Emily Popplewell was the daughter of Harry and Clara Popplewell. The Popplewells were the first tenants of 7 Coronation Street in 1902. During the war, Emily worked alongside her mother at Hardcastle's Mill as a loom operator before deciding to help the war effort by volunteering to serve in a field hospital. It was there that she fell in love and married an Italian. Emily first appeared in Daran Little and Bill Hill's "Weatherfield Life", published in 1992. Other information is derived from Little's follow-up book, "Around the Coronation Street Houses".