There was quite an industry making brushes in Manchester, the Angel Meadow area.
A lot was "homework" ie, the work was done in peoples` own homes, by men and women but also quite young children . Mostly it was the "head" of the brushes -the wooden blocks where the bristles were , but of course some needed handles or stales attaching.
It was all piecework, the several components being made in different places by different people.
There is a lovely photograph in M/C archives collection of a family working on putting in the bristles.
Viktoria.
