An unidentified workplace is the scene of a vivid slice of turn-of-the-century life.

'Pay' was the only word inscribed on this film's original negative, though the pieces of paper being doled out by the young boys aren't cash or, probably, anything similar - most likely they advertise a screening of this very film. We've little else to go on, but there's compensation enough in the unusually close camera, which catches every detail in the faces of the workers and excited children.

The downside of the camera position is that we see almost nothing of the workplace - bar its imposing but not very distinctive gates - so we may never find out exactly what or where it was. But the largely female workforce, and their familiar shawls, might suggest that this was a textile mill, perhaps in the North West.