work on the building of St Luke’s Road began in 1867, so it is ap

by the St Luke's Heritage Group for Futures Past With fingers weary and worn, With eyelids heavy and red, A woman sat in unwomanly rags, Plying her needle and thread- Stitch! stitch! stitch! In poverty, hunger, and dirt, And still with a voice of dolorous pitch She sang the "Song of the Shirt" "It is not the linen you're wearing out, but human creatures' lives" It was written in honour of a Mrs. Biddell, a widow and seamstress living in wretched conditions. In what was,

This edition of the St Luke’s Gazette is packed with discoveries, local legends, and vivid glimpses into the lives of the people who built St Luke’s as we know it today. Our Futures Past Heritage Project has unearthed remarkable stories from St Luke’s Road and Crescent — tales of bustling pubs, bustling families, steep steps and steeper struggles, and the colourful characters who once called our streets home.

by the St Luke's Heritage Group for Futures Past Sweated trades - St Luke’s Road - Women’s Clothiers 1871-1881 Milliners, bootmakers, tailoresses, dress-makers, seamstresses, staymakers, knicker-makers, gloves, coats, shirts, chemises, petticoats. Clothing manufacturing in and around Totterdown was one of the 4 cornerstone trades. St Luke’s Road in particular, abounded with lowpaid ‘sweated’ seamstresses working long hours for a pittance to help make ends meet. The overwhelmi

1894 domestic sewing rates and hours worked – 1s would be worth £8.00 in today’s money. 15 hours per day for 5 ½ days per week may only bring in as little as £80.00 by current rates.