Tweedales and Smalley was a manufacturer of textile machinery in Castleton,

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

, in England. It specialised in ring spinning frames mainly for export.

History

When John Bullough, of

Howard & Bullough Howard & Bullough was a firm of textile machine manufacturers in Accrington, Lancashire. The company was the world's major manufacturer of power looms in the 1860s. History The firm of Howard and Bleakley was founded in 1851 with four workers ...

died in 1891, three of the directors, Edmund Tweedale, Samuel Tweedale and Joseph Smalley decided to set up their own textile machine manufacturing business. They started in John Street,

. In July 1892 they moved into the new Globe Works, Castleton; the layout and buildings having been designed by Samuel Tweedale. Howard & Bullough operated out of the Globe Works

Accrington Accrington is a town in the Hyndburn borough of Lancashire, England. It lies about east of Blackburn, west of Burnley, east of Preston, north of Manchester and is situated on the culverted River Hyndburn. Commonly abbreviated by locals to ...

. The first product was a ring frames. In February 1893, frames were installed in the Newhey Spinning Mill. A speed frame was delivery in August 1893, in February 1894 a drawing frame and in 1895 a revolving flat

carding machine Carding is a mechanical process that disentangles, cleans and intermixes fibres to produce a continuous web or sliver suitable for subsequent processing. This is achieved by passing the fibres between differentially moving surfaces covered wit ...

. The product were fast and of high quality, India was an important export market. It is said that at one stage half of all textile equipment there, was manufactured by Tweedales and Smalley. It started producing blowing room equipment in 1912. During World War I, they produced armaments. An accident in May 1916 killed six people. Tweedales and Smalley resisted

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

recognition until March 1917. There was a strike and government intervention when the partners were forced to concede. In 1920, the partners handed over the company to a syndicate. The families remained on the board until 1926, when only Walter Smalley remained. The company survived the interwar years by an aggressive export drive, taking major orders from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. In 1933, the firm became part of the

Textile Machinery Makers Ltd In the recession of the 1930s, Platt Brothers, Howard and Bullough, Brooks and Doxey, Asa Lees, Dobson and Barlow, Joseph Hibbert, John Hetherington and Tweedales and Smalley merged to become Textile Machinery Makers Ltd., but the indivi ...

but continued to trade under its own name. Then in 1939, it reverted to producing armaments. This allowed it to retool. Post war, it exported to new markets in 28 countries including

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. TMM became a subsidiary of

Platt Brothers Platt Brothers, also known as Platt Bros & Co Ltd, was a British company based at Werneth in Oldham, North West England. The company manufactured textile machinery and were iron founders and colliery proprietors. By the end of the 19th century, ...

Holdings in 1957, who decided to close the Globe works in late 1962. Platt had decided that the market for ring frames was declining so it transferred existing work to Oldham and the Globe Works in Accrington. At one time the Globe Works covered over and employed more than 2,000 people. In 1964 it became the northern distribution centre for Woolworths.

Tweedales and Smalley Ltd works band

This was formed in 1943, the instruments being inherited from the St John Ambulance Cadets. The conductor was J H Merrick. The firm bought new instruments in 1945 and Clifton Jones became the musical director and remained to 1955, when Herbert White took over. They competed in many contests with national success.

References

Tweedales and Smalley- Rochdale Observer article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tweedales and Smalley Spinning Textile manufacturers of England Engineering companies of England History of the textile industry Textile machinery manufacturers 1933 disestablishments in England Former defence companies of the United Kingdom British companies disestablished in 1933