Stalybridge Mill, Stalybridge

Stalybridge

Location within Greater Manchester
Cotton
Spinning (ring mill)
Location	Bridge St, Stalybridge
Serving canal	Huddersfield Narrow Canal
Serving railway	Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Owner	Stalybridge Cotton Mill Co. Ltd
Further ownership	Lancashire Cotton Corporation (1930s) Courtaulds (1964)
Coordinates	53°28′56″N 2°03′51″W / 53.4823°N 2.0643°W / 53.4823; -2.0643
Power
Date	1868 (1) 1925? (2)
Engine maker	Goodfellow and Matthews (1) Scott & Hodgson Ltd (2)
Engine type	twin tandem compound engine
Valve Gear	Corliss (1) Corliss HP, slide LP (2)
rpm	55
Transmission type	ropes
No. of ropes	27
Boiler configuration
Boilers	Four Lancashire, coal fired
Pressure	80psi (1) 120psi (2)
References
[1]

Stalybridge Mill, Stalybridge is a cotton spinning mill in Stalybridge, Tameside, Greater Manchester. It was built in 1868, and the engine reconfigured in around 1925 It was taken over by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in the 1930s and passed to Courtaulds in 1964.

Location

Stalybridge is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the course of the River Tame and the Huddersfield canal, on undulating land in the foothills of the Pennines. Historically a part of Cheshire, it is 9 miles (14.5 km) east of Manchester city centre and 6 miles (9.7 km) northwest of Glossop. The road from Oldham, to the pennine passes: the Snake pass and Woodhead, bridges the river at this point. Stalybridge was the junction of three early railway companies.The Ashton, Stalybridge and Liverpool Junction Railway Company was formed on 19 July 1844 and the railway was connected to Stalybridge on 5 October 1846. On 9 July 1847 the company was acquired by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. On 1 August 1849 the Manchester, Stockport and Leeds Railway connected Stalybridge to Huddersfield and later to Stockport. This line later became part of the London and North Western Railway.

History

Farming and woollen spinning were the main means subsistence before the construction of a cotton mill in 1776, Stalybridge became one of the first centres of textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution.^[2] The 19th-century wealth of the town was built on the factory-based cotton industry, transforming an area of scattered farms and homesteads into a self-confident town.^[3]

The 1776 mill was first water-powered; built at Rassbottom for carding and spinning cotton. In 1789 the town's first spinning mill using the principle of Arkwright's Water-Frame was built. By 1793 steam power had been introduced to the Stalybridge cotton industry and by 1803 there were eight cotton mills in the growing town containing 76,000 spindles. There was opposition and serious disturbances in town between November 1811 and April 1812 during the Luddites uprising. The social unrest did not curb the growth of Stalybridge. By 1814 there were twelve factories and by 1818 the number had increased to sixteen. When the Chartist petition was rejected, the ensuing disturbances known as the Plug Riots started in Stalybridge.

Stalybridge mill was built in 1868, during the first joint-stock company boom immediately after the cotton famine had ended.

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.^[4] Stalybridge Mill, Stalybridge was one of 104 mills bought by the LCC, and one of the 53 mills that survived through to 1950.

Architecture

This was a six-storey mill, with a centrally placed engine and rope race. There was one six-storey extension, and a three-storey extension on the same wall as the water tower.

Power

It was originally driven by 1000 hp twin tandem compound engine by Goodfellow and Matthews built in 1868. It had a 30-foot flywheel with 27 ropes, which operated at 55rpm. It had two 22"HP and two 42"LP cylinders with a 6-foot stroke. The air pumps were driven by lever from crossheads with guides between HP and LP cylinders. This had Corliss valves on all cylinders and was steamed at 80psi. The HP cylinders were to the front.

It was rebuilt in 1925(?) by Scott & Hodgson as a 1600 hp engine. This engine had slide valves on the LP which were now at the front. The HP cylinders had Corliss valves; they were steamed at 120psi, by four Lancashire boilers, An economiser was used. Marine type connecting rods and trunk guides were fitted.^[5]

Equipment

It operated 75,000 spindles in 1887, rising in 1891 to 87,000 spindles, 348/388 twist, 408/528 weft.^[6] In 1951, it was an all ring mill doing coarse counts

Usage

Owners

• Stalybridge Cotton Mill Co. Ltd.
• Lancashire Cotton Corporation (1930's-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 Beamers, Twisters and Drawers (Hand and Machine) Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton Spinners Amalgamated Textile Workers' Union Amalgamated Weavers' Association Burnley, Nelson, Rossendale and District Textile Workers' Union General Union of Loom Overlookers 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 (borough) 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 2009-01-09. 

• 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 2009-01-11 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Textile mills in Tameside.

• www.cottontown.org
• www.spinningtheweb.org.uk