The Workers of
Forge Mill Needle Museum
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Pointers
were so well paid because of their short life expectancy.
Pointers did not often live longer than the age of 35. There were many dangers for the pointers to face in their every day work, sometimes slivers of metal – “twitters”- would fly off from the flips and blind them, sometimes the pointing stone would break and cause serious injury or even death. A pointer named Edward Matthews was killed here in August 1816, there is part of the stone that killed him built into the wall of the East Wing bearing the inscription “ E.M. 1816” Another cause of death for the pointers was “Pointers Rot”, it was a lung disease that killed a great many of them caused by constantly breathing in the metal and stone dust whilst pointing. |
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