52 Ancestors Week 31 - A Day in the Life
A Day in the Life of Rosetta Elizabeth Lane (1853–1926)
Rosetta Elizabeth Lane, my great‑great‑grandmother, the year 1911 offers a perfect window into her everyday world. She was 58 years old, living as a boarder in a single rented room at 22 Hartington Street, Chatham, within the home of George and Elizabeth Edginton. Her occupation was listed as colour maker at the Royal Naval Dockyard — a role that meant she was part of the women’s workforce responsible for making naval flags, bunting, and other coloured cloth used for signalling.
This is what one of her days might have looked like.
🌅 Early Morning: Hartington Street
Rosetta’s day began before sunrise. Hartington Street was a modest road, lined with small terraced houses, each one holding its own quiet story. In 1911 she lodged with the Edginton family, renting a single room in their home. The census shows her listed as a boarder, living alongside George and Elizabeth Edginton, who occupied the rest of the house.
Her room would have been simple: a narrow bed, a washstand, a small table, and a single window looking out over the rooftops of Chatham. She would have risen early, lighting the small fire in her grate to boil water for tea. Breakfast was likely plain — bread, perhaps a little butter if money allowed. She had lived through poverty, widowhood, and the workhouse years of her relatives; thrift was second nature.
When she stepped out into Hartington Street, she faced a two‑mile walk to the Royal Naval Dockyard — a journey of around 30 minutes on foot. In 1911, this was a familiar route for hundreds of workers heading toward the Sail Loft, rigging sheds, and workshops. Rosetta joined that steady flow each morning, her pace purposeful, her mind already on the day’s work.
🏴 Walking to Work: The Sail & Colour Loft
By 1911, Rosetta had already lived several lives — a childhood spent with relatives, a failed first marriage, a rare and hard‑won divorce, a second marriage cut short by tragedy, and decades of labour to support herself and her children.
Now, she walked with purpose toward the dockyards, where she worked in the Sail & Colour Loft, a building dating back to 1723 and used for the sewing, repairing, manufacture and fitting of items including canvas awnings, sails, protective covers, and flags.
The Navy’s use of flags had increased over time, and a separate workforce of women was employed specifically to make them — known as the Ladies of the Sail Loft. Rosetta was one of these women.
Her role as a colour maker placed her among the women preparing coloured cloth, cutting pieces to precise naval standards, and helping assemble the flags that carried messages across oceans.
🧵 Inside the Loft: The Rhythm of Labour
The Sail & Colour Loft over 3 floors was a world of fabric, colour, and precision. The top floor was pillarless, designed to allow sails and large cloth pieces to be laid out flat. Rosetta’s work would have taken place among long tables, bolts of coloured cloth, and rows of sewing machines.
Her tasks likely included:
Preparing coloured cloth for signal flags
Cutting pieces to exact naval specifications
Assembling bunting and pennants
Working alongside sailmakers and labourers
Ensuring colour consistency for naval signalling systems
The air smelled of fabric, dye, and the oil from sewing machines. The work required accuracy, patience, and skill — and Rosetta, with decades of life experience behind her, would have been steady and reliable.
Lunch was simple — bread and cheese wrapped in paper, eaten sitting on an upturned crate or against a wall outside. She probably would have chatted with other women, many of whom were also boarders living in rooms rented from families like the Edgintons.
👩🧵 The Other Women of the Loft
Rosetta was not alone in her work. The 1911 census shows a small but distinct community of women in the surrounding dockyard streets all recorded with the same occupation: colour maker. These women formed the backbone of the Sail & Colour Loft’s flag‑making workforce.
They lived in modest terraced houses, often as boarders like Rosetta, or in households where several women worked at the dockyard. Their ages varied — some were young and newly employed, others were older and experienced, having spent years preparing coloured cloth and assembling flags for the Navy.
Together, they created the visual language of the Royal Navy:
the bright signal flags hoisted from masts,
the bunting that dressed ships for ceremonies,
the pennants that marked rank and command.
The census reveals them as a quiet network of skilled women, each contributing her part to a system that stretched across oceans. Rosetta was one of them — one name among many, yet each name representing hands that shaped the colours seen on ships around the world.
🌆 Late Afternoon: Returning Home
When the workday ended, she walked back through Chatham’s busy streets — past shops, trams, and the hum of naval life. She returned to her small room on Hartington Street, where the quiet must have felt like a balm after the bustle of the loft.
The Edginton household would have been settling into its own evening rhythm: George perhaps reading the newspaper, Elizabeth preparing supper. As a boarder, Rosetta lived alongside them but not fully with them — a familiar Edwardian arrangement where privacy and proximity coexisted.
She likely prepared her own simple meal, perhaps reading a newspaper or mending clothes by lamplight. Her daughter Rosetta Charlotte lived nearby, and it’s easy to imagine mother and daughter sharing visits, news, and companionship.
🌙 Evening: Reflection and Resilience
As night fell, Rosetta would tidy her room, bank the fire, and settle into bed. She had lived through upheaval, heartbreak, and hardship — yet here she was, still working, still independent, still standing.
Her life was not defined by grand events but by the quiet strength she carried into every ordinary day.
✨ Why This Day Matters
Reconstructing a day in Rosetta’s life reminds me that resilience is often found in the small, steady moments — the walk to work, the careful preparation of coloured cloth, the quiet evenings in a rented room within another family’s home.
Her story is not only one of dramatic turning points but of the everyday courage required to keep going.
In 1911, at 58, living as a boarder with the Edginton family and working long hours in the Sail & Colour Loft, Rosetta Lane was helping create the flags that carried the Royal Navy’s messages across the world. And that, more than anything, is what makes her extraordinary
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