Kent Mill, Chadderton

Kent Mill, Chadderton was a cotton spinning mill in Chadderton, Oldham, Greater Manchester. It was built in 1908 It was taken over by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in the 1930s and passed to Courtaulds in 1964. Production finished in 1991 and it was demolished in 1994.

Kent
Location within Greater Manchester
Cotton
Spinning (ring mill)
LocationChadderton
Serving canalRochdale Canal
Further ownership
Coordinates53.550°N 2.136°W / 53.550; -2.136
Construction
Built1908
Demolished1994
Design team
ArchitectG Stott
Power
Engine makerGeorge Saxon & Co
Engine typecross compound
Valve GearCorliss valves
rpm64rpm
Flywheel diameter26ft
Transmission typerope
No. of ropes28
Boiler configuration
Pressure160psi
References
[1]

Location

Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England.[2] It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, 5.3 miles (8.5 km) south-southeast of Rochdale, and 6.9 miles (11.1 km) northeast of the city of Manchester. Oldham is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham; Chadderton and Hollinwood are such settlements. Chadderton and Hollinwood are served by the Rochdale Canal and the Hollinwood Branch Canal. A rail service was provided by the Oldham Loop Line built by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.

History

Oldham rose to prominence during the 19th century as an international centre of textile manufacture. It was a boomtown of the Industrial Revolution, and amongst the first ever industrialised towns, rapidly becoming "one of the most important centres of cotton and textile industries in England",[3] 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 the area was used for grazing sheep, which provided the raw material for a local woollen weaving trade.[4] It was not until the last quarter of the 18th century that Oldham changed from being a cottage industry township producing woollen garments via domestic manual labour, to a sprawling industrial metropolis of textile factories.[4] The first mill, Lees Hall, was built by William Clegg in about 1778. Within a year, 11 other mills had been constructed,[5] but by 1818 there were only 19 of these privately owned mills.[6]

It was in the second half of the 19th century, that Oldham became the world centre for spinning cotton yarn.[6] 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.[7] At its zenith, it was the most productive cotton spinning mill town in the world.[8][9] By 1871 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.[10] 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.[6] At its peak, there were over 360 mills, operating night and day;[11][12] Kent Mill was built in 1908 by Kent Mill Ltd.

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. The Bank of England set up the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in 1929 to attempt to rationalise and save the industry.[13] Kent Mill, Chadderton was one of 104 mills bought by the LCC, and one of the 53 mills that survived through to 1950. In 1950, LCC converted it from a mule mill to a ring mill for Egyptian cotton with 104,000 spindles. The mill closed 1991 and was demolished in 1994.

Architecture
Kent Mill in 1951

.

The architect was G Stott. This was a sister mill to Manor Mill, Chadderton which still stands. The image shows the Hotel de Ville style water tower, the external engine house. and the detached chimney.

Power

1500 horsepower cross compound George Saxon & Co steam engine 25"HP, 52"LP X 5 ft 6" stroke. 160psi, 64rpm. 26 ft flywheel, 28 ropes. Corliss valves on both cylinders ). [14]

Usage

Owners
  • Kent Mill Company Ltd.
  • Lancashire Cotton Corporation (1930's-1964)
  • Courtaulds (1964-
gollark: One could argue that insulin is expensive partly *because* of the government messing up things.
gollark: People doing things?
gollark: Well, the answer to that is "not everyone subscribes to your exact moral system".
gollark: The "I don't care about what people do if it doesn't directly affect me" thing isn't actually universal.
gollark: Not directly, but it is important to understand that people often care about that sort of thing *anyway*.

See also

References

Notes
  1. LCC 1951
  2. "Greater Manchester Gazetteer". Greater Manchester County Record Office. Places names - O to R. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 23 October 2008.
  3. Oldham County Borough Council (1973), Official Handbook of Oldham
  4. Butterworth, Edwin (1981), Historical Sketches of Oldham, E.J. Morten, ISBN 978-0-85972-048-9
  5. Bateson, Hartley (1949), A Centenary History of Oldham, Oldham County Borough Council, ISBN 5-00-095162-X
  6. McNeil, R.; Nevell, M. (2000), A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of Greater Manchester, Association for Industrial Archaeology, ISBN 0-9528930-3-7
  7. Foster, John (1974), Class Struggle and the Industrial Revolution - Early industrial capitalism in three English towns, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, ISBN 978-0-297-76681-0
  8. Gurr & Hunt 1998, pp. 1–5.
  9. NW Cotton Towns Learning Journey, spinningtheweb.org.uk, archived from the original on 10 September 2007, retrieved 14 September 2007
  10. Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council (2001), Contaminated Land Strategy 2001 (PDF), oldham.gov.uk, p. 16, archived from the original (PDF) on 14 March 2008, retrieved 11 March 2008
  11. Visit Oldham – The History of Oldham, visitoldham.co.uk, archived from the original on 6 August 2007, retrieved 16 September 2007
  12. Spinning The Web - Oldham, spinningtheweb.org.uk, archived from the original on 5 December 2012, retrieved 28 June 2006
  13. Dunkerley 2009
  14. Roberts 1921

Bibliography

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