![Fox Brothers, Coldharbour Mill, Uffculme - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Fox_Brothers%2C_Coldharbour_Mill%2C_Uffculme_-_geograph.org.uk_-_97156.jpg)
Coldharbour Mill, near the village of
Uffculme
Uffculme (, ) is a village and civil parish located in the Mid Devon district, of Devon, England. Situated in the Blackdown Hills on the B3440, close to the M5 motorway and the Bristol–Exeter railway line, near Cullompton, Uffculme is on the ...
in
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
, England, is one of the oldest woollen
textile mills
Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods s ...
in the world, having been in continuous production since 1797. The mill was one of a number owned by
Fox Brothers, and is designated by
English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that i ...
as a Grade II*
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 Irel ...
.
Location
Coldharbour Mill can be found just off junction 27 of the M5 motorway near the village of
Uffculme
Uffculme (, ) is a village and civil parish located in the Mid Devon district, of Devon, England. Situated in the Blackdown Hills on the B3440, close to the M5 motorway and the Bristol–Exeter railway line, near Cullompton, Uffculme is on the ...
, and near to the border with
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
. The headquarters for the mill was at Tonedale in
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...
. The water provided by the nearby
River Culm
The River Culm flows through the Devon Redlands in Devon, England and is the longest tributary of the River Exe. It rises in the Blackdown Hills at a spring near RAF Culmhead in Somerset, and flows west through Hemyock, then Culmstock (in the Cul ...
was a prime factor in Thomas Fox's decision to purchase the existing
grist mill
A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...
. In 1797 he wrote to his brother "I have purchased the premises at Uffculme for eleven hundred guineas, which I do not think dear as they include about fifteen acres of very fine meadow land. The buildings are but middling, but the stream good."
[Fox, Hubert ''Quaker Homespun, The Life of Thomas Fox of Wellington, Serge Maker and Banker 1747-1821'' privately printed]
The roads in the area at the time were very poor, and finished cloth had to be carried by pack horses to the nearby ports of
Topsham and
Exeter
Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol.
In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...
, or by carrier's cart to Bridgwater, Bristol and London (a twelve-day journey).
History
It appears that there has been a mill of some description near the Coldharbour site since Saxon times. The Domesday Book recording two mills in the Uffculme area.
At its peak the company employed approximately 5,000 people and owned and operated nine mills and factories in Somerset, Devon, and
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, primarily ...
. One of the most notable satellite mills was that of
William Bliss & Sons, built in 1872 after a disastrous fire in the original mill. Located in
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 as ...
, the William Bliss site was one of the grandest mills in England, complete with reading room, chapel and workers cottages. Fox Brothers bought it in 1920.
![Bliss Mill from Worcester Road - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Bliss_Mill_from_Worcester_Road_-_geograph.org.uk_-_329977.jpg)
The main Tonedale site in Wellington was the largest integrated mill site in the South West of England, covering 10 acres of land and forming the hub of the Fox Brothers woollen manufacturing 'empire'. It is believed to have been the only 'Twin Vertical Woollen Factory' in the world - that is, making both
worsted
Worsted ( or ) is a high-quality type of wool yarn, the fabric made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from Worstead, a village in the English county of Norfolk. That village, together with North Walsham and Aylsham, for ...
and
woollen
Woolen (American English) or woollen (Commonwealth English) is a type of yarn made from carded wool. Woolen yarn is soft, light, stretchy, and full of air. It is thus a good insulator, and makes a good knitting yarn. Woolen yarn is in contrast t ...
products, and controlling the entire process from fleece to finished cloth in-house.
The founders
The ancestors of the mill owners, the Fox family (no relation to
George Fox
George Fox (July 1624 – 13 January 1691) was an English Dissenter, who was a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends. The son of a Leicestershire weaver, he lived in times of social upheaval and ...
, founder of the
Religious Society of Friends
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...
, or Quakers) and the Were family, were early Quaker converts. During George Fox's first visit to Devonshire in 1655, he went to the house of Nicholas Tripe and his wife, who became 'convinced'. Their daughter, Anstice, married George Croker of Plymouth, and they were much persecuted for their beliefs. Their daughter Tabitha married Francis Fox of St. Germans, Cornwall, a
serge Serge may refer to:
*Serge (fabric), a type of twill fabric
*Serge (llama) (born 2005), a llama in the Cirque Franco-Italien and internet meme
*Serge (name), a masculine given name (includes a list of people with this name)
*Serge (post), a hitchi ...
maker. The family remained in Cornwall, becoming merchants and shipping agents, and in 1745 the grandson of Francis and Tabitha, Edward Fox of Eggeshall near Wadebridge, married Anne Were, the daughter of a Wellington sergemaker, Thomas Were. (In 1749, Edward's cousin, George Croker Fox, married Mary Were, the sister of Anne). Thomas Were was a very successful manufacturer, and had inherited the WRE trademark, which certified the quality of his cloth.
[Fox, Joseph Hoyland ''The Woollen Manufacture at Wellington, Somerset. Compiled from the Records of the Old Family Business'' Arthur Humphreys, London 1914] His great-great grandfather John Were of Pinksmoor was credited with owning a
fulling mill
Fulling, also known as felting, tucking or walking ( Scots: ''waukin'', hence often spelled waulking in Scottish English), is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of woven or knitted cloth (particularly wool) to elimin ...
. During one of the visits of Edward to his father-in-law, it was suggested that one of Edward and Anne's sons should join the Wellington woollen manufacturing business.
After four years study overseas, Edward's son Thomas Fox moved to Wellington, and became a partner of Were and Company in 1772, aged 25. Thomas and his wife Sarah Smith, built in 1801, then lived in,
Tone Dale House
Tone Dale House (or Tonedale House) is a Grade II listed country house built in 1801 or 1807 by Thomas Fox in Wellington, Somerset, England. Wellington lies west of Taunton in the vale of Taunton Deane, from the Devon border. Tone Dale House, ...
, Wellington - the house is still lived in by a Fox, five generations later, by Ben and Victoria Fox. In 1826, when his sons were partners (the Weres having relinquished their shares), the business was renamed Fox Brothers.
The family were prominent in local affairs, and subscribed £1,044 5s 6d in shares in the
Grand Western Canal
The Grand Western Canal ran between Taunton in Somerset and Tiverton in Devon in the United Kingdom. The canal had its origins in various plans, going back to 1796, to link the Bristol Channel and the English Channel by a canal, bypassing Lands ...
between 1809 and 1813,
Thomas having considered the original proposal of 1792 with considerable reticence: "People hereaway seem now as much too eager to engage in Canals as they have been too backward for many years. The almost incredible sum of £900,000 was lately subscribed at Wells in about two hours for cutting one from Taunton to Bristol. Whilst this delyrium continues the writer is neither disposed to subscribe himself nor to recommend his friends doing it, as he doubts whilst such money pours in on them in such abundance it may be badly husbanded."
Banking
In 1787, Were and Company ran short of ready cash, and decided to print their own bank notes - effectively "promises to pay". On 30 October, Thomas printed 500 notes of five guineas each. The notes were well received by local businesses. In 1797, an invasion scare resulted in a shortage of gold and cash, and Thomas Fox issued 3,000 five guinea notes, and seventy six £20 notes in order to enable his business to continue its expansion.
The
Fox, Fowler and Company
Fox, Fowler, and Company was a British private bank, based in Wellington, Somerset. The company was founded in 1787 as a supplementary business to the main activities of the Fox family, sheep-herding and wool-making.
Banknote issue
Like many ot ...
bank eventually had over fifty branches in the West Country, and was authorised to issue its own
bank notes
A banknote—also called a bill (North American English), paper money, or simply a note—is a type of negotiable promissory note, made by a bank or other licensed authority, payable to the bearer on demand.
Banknotes were originally issued ...
until 1921, the year it was taken over by Lloyds Bank - itself founded by a Quaker,
Sampson Lloyd
Sampson Lloyd II (15 May 1699 – 1779) was an English iron manufacturer and banker, who co-founded Lloyds Bank. He was a member of the notable Lloyd family of Birmingham.
Career
Sampson Lloyd was the third son of Sampson Lloyd (1664†...
. One of the original £5 notes is on display at
Tone Dale House
Tone Dale House (or Tonedale House) is a Grade II listed country house built in 1801 or 1807 by Thomas Fox in Wellington, Somerset, England. Wellington lies west of Taunton in the vale of Taunton Deane, from the Devon border. Tone Dale House, ...
, the family home which Thomas Fox built, in 1801.
Textile products
Exeter was the centre of the mediaeval woollen trade in England, with cloth being exported to the Continental markets of France, Holland and Germany.
Kersey, a sturdy cloth, was superseded by serge, so that by 1681 95% of the Exeter cloth export was serge.
[Clark, E.A.G. ''The ports of the Exe estuary 1660-1860'' University of Exeter 1960] As already mentioned, the Were family were major suppliers of serge cloth to the Continent, especially Holland. Whilst using the ports of London and Bristol as well, Topsham was a major port for the Were export trade. We have a contemporary description of the Exeter trade in serge by
Celia Fiennes
Celia Fiennes (7 June 1662 – 10 April 1741) was an English traveller and writer. She explored England on horseback at a time when travel for its own sake was unusual, especially for women.
Early life
Born at Newton Tony, Wiltshire,"June 7th ...
(1662–1741):
![Coldharbour Mill - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Coldharbour_Mill_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1139116.jpg)
However, the French Revolution and the invasion of Flanders in 1793 caused very serious difficulties for Exeter cloth merchants, and in 1794 the Weres were forced to cancel major worsted yarn orders.
Napoleon's Italian campaigns of 1796-7 closed the Italian market for English cloth, and then Spain entered the war as an ally of France, leading to the confiscation of Exeter cloth. Only six vessels cleared from the Exe with cloth in 1797, and two in 1798; a far cry from the 1768 despatch of 330,414 pieces of cloth.
Some Exeter merchants, such as
Barings
Barings LLC, known as Barings, is an international investment management firm owned by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company ( MassMutual). It operates as a subsidiary of MassMutual Financial Group, a diversified financial services organis ...
, moved to London - the Weres changed production to ''long
ells'', a fine white serge, for the
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
. A letter from Thomas Fox to Green and Walford, factors, is to be found in the Fox Brothers Letter Book archive:
With the termination of the monopoly of the East India Company's charter in 1833 through the
Government of India Act 1833
The Government of India Act 1833 (3 & 4 Will 4 c 85), or the Charter Act 1833, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Depe ...
(3 & 4 Will. 4 c. 85), the trade in long ells to China declined, and Thomas Fox developed the production of
flannel
Flannel is a soft woven fabric, of various fineness. Flannel was originally made from carded wool or worsted yarn, but is now often made from either wool, cotton, or synthetic fiber. Flannel is commonly used to make tartan clothing, blankets, b ...
, which was sold in the home market and to America. Following his Quaker beliefs, Thomas Fox refused to sell flannel to the East India Company when he heard it would be used in the manufacture of cartridges.
In 1881, as a result of losses in the
First Boer War
The First Boer War ( af, Eerste Vryheidsoorlog, literally "First Freedom War"), 1880–1881, also known as the First Anglo–Boer War, the Transvaal War or the Transvaal Rebellion, was fought from 16 December 1880 until 23 March 1881 betwee ...
, a Parliamentary Commission sought to equip the army with
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 ...
uniform. Fox Brothers decided to bid for the contract, reasoning that the new contract for 5,000
puttee
A puttee (also spelled ''puttie'', adapted from the Hindi '' paá¹á¹Ä«'', meaning "bandage") is a covering for the lower part of the leg from the ankle to the knee, alternatively known as: legwraps, leg bindings, winingas, or Wickelbänder. The ...
s would save lives, as well as create employment. Fox Brothers went on to be the major producer of puttees, manufacturing some 850 miles of the cloth in World War I.
In support of the flannel emphasis, in 1865 Coldharbour Mill moved over to producing worsted yarn rather than woollen yarn. This necessitated the need for more power to drive new combing machines. (Worsted yarn is made from sheep with long hair fleeces and the wool has to be combed to ensure that all the fibres are parallel.)
Coldharbour Mill classifies itself as "a working wool museum" and as such runs its museum machinery to demonstrate how woollen products were made. The demonstration products (including worsted yarn, tartan cloth, and rugs) are made available for sale. The mill has four registered tartans - Devon Original (1284), Devon Companion (1283), Somerset (831), and Blackdown Hills (6711).
Architecture
English Heritage wrote a Historic Buildings Report (B/065/2001) about the mill complex, and described the site as "probably one of the best-preserved textile mill complexes in the country. It retains the full range of buildings and power system features which characterised the development of the 19th century textile mill with much of the machinery that was used at the site in the 20th century."
[Williams, Mike ''Coldharbour Mill Historic Buildings Report (B/065/2001)'' English Heritage 2001]
Coldharbour Mill was primarily always used for the production of wool
yarn
Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, used in sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, ropemaking, and the production of textiles. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufact ...
for the
weaving
Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal th ...
frames of the Wellington mill. The original grist mill was probably a three-storey building, and the original sale notice of 1788 states "The Stream divides in two Parts, one at each End of the House, and they are in a Manner two separate Mills, under the same Roof". A legal dispute of 1834 contains a detailed map of the water courses, which are in their existing positions, with a leat to the front and rear of the grist mill.
The foundations of the main mill were mentioned in a letter of 15 April 1799, stating that they were 50 feet from the grist mill - further away than the current building, but at a point where the wall is thicker today. The mill building of 39 feet wide by 123 feet long was very large for its time. Thomas Fox wrote to his machinery supplier describing how the new mill building was to operate:
An inventory of 1802 suggests that spinning was to be carried out on hand-powered
spinning jennies, with a waterwheel (costing £450) powering the
carding
Carding is a mechanical process that disentangles, cleans and intermixes fibres to produce a continuous web or sliver (textiles), sliver suitable for subsequent processing. This is achieved by passing the fibres between differentially moving su ...
machines. By 1816 the mill contained
worsted
Worsted ( or ) is a high-quality type of wool yarn, the fabric made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from Worstead, a village in the English county of Norfolk. That village, together with North Walsham and Aylsham, for ...
spinning frames, and in 1822 a new waterwheel costing £1,500 had been installed.
The main mill building was expanded at various times, with a two-story extension added to the north; a fireproof stone staircase to the east; a wheelhouse; a fourth floor to the main building; and an adjacent
combing
Combing is a method for preparing carded fibre for spinning. Combing is divided into linear and circular combing. The Noble comb is an example of circular combing. The French comb is an example of linear combing. The process of combing is ac ...
shed built over the tail race leat flowing from the waterwheel.
Steam power came to the mill in three major building phases. In 1865 a beam engine house was built, together with a boiler house and the first chimney on the site. In the 1890s a second beam engine arrived, the boiler house was extended and the existing chimney built, and then in 1910 the existing horizontal engine was fitted, the Green's
economiser
Economizers (US and Oxford spelling), or economisers (UK), are mechanical devices intended to reduce energy consumption, or to perform useful function such as preheating a fluid. The term economizer is used for other purposes as well. Boiler, po ...
house added and the boiler house extended again.
![Coldharbour Mill steam engine - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Coldharbour_Mill_steam_engine_-_geograph.org.uk_-_682088.jpg)
The mill site contains a wide variety of subsidiary buildings, including stabling, a
linhay
A linhay ( ) is a type of farm building found particularly in Devon and Somerset, south-west England. It is characterised as a two-storeyed building with an open front, with ''tallet'' or hay-loft above and livestock housing below. It often has ...
, a gas retort house (see below), a carpenter's workshop, an air raid shelter from WWII, worker's cottages, and the manager's house. The tail race which takes the water away from the waterwheel is unusual in that it runs under the combing shed in a wide culvert, before briefly reappearing and then running underground again for some 200 metres.
Sources of power
Coldharbour Mill is unusual to have used both water and steam power right up to the time of its demise as a commercial venture. The water power was believed to have been used for the night shift up until 1978.
Water power
The English Heritage report states "it is possible that the wheel pit and parts of the wheel itself are the remnants of the new wheel which was recorded in the Stock Book of 1822...and should be considered of considerable historic significance".
The cast and wrought iron high
breast-shot wheel is 18 feet in diameter by 14 feet wide, with 48 buckets. It is part of a very unusual survival of a combined water and steam powered drive system, as it continued to be used after the 1910 addition of the horizontal steam engine, and the drive mechanism is still in place. The wheel is turning most days.
Steam power
![Coldharbour Mill - beam engine - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Coldharbour_Mill_-_beam_engine_-_geograph.org.uk_-_2204582.jpg)
Thomas Fox's brother Edward was part owner of a Cornish mine, and was instrumental in installing an early example of a
Boulton and Watt
Boulton & Watt was an early British engineering and manufacturing firm in the business of designing and making marine and stationary steam engines. Founded in the English West Midlands around Birmingham in 1775 as a partnership between the Engli ...
engine. Edward told Thomas about this new technology, with the result that
James Watt
James Watt (; 30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was fun ...
was invited to Wellington in 1782, just six months after his patent for the
sun and planet gear
The sun and planet gear is a method of converting reciprocating motion to rotary motion and was used in the first rotative beam engines.
It was invented by the Scottish engineer William Murdoch, an employee of Boulton and Watt, but was patente ...
that allowed reciprocating motion. Thomas missed the meeting, but wrote to him afterwards:
However, the visit came to nothing, partly due to the very high cost of coal, and partly due to the discontent about mechanisation, which would culminate in the later
Luddite
The Luddites were a secret oath-based organisation of English textile workers in the 19th century who formed a radical faction which destroyed textile machinery. The group is believed to have taken its name from Ned Ludd, a legendary weaver s ...
Movement. A letter in 1785 from Thomas states
Thus it was that the first mechanised wool spinning machinery, purchased from
Backhouse of Darlington, were powered by horses. These arrived in September 1791, bringing the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
to the West Country. It was evident from a letter of 1786 that Thomas wished he could have had a cheap source of coal, as in those parts of the country fed by canals:
Although the Wellington mill purchased a steam engine for £90 (and a £20 boiler) in 1840,
Coldharbour Mill did not get a steam engine until 1865, by which time the
Bristol and Exeter Railway
The Bristol & Exeter Railway (B&ER) was an English railway company formed to connect Bristol and Exeter. It was built on the broad gauge and its engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It opened in stages between 1841 and 1844. It was allied with ...
was supplying cheap coal to Tiverton Junction. The mill has two
Lancashire boiler
A shell or flued boiler is an early and relatively simple form of boiler used to make steam, usually for the purpose of driving a steam engine. The design marked a transitional stage in boiler development, between the early haystack boilers and t ...
s in the boiler house, only one of which is still operational. Initially a 25 hp
beam engine
A beam engine is a type of steam engine where a pivoted overhead beam is used to apply the force from a vertical piston to a vertical connecting rod. This configuration, with the engine directly driving a pump, was first used by Thomas Newco ...
was installed, followed by a second beam engine in the 1890s (possibly 1896). A Pollit & Wigzell 300 hp,
cross compound engine superseded the beam engines in 1910 and continued in use, along with the water wheel, until Fox Brothers closed the mill in April 1981. Today the cross compound steam engine remains fully operational and runs regularly at steam up weekends. It drives the shafting on all five floors of the mill via an operational
rope drive. In 1993 a salvaged 1867
Kittoe and Brotherhood beam engine was painstakingly restored and installed
at the mill, in one of the disused beam engine sheds.
![Gill-box](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Gill-box.jpg)
The mill contains a number of other steam powered exhibits, including a working Ashworth fire pump, already at Coldharbour, but repaired in 1984 with components from Bliss Mill; a very rare example of a low pressure wagon boiler dating from the late 1700s; and a (non-operational) steam powered flue fan.
Electrical power
Coldharbour Mill also had a small water turbine for electricity generation, which used the 14 foot head of water between the upper leat and the tail race. No references have been found to it in any register of Devon
hydro-electric
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...
schemes, and it was unlikely to have generated any more than 3 kW peak power. The exit is visible today in the tail race leat, but nothing else is believed to exist.
Two generators were installed in the beam engine house after the beam engines were removed and these were driven by the Pollit and Wigzell engine. The flat belt pulley system is still in existence. It is believed that this was used for lighting rather than running the machines.
Gas production
Coldharbour Mill generated its own coal gas on site for lighting the mill (and thus enabling the machinery to be run all night). Although the retorts have been removed and disposed of, the Gas Retort house which housed the
retort bench is still standing. In fact, the original gas retorts have been discovered in the leat, where they served as weir components. English Heritage classifies the late 19th century Gas Retort House as ''a very rare survival'' of gas-making facilities.
Textile machinery
At the time of its closure in April 1981, Coldharbour Mill still had its textile machinery in position. The majority of these machines have been preserved (though not all are exhibited), and have been augmented with weaving machines rescued from the closure of the Tonedale site. The lowest part of the site, the level 1 combing shed, dealt with the initial cleaning and combing of the unwashed wool. The process involved a number of separate stages, each with a specialised machine. The eight opening gill machines (made by Taylor Wadsworth & Co.) opened up the fleeces and prepared the wool for washing in a large back-washer with steam heated rollers. Following the washing, further gill boxes produced successively combed fibres, which were passed to a circular Noble combing machine. This machine separated the fibres into long "Tops" and the short poor quality fibres. Although these machines are preserved on site, they are no longer in use today. British wool tops are purchased in, dyed into standard colours, and then up to ten strands of tops are fed into the Intersecting Gill Box (manufactured by
Prince Smith and Stells in 1959). The gill box starts the process of drawing out the fibres, and also enables new colours to be created by blending together the standard colours. The output of the gill box is termed a
sliver
Sliver may refer to:
Entertainment
*Sliver (novel), ''Sliver'' (novel), a 1991 novel by Ira Levin
**Sliver (film), ''Sliver'' (film), a 1993 film adaptation of the novel
**Sliver (soundtrack), ''Sliver'' (soundtrack), the soundtrack to the 1993 fi ...
. This particular machine has a mechanism to ensure the weight of the sliver is constant, which is important to ensure the final yarn thickness is constant.
The next process is to draw the slivers out further, and to give the fibres a small twist to strengthen the resulting slubbing such that it can be wound onto a
bobbin
A bobbin or spool is a spindle or cylinder, with or without flanges, on which yarn, thread, wire, tape or film is wound. Bobbins are typically found in industrial textile machinery, as well as in sewing machines, fishing reels, tape measure ...
. At Coldharbour Mill, this is demonstrated on a Price Smith and Stells draw box of 1959. The bobbins from this machine are then placed in a further draw box by Prince Smith and Stells, this time an 1898 machine, and the thread from a pair of bobbins is drawn out to a seventh of its diameter, and given a light twist. If this output is to be used for
Aran
Aran m
Places Azerbaijan
Villages and municipalities:
* Aran, Aghjabadi
* Aran, Lerik
* Aran, Shaki
* Aran, Tovuz
* Aran, Yevlakh
Iran
* Aran, Alborz, a village in Alborz Province
* Aran, Nain, a village in Isfahan Province
* Aran, K ...
yarn production, it is termed a
roving
A roving is a long and narrow bundle of fiber. Rovings are produced during the process of making spun yarn from wool fleece, raw cotton, or other fibres. Their main use is as fibre prepared for spinning, but they may also be used for specialised ...
, and is sent on to the
spinning frame
The spinning frame is an Industrial Revolution invention for spinning thread or yarn from fibres such as wool or cotton in a mechanized way. It was developed in 18th-century Britain by Richard Arkwright and John Kay.
Historical context
In 17 ...
. However, if the slubbing is for
double knitting
Double knitting is a form of hand knitting in which two fabrics are knitted simultaneously on one pair of needles. The fabrics may be inseparable, as in ''interlock knitted fabrics'', or they can simply be two unconnected fabrics. In principle, ...
yarn, the slubbing must go through another reduction on a draw box.
The museum today
The museum is owned and run by a not-for-profit charitable trust, Registered Charity No. 1123386. It has a number of educational programmes for schools including Victorian Drama; Materials & Fibres; and Britain at War.
The mill is home to a number of other exhibits:
* A large collection of some 25 modern
dolls houses by a local artist.
* A
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
exhibit.
* A model railway depicting the
Culm Valley Light Railway
The Culm Valley Light Railway was a standard gauge branch railway that operated in the English county of Devon. It ran for just under from Tiverton Junction station on the Bristol to Exeter line, through the Culm valley to Hemyock.
It was int ...
.
* A large five panel tapestry, the
Blackdowns Millennium Tapestry, showing a 3D plan of the local parishes of
Willand
Willand is a village and civil parish within the Local Government district of Mid Devon, England.
It is about north of Exeter and north of Cullompton. In 1991 the population was 3750 although recently this has grown considerably. The Nat ...
,
Uffculme
Uffculme (, ) is a village and civil parish located in the Mid Devon district, of Devon, England. Situated in the Blackdown Hills on the B3440, close to the M5 motorway and the Bristol–Exeter railway line, near Cullompton, Uffculme is on the ...
,
Culmstock
Culmstock is a village and civil parish in Mid Devon, England, centred 10 miles from Tiverton and 6 NE of Cullompton. It is laid out on both sides of the River Culm; the village is joined by a single old narrow stone bridge across the river. The ...
,
Hemyock
Hemyock () is a village and civil parish in Devon, England. It is about 8 miles north-west of Honiton and south of the Somerset town of Wellington. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,519. Hemyock is part of the electoral ward ...
and
Clayhidon
Clayhidon () is a village and civil parish in Mid Devon, England. The parish church is St. Andrews. The parish is in the Blackdown Hills and its northern and eastern boundaries form part of the Devon – Somerset border. From the south-east it h ...
.
* A large number of hand looms which are used by professional artist Louise Cottey to teach weaving classes.
* Extensive displays on puttee manufacturing.
* The West Country Historic Omnibus & Transport Trust archive.
* Visiting exhibitions.
References
External links
Coldharbour Mill Museum website
{{coord, 50.9016, -3.3353, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title
Industrial buildings completed in 1799
Textile mills completed in the 18th century
Local museums in Devon
Museums in Devon
Industry museums in England
Steam museums in England
Textile museums in the United Kingdom
Grade II* listed buildings in Devon
Grade II* listed industrial buildings
Grade II* listed watermills
Grade II* listed museum buildings
Preserved beam engines
Industrial Revolution
Preserved stationary steam engines
Watermills in Devon
Industrial buildings in England
Spinning
Museums established in 1981
Industrial archaeological sites in Devon
Woollen mills
Wool organizations