"There's trouble at t'mill" must surely be a quotation. But from what?

my gran worked as a spinner in a factory in Ireland & she told us about trouble at t'mill when a man lit a match and was dismissed, he put everyone at risk from fire including the factory, the conditions were very primitive in those days. I'm going back to the mid 19th century but gracie fields used the saying in one of her films,seems it was widely used in lancashire.

I think it may originate from the early Deaths that occurred in the Victorian Mills, often Small Children being used to clear out tight spaces Adults could not get in- and the mills were steam driven - so could not be stopped suddenly.

There were also riots at mills

I saw a History programme where the frequent explosion of some coal fired steam boilers would over pressurise and hurt many people.

I expect The mill was where a lot of families were in the day In Northern Towns and Cities, and likely this phrase is now used to describe a tense atmosphere at work prior to a bigger problem starting.

I've heard it used as sarcasm up north too,not even meaning at work

This is a direct quote from the link i found below:

http://www.nettlesworth.durham.sch.uk/time/victori...

*While thousands of children worked down the mine, thousands of others worked in the cotton mills. The mill owners often took in orphans to their workhouses, they lived at the mill and were worked as hard as possible. They spent most of their working hours at the machines with little time for fresh air or exercise. Even part of Sunday was spent cleaning machines. There were some serious accidents, some children were scalped when their hair was caught in the machine, hands were crushed and some children were killed when they went to sleep and fell into the machine.*

I can't think of any classic novels where it came from, so I'm guessing it's just a saying that caught on. There's the classic Monty Python sketch of course, but I'm presuming it'll be older than that.

When I see the sun expanded to Red Giant status. However, that's unlikely to happen for a couple of reasons. 1. It's not scheduled for another seven-and-a-half billion years, and I'm probably going to be dead by then. ;) 2. Way before that happens, the earth will be barren...or nearly barren...of all life anyway, so everybody is probably going to be dead by then. If life becomes extinct (and it will), that won't be the end of the planet. It'll just become another pointless chunk of rock orbiting a dying sun.

Trouble At Mill

I've no idea, but I seem to remember people saying 'Mr Grimsdale, come quick, there's trouble at t'mill'...if that's any help... :-)

It was a line in the 1960s TV drama "Inheritance" that quickly became a catchphrase. It was used a lot it the 1970s series "The Comedians".

http://orangecow.org/pythonet/sketches/spanish.htm

Monty python definitely

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