Some of Mitchell and Kenyon's liveliest, most joyous images can be found among the scores of films they shot outside places of work. From the cotton mills on their Lancashire doorstep, the duo travelled to engineering factories and ironworks, collieries and shipyards, highlighting an early 20th-Century economy that was industrialised, relatively prosperous, and very hard-working.

Indoor light was too dim for early film stock, so M&K never took their camera beyond the factory gate. But then, what they filmed outside was so much more alive: at shift's end the workers might be weary, but they were also relaxed, even playful.