Textile Mill, Chadderton was a cotton spinning mill in

Chadderton, Oldham, Greater Manchester Chadderton is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, on the River Irk and Rochdale Canal. It is located in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Oldham, south of Rochdale and north-east of Manchester. His ...

, England. It was built in 1882 by

Potts, Pickup & Dixon Edward Potts (2 March 1839 – 15 April 1909) was an architect who practised in Oldham, Lancashire, England. Biography Potts was born on 2 March 1839 in Bury, Lancashire. He moved to Oldham and designed many of the town's Cotton mills and was ...

for the Textile Mill Co. Ltd, and closed in 1927. It was taken over by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in the late 1940s and passed to Courtaulds in 1964 and used for cotton waste sorting. Half of the building was destroyed by fire on 11 July 1950, but the remaining section continued to be used for cotton waste sorting by W. H. Holt and Son until 1988. Lancashire England

Location

Oldham is a large town in North of England Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the

Pennines The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of uplands running between three regions of Northern England: North West England on the west, North East England and Yorkshire and the Humber on the east. Commo ...

on elevated ground between the rivers

Irk The River Irk is a river in the historic county of Lancashire in the North West England that flows through the northern most Lancastrian towns of the ceremonial county of Greater Manchester. It rises to the east of Royton and runs west past ...

and Medlock, south-southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of the city of Manchester. Oldham is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham;

Chadderton Chadderton is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, on the River Irk and Rochdale Canal. It is located in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Oldham, south of Rochdale and north-east of Manchester. Hi ...

and Hollinwood are such settlements. Chadderton and Hollinwood are served by the

Rochdale Canal The Rochdale Canal is in Northern England, between Manchester and Sowerby Bridge, part of the connected system of the canals of Great Britain. Its name refers to the town of Rochdale through which it passes. The Rochdale is a broad canal beca ...

and the Hollinwood Branch Canal. A rail service was provided by the

Oldham Loop Line The Oldham Loop Line was a local railway route in Greater Manchester, England, used by trains that ran from Manchester Victoria to Rochdale via Oldham Mumps. Services on the line at the time of its closure were operated by Northern Rail. The l ...

that was built by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.

History

Oldham rose to prominence during the 19th century as an international centre of

textile manufacture 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 ...

. It was a boomtown of the Industrial Revolution, and amongst the first ever

industrialised Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econom ...

towns, rapidly becoming "one of the most important centres of cotton and textile industries in England", spinning Oldham counts, the coarser counts of cotton. Oldham's soils were too thin and poor to sustain crop growing, and so for decades prior to

industrialisation Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econo ...

the area was used for grazing sheep, which provided the raw material for a local woollen weaving trade. It was not until the last quarter of the 18th century that Oldham changed from being a

cottage industry The putting-out system is a means of subcontracting work. Historically, it was also known as the workshop system and the domestic system. In putting-out, work is contracted by a central agent to subcontractors who complete the project via remote ...

township producing woollen garments via domestic manual labour, to a sprawling industrial metropolis of textile factories. The first mill, Lees Hall, was built by William Clegg in about 1778. Within a year, 11 other mills had been constructed, but by 1818 there were only 19 of these privately owned mills. It was in the second half of the 19th century that Oldham became the world centre for spinning cotton yarn.. This was due in a large part to the formation of limited liability companies known as Oldham Limiteds. In 1851, over 30% of Oldham's population was employed within the textile sector, compared to 5% across Great Britain. At its zenith, it was the most productive

cotton spinning Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...

mill town A mill town, also known as factory town or mill village, is typically a settlement that developed around one or more mills or factories, usually cotton mills or factories producing textiles. Europe Italy * ''Crespi d'Adda'', UNESCO World Her ...

in the world.. Textile Mill was one of a cluster of mills built in Chadderton in 1882, it was designed by

. By 1871 the town of Oldham had more spindles than any country in the world except the United States, and in 1909, was spinning more cotton than France and Germany combined. By 1911 there were 16.4 million spindles in Oldham, compared with a total of 58 million in the United Kingdom and 143.5 million in the world; in 1928, with the construction of the UK's largest textile factory Oldham reached its manufacturing zenith. At its peak, there were over 360 mills, operating night and day; The industry peaked in 1912, when it produced 8 billion yards of cloth. The Great War of 1914–1918 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. Textile Mill was closed in 1927. The

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...

set up the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in 1929 to attempt to rationalise and save the industry. Textile Mill, Chadderton bought by the LCC, after World War II, and used it for storage of baled waste for export, and one of the 53 mills that survived through to 1950, when it was partly burnt out. Courtaulds sold it in 1966. The use for cotton waste continued. In 1996 it was reduced to two storeys.

Architecture

Power

1300 hp engine by

Hick, Hargreaves & Co B. Hick and Sons, subsequently Hick, Hargreaves & Co, was a British engineering company based at the Soho Ironworks in Bolton, England. Benjamin Hick, a partner in Rothwell, Hick and Rothwell, later Rothwell, Hick & Co., set up the company in par ...

Equipment

In 1915, 98,436 spindles – used by Platt as a show mill

Usage

Owners

*Textile Mill Co Ltd (1882–1920) *Bunting Group(1920–1927) *Lancashire Cotton Corporation (1945+ -1964) *Courtaulds (1964–1966) *W.H. Holt and Son (1966–1988) *Noor Textiles (2003-present)

References

Bibliography

* * *

External links

www.cottontown.org

www.spinningtheweb.org.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Textile Mill, Chadderton Textile mills in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham Buildings and structures in Chadderton Former textile mills in the United Kingdom Textile mills owned by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation Demolished manufacturing buildings and structures