Brunswick Mill, Ancoats is a former cotton spinning mill on Bradford Road in

Ancoats, Manchester Ancoats is an area of Manchester, England, next to the Northern Quarter, the northern part of Manchester city centre. Historically in Lancashire, Ancoats became a cradle of the Industrial Revolution and has been called "the world's first indu ...

, England. The mill was built around 1840, part of a group of mills built along the

Ashton Canal The Ashton Canal is a canal in Greater Manchester, England, linking Manchester with Ashton-under-Lyne in Tameside. Route The Ashton leaves the Rochdale Canal at Ducie St. Junction in central Manchester, and climbs for through 18 locks, ...

, and at that time it was one of the country's largest mills. It was built round a quadrangle, a seven-storey block facing the canal. It was taken over by the

Lancashire Cotton Corporation The Lancashire Cotton Corporation was a company set up by the Bank of England in 1929, to rescue the Lancashire spinning industry by means of horizontal rationalisation. In merged 105 companies, ending up in 1950 with 53 operating mills. It was ...

in the 1930s and passed to

Courtaulds Courtaulds was a United Kingdom-based manufacturer of fabric, clothing, artificial fibres, and chemicals. It was established in 1794 and became the world's leading man-made fibre production company before being broken up in 1990 into Courtauld ...

in 1964. Production finished in 1967. It was a seven-storey mill with 35 loading bays facing directly onto the canal, with a smaller three story block of warehouses and offices backing onto Bradford Road. The Brunswick Mill was one of the largest in Britain at that time and by the 1850s held some 276 carding machines, and 77,000 mule spindles. 20 drawing frames, fifty slubbing frames and eighty one roving frames.

Location

Ancoats is an

inner city The term inner city (also called the hood) has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Soc ...

area of Manchester, in

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,4 ...

, next to the Northern Quarter and the northern part of Manchester's commercial centre.

Historically History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

a part of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, Ancoats became one of the cradles of the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

, and has been called "the world's first industrial suburb". From the late-18th century, Ancoats became a thriving industrial district and from 1798 has been served by the

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England, and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. In the United Kingdom 2021 Census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 111,261, compared to 223,773 for the wid ...

and

s facilitating the movement of

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, 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 ...

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

and finished goods. All Manchester's major railway stations were on the boundaries of Ancoats: Ancoats railway station on the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 in rail transport, 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had ...

, Ducie Street railway station and

Manchester London Road railway station Manchester Piccadilly is the main railway station of the city of Manchester, in the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester, England. Opened originally as Store Street in 1842, it was renamed Manchester London Road in 1847 and became Manchest ...

on the

Great Central Railway The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its Great Central Main Line, London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company ...

Cheshire Lines Committee The Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) was formed in the 1860s and became the second-largest joint railway in Great Britain. The committee, which was often styled the Cheshire Lines Railway, operated of track in the then counties of Lancashire and ...

Oldham Road railway station Oldham is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan B ...

and Victoria Station on the

Manchester and Leeds Railway The Manchester and Leeds Railway was a British railway company that built a line from Manchester to Normanton, West Yorkshire, Normanton where it made a junction with the North Midland Railway, over which it relied on running powers to access L ...

, Exchange station on the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the LNWR was the largest joint stock company in the world. Dubbed the "Premier Line", the LNWR's main line connec ...

Background

Surveying for 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 be ...

was carried out by

James Brindley James Brindley (1716 – 27 September 1772) was an English engineer. He was born in Tunstead, Derbyshire, and lived much of his life in Leek, Staffordshire, becoming one of the most notable engineers of the 18th Century. Born in the Peak ...

in 1765. The knowledge that its construction would make the transport of raw materials and finished goods more convenient, gave industrialists the confidence to build cotton mills. The first mills were built in Ancoats as early as 1790. In 1792 commissioners were appointed to improve the township of Manchester which included Ancoats. Towards the end of the 18th century steam power was used to power the cotton mills. Murray's Mills were built next to the Rochdale canal on Union Street (now Redhill Street) off

Great Ancoats Street Great Ancoats Street is a street in the inner suburb of Ancoats, Manchester, England. It forms one of the stretches of the city's inner ring road. A number of cotton mills built in the early and mid-Victorian period are nearby, some of which ...

, by Adam and George Murray in 1798 and were known as Ancoats Mills when they were operated by McConnel & Company Ltd. The streets of Ancoats were laid out during the latter part of the 18th century, with little development taking place other than small houses and shops along

and Oldham Road. The

was linked to the Rochdale Canal at the Piccadilly Basin in 1798. From the opening of the canals, development of mills continued on a much larger scale. Mills in Ancoats included, Victoria Mills, Wellington Mill, Brunswick Mill, India Mills, Dolton Mills, Lonsdale Mills, Phoenix Mill, Lloydsfield Mill and Sedgewick Mill, Decker Mill (owned by the Murray brothers), New Mill,

Beehive Mill Beehive Mill is a Grade II* listed former cotton mill in the district of Ancoats in Manchester, England. It is located on a site surrounded by Radium Street, Jersey Street, Bengal Street and Naval Street. The building was constructed in three p ...

, Little Mill, Paragon Mill, Royal Mill and Pin Mill. The mill structure was classified as a

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

in June 1994.

Power

*Double beam *Horizontal *Electricity

Equipment

The Brunswick Mill was one of the largest in Britain at that time and by the 1850s held some 276 carding machines, and 77,000 mule spindles, 20 drawing frames, fifty slubbing frames and eighty one roving frames.

Owners

*George Bannerman *Lancashire Cotton Corporation (1930s–1964) *Courtaulds *Maryland Securities The building is now used by a variety of businesses.

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

www.cottontown.org
* {{Lancashire Cotton Corporation Textile mills in Manchester Former textile mills in the United Kingdom Textile mills owned by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation Buildings and structures completed in 1840 1840 establishments in England Grade II listed buildings in Manchester Grade II listed industrial buildings Cotton mills in Greater Manchester