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Bliss Tweed Mill is a former mill for the manufacture of
Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire: Bliss Tweed Mill
BBC, World War One at Home, 6 November 2014
The strike at Bliss Mill
Banbury Guardian, 20 January 2014
Our heritage
William Bliss & Sons Limited Industrial buildings completed in 1872 Grade II* listed buildings in Oxfordshire Chipping Norton 1872 establishments in England {{Oxfordshire-struct-stub
Bliss Tweed Mill is a former mill for the manufacture of tweed
Tweed is a rough, woollen fabric, of a soft, open, flexible texture, resembling cheviot or homespun, but more closely woven. It is usually woven with a plain weave, twill or herringbone structure. Colour effects in the yarn may be obtained ...
. It is located on the edge of Chipping Norton
Chipping Norton is a market town and civil parish in the Cotswold Hills in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England, about south-west of Banbury and north-west of Oxford. The 2011 Census recorded the civil parish population ...
, Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primaril ...
, United Kingdom. It became a Grade II*
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...
in 1980.
The mill was built in 1872 for cloth manufacturer William Bliss, to make fine tweed cloth from locally produced wool. It was designed by the architect George Woodhouse of Bolton, who also designed mills in Lancashire, including Victoria Mill
, owner_2 = Fine Cotton Spinners and Doublers Association
, acquisition_date_2 = 1898
, owner_3 =
, acquisition_date_3 =
Victoria Mill is a Grade II* listed nineteenth century cotton spinning mill ...
in Miles Platting
Miles Platting is an inner city part of Manchester, England, northeast of Manchester city centre along the
Rochdale Canal and A62 road, bounded by Monsall to the north, Collyhurst to the west, Newton Heath to the east, and Bradford, Holt To ...
; Woodhouse was also involved in the construction of Bolton Town Hall
Bolton Town Hall in Victoria Square, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, was built between 1866 and 1873 for the County Borough of Bolton to designs by William Hill of Leeds and George Woodhouse of Bolton. The town hall was extended in the 1 ...
.
The main 5-storey spinning building is faced with local limestone and styled to resemble a country house, with square towers at each corner topped by stone urns. Unusually, a large chimney for the furnace to power the mill's steam machinery issues from a dome at the top of a circular tower built into one façade. The chimneystack is styled as a tall Tuscan column. Inside, the building is supported by cast iron columns that carry beams bearing brick vaults. An adjacent lower building was used for weaving the tweed cloth.
The millworkers went on strike
Strike may refer to:
People
* Strike (surname)
Physical confrontation or removal
*Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm
*Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...
for eight months from December 1913 to June 1914, over the right of workers to join a trades union, but the mill prospered in the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
after receiving a large order for khaki
The color khaki (, ) is a light shade of tan with a slight yellowish tinge.
Khaki has been used by many armies around the world for uniforms and equipment, particularly in arid or desert regions, where it provides camouflage relative to sandy ...
cloth for the British Army.
The mill closed in 1980 and was converted into residential apartments in around 1988.
References
Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire: Bliss Tweed Mill
BBC, World War One at Home, 6 November 2014
The strike at Bliss Mill
Banbury Guardian, 20 January 2014
Our heritage
William Bliss & Sons Limited Industrial buildings completed in 1872 Grade II* listed buildings in Oxfordshire Chipping Norton 1872 establishments in England {{Oxfordshire-struct-stub