Empress Mill, Ince

Empress

Location within Greater Manchester
Cotton
Spinning
Architectural style	Single-storey shed mill
Location	Ince-in-Makerfield, Wigan, Greater Manchester
Further ownership	Lancashire Cotton Corporation (1930s) Courtaulds (1964)
Coordinates	53°32′35″N 2°36′34″W / 53.5431°N 2.6094°W / 53.5431; -2.6094
Construction
Built	1907
Demolished	May 1975
References
[1]

Empress Mill, Ince was a single storey shed mill alongside the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, spinning cotton in Ince, Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. It was operated by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation from the 1930s and passed to Courtaulds in 1964. Production finished in 1975. It was the last mill in Ince to close, despite the intervention of Member of Parliament Michael McGuire, and a debate in the House of Commons on 20 March 1975.^[2]

Location

Ince or more formally Ince-in Makerfield is an area of Wigan, and an electoral ward of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, in Greater Manchester.^[3] It lies on the southeastern bank of the River Douglas,^[4] south east and 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from Wigan's town centre. It is 15 miles (24.1 km) south of Preston, 16.5 miles (26.6 km) west-northwest of Manchester, and 17.4 miles (28 km) east-northeast of Liverpool. Principally, Ince was a mining town. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal passes through Ince. Empress mill was built on land adjacent to the canal, by the seventh lock in the 21 lock Wigan flight completed in 1816.^[5] Ince and Wigan lie in a synclinal basin, where the middle coal measures of the Lancashire Coalfield outcrop allowing open cast workings. There was ready fuel for the steam engines of the mills. In the 1830s Wigan became one of the first towns in Britain to be served by a railway; the line had connections to Preston and the Manchester and Liverpool Railway.^[6]

History

This was a single-storey spinning mill, itself unusual. The industry peaked in 1912 when it produced 8 billion yards of cloth. The Great War of 1914–18 halted the supply of raw cotton, and the British government encouraged its colonies to build mills to spin and weave cotton. The war over, Lancashire never regained its markets. The independent mills were struggling. The Bank of England set up the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in 1929 to attempt to rationalise and save the industry.^[7] Empress Mill was one of 104 mills bought by the LCC, and one of the 53 mills that survived through to 1950. It continued to compete and spin until 1975. Its problems were explained in the House of Commons on 20 March 1975 by the constituency's MP Michael McGuire, that other producing countries were applying tariffs against British cotton, and dumping their surplus in the UK. He complained that Civil Servants had a "Bonga Wonga" attitude, and were doing nothing to support the Lancashire industry.^[2]

The engine house and chimney have been demolished and replaced by a square tower. The land is now an industrial estate.

Owners

• Lancashire Cotton Corporation (1930s–1964)
• Courtaulds (1964-

See also

• Textile manufacturing
• Cotton Mill

Lancashire cotton Architects Stott Sidney Stott (later Sir Philip) Edward Potts Potts, Pickup & Dixon F.W. Dixon & Son Bradshaw Gass & Hope Engine makers Daniel Adamson Ashton Frost Ashworth & Parker Bateman & Sherratt Boulton & Watt Browett, Lindley & Co Buckley & Taylor Carels Frères Earnshaw & Holt Fairbairn W & J Galloway & Sons Benjamin Goodfellow Hick, Hargreaves & Co Benjamin Hick and Sons John Musgrave & Sons J & W McNaught Petrie of Rochdale William Roberts & Co of Nelson George Saxon Scott & Hodgson Urmson & Thompson Yates of Blackburn Yates & Thom Willans & Robinson J & E Wood Woolstenhulmes & Rye Machinery makers Brooks & Doxey Butterworth & Dickinson Curtis, Parr & Walton Dobson & Barlow John Hetherington & Sons Joseph Hibbert John Pilling and Sons Harling & Todd Howard & Bullough Geo. Hattersley Asa Lees Mather & Platt Parr, Curtis & Madely British Northrop Loom Co Pemberton & Co Platt Brothers Taylor, Lang & Co Textile Machinery Makers Tweedales & Smalley T. Wildman & Sons Ancillary firms Oldham Limiteds Fine Spinners and Doublers Lancashire Cotton Corporation Combined Egyptian Mills Ltd Courtaulds Bagley & Wright Industrial processes Textile manufacturing Cotton-spinning machinery Dref Friction Spinning Dandy loom Magnetic ring spinning Open end spinning Ring spinning Spinning frame Spinning jenny Spinning mule Steaming Water frame Roberts Loom Lancashire Loom Associations Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton Spinners Amalgamated Textile Workers' Union Amalgamated Weavers' Association Burnley, Nelson, Rossendale and District Textile Workers' Union Northern Textile and Allied Workers' Union National Union of Textile and Allied Workers United Textile Factory Workers' Association Employment practices More looms Kissing the shuttle Mule spinners' cancer Piece-rate list Lists of mills LCC mills Bolton Bury Cheshire Derbyshire Lancashire Manchester Oldham Preston Rochdale Salford Stockport Tameside Wigan Yorkshire Museums Bancroft Shed Helmshore Mills Queen Street Mill Weavers' Triangle Quarry Bank Mill, Styal

Lancashire Cotton Corporation Bury Pilot Mill, Bury Wilton Mill, Radcliffe Bolton Ainsworth Mill, Breightmet Bolton Union Mill, Bolton Century Mill, Farnworth Lancashire Coppull Mill Imperial Mill, Blackburn Mavis Mill Manchester and Salford Brunswick Mill, Ancoats May Mill, Pemberton Monton Mill, Eccles Oldham Ace Mill, Hollinwood Blackridings Mill, Oldham Dawn Mill, Shaw Fox Mill, Hollinwood Hawk Mill, Shaw Heron Mill, Hollinwood Junction Mill, Middleton Junction Kent Mill, Chadderton Laurel Mill, Middleton Junction Magnet Mill, Chadderton Majestic Mill, Waterhead Manor Mill, Chadderton Newby Mill, Shaw Orme Mill, Waterhead Regent Mill, Failsworth Royd Mill, Oldham Royton Ring Mill, Royton Rutland Mill, Shaw Textile Mill, Chadderton Trent Mill, Shaw Rochdale Arkwright Mill, Rochdale Harp Mill, Castleton Malta Mill, Middleton Mars Mill, Castleton Stockport Elder Mill, Romiley Kingston Mill, Stockport Palmer Mills, Stockport Vernon Mill, Stockport Welkin Mill, Lower Bredbury Tameside Atlas Mill, Ashton-under-Lyne Cedar Mill, Ashton-under-Lyne Rock Mill, Ashton-under-Lyne Saxon Mill, Droylsden Stalybridge Mill, Stalybridge Texas Mill, Ashton-under-Lyne Tudor Mill, Ashton-under-Lyne Waterside Mill, Ashton-under-Lyne Wigan Empress Mill, Ince May Mill, Pemberton Trencherfield Mill West Yorkshire Foxsons Mill, Staincliffe Mons Mill, Todmorden

References

Bibliography

• Dunkerley, Philip (2009). "Dunkerley-Tuson Family Website, The Regent Cotton Mill, Failsworth". Retrieved 9 January 2009. 

• LCC (1951). The mills and organisation of the Lancashire Cotton Corporation Limited. Blackfriars House, Manchester: Lancashire Cotton Corporation Limited. 

• Roberts, A S (1921), "Arthur Robert's Engine List", Arthur Roberts Black Book. (One guy from Barlick-Book Transcription), retrieved 11 January 2009 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Textile mills in Wigan.

• COTTONTOWN Blackburn with Darwen (Cotton Town: Your Town, Your History website)
• Spinning the Web: The Story of the Cotton Industry website