Now I collect old textile mills which I am the first to admit is not as easy as stamp collecting.
More so because with every year that passes more of these monuments to our industrial heritage vanish although today there is a growing trend to convertt them in to residential properties which at least preserves them.
My own special haunt is Ancoats but as I lived in Ashton I had to add the Cavendish Mill to the collection.
By one of those rare coincidences we were down at the Portland Basin in the summer and not much later Peter Topping made the same journey and in the process painted this image of the old mill posting on a number of sites, with the accompanying comment that "the Cavendish Spinning Company Limited was registered in 1884 with the sole purpose of building the Cavendish Cotton Mill.
Taking on a fireproof design it was the first mill in Ashton to have concrete floors and a flat roof.
On the canal side it is 6 floors high, and 5 floors on the other sides. Its main feature is the octagonal staircase that... But wait a minute... What am I doing writing this!!! As local historian Andrew Simpson says he tells the stories and Peter paints the pictures. So I am going to have to stop there and leave you to look at the painting and soon after Christmas Andrew has promised to tell the story.”
All of which was a challenge I couldn’t refuse.
The mill continued spinning cotton until 1934 but remained in industrial use until 1976 and has now been converted offering a mix of residential commercial and community use.
All of which was information fairly easily available but as ever I wandered off looking for a something more.
And there it was in a directory for cotton mills in Ashton-Under-Lyne for 1891 which told me that had I been in the Royal Exchange in Manchester between 1 and 1.30 each week day I could have met with the agents of the company with a view to buying some cotton.
I may even go looking for the exact spot where I could have done the business because the entry listed them at “No., 10 Pillar” and no doubt I could also have listened as the agents proudly told me that they had "72,000 spindles, 328/408 twist and 168/468 weft.”
Now that is the sort of fascinating detail to add to my collector’s picture.
Painting; Cavendish Mill, © 2014 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk
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| Cavendish Mill, © 2014 Peter Topping |
My own special haunt is Ancoats but as I lived in Ashton I had to add the Cavendish Mill to the collection.
By one of those rare coincidences we were down at the Portland Basin in the summer and not much later Peter Topping made the same journey and in the process painted this image of the old mill posting on a number of sites, with the accompanying comment that "the Cavendish Spinning Company Limited was registered in 1884 with the sole purpose of building the Cavendish Cotton Mill.
Taking on a fireproof design it was the first mill in Ashton to have concrete floors and a flat roof.
On the canal side it is 6 floors high, and 5 floors on the other sides. Its main feature is the octagonal staircase that... But wait a minute... What am I doing writing this!!! As local historian Andrew Simpson says he tells the stories and Peter paints the pictures. So I am going to have to stop there and leave you to look at the painting and soon after Christmas Andrew has promised to tell the story.”
All of which was a challenge I couldn’t refuse.
The mill continued spinning cotton until 1934 but remained in industrial use until 1976 and has now been converted offering a mix of residential commercial and community use.
All of which was information fairly easily available but as ever I wandered off looking for a something more.
And there it was in a directory for cotton mills in Ashton-Under-Lyne for 1891 which told me that had I been in the Royal Exchange in Manchester between 1 and 1.30 each week day I could have met with the agents of the company with a view to buying some cotton.
I may even go looking for the exact spot where I could have done the business because the entry listed them at “No., 10 Pillar” and no doubt I could also have listened as the agents proudly told me that they had "72,000 spindles, 328/408 twist and 168/468 weft.”
Now that is the sort of fascinating detail to add to my collector’s picture.
Painting; Cavendish Mill, © 2014 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk
Hi Andrew, I scanned some sections of a Directory from the Exchange into the files section in Manchester History if you want to view. I "collected" it along with a boxed cotton sample after it had closed down, and accidentally found myself on the trading floor when exiting the toilets in a bar then situated on Old Bank St. Drink was involved .
ReplyDeleteOh yes
DeleteHi Andrew, I am interested in discovering who the original owner was of the Cavendish Cotton Mill. The man behind the company which was set up to have the mill designed and built. In other words who was the Owner/beneficiary of Cavendish Mill profits?
ReplyDeleteA good starting point might be
DeleteTameside Local Studies and Archives Centre Cotton Street East https://www.tameside.gov.uk/localstudies