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Kathleen Letters at her Juki sewing machine in the Old Bleach Stitching Room in 1982Open photograph 1982 · Photograph: Down Memory Lane, Len Kinley · reproduced with permission

Remembered · Old Bleach Randalstown

Kathleen Letters

A much-loved granny and one of the women of the Old Bleach Stitching Room, remembered at her Juki sewing machine in 1982.

Department
Stitching Room
Work or job title
Machinist
Years at Old Bleach
Working there in 1982
Record shared by
Her family

Her place in the story

Kathleen Letters (née Mc Veigh) worked in the Old Bleach Stitching Room in Randalstown. A surviving photograph from 1982 shows her smiling at her industrial Juki sewing machine, with a small piece of white linen spread across the table in front of her. The exact article is not identified. Its size makes a napkin possible, but the archive does not present that guess as fact.

Other photographs keep Kathleen among the women she worked beside, inside the Stitching Room and laughing outdoors during a lunch break. They show more than a workplace. They preserve friendship, humour and ordinary moments from the factory's final period.

Kathleen died peacefully at home on 12 October 2023, in her nineties. Her family keeps this record because there were questions about the Old Bleach they wish they had asked while they still could. Her place in its story will not be lost.

The family album

Photographs and captions shared with this family record.

Seven women from the Old Bleach Stitching Room together in 1982, with Kathleen third from the left in the back rowOpen photograph
The women of the Stitching Room. Kathleen is third from the left in the back row.1982 · Photograph: Down Memory Lane, Len Kinley · reproduced with permission
Kathleen Letters and Old Bleach colleagues laughing outside during a lunch break in 1982Open photograph
A lunch break outside the Old Bleach. Kathleen is seated on the platform.1982 · Photograph: Down Memory Lane, Len Kinley · reproduced with permission
Kathleen Letters later in lifeOpen photograph
Kathleen later in life. The family photograph is shown in its original proportions.Photograph: Letters family collection

A living archive

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