Tudor Mill, Ashton-under-Lyne
Encyclopedia
Tudor Mill was cotton spinning mill in Ashton-under-Lyne
Ashton-under-Lyne
Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. Historically a part of Lancashire, it lies on the north bank of the River Tame, on undulating land at the foothills of the Pennines...

, Greater Manchester, in the United Kingdom. It was built between 1901 and 1903 for the Ashton Syndicate by Sydney Stott of Oldham. Tudor Mill was next to the Ashton Canal
Ashton Canal
The Ashton Canal is a canal built in Greater Manchester in North West England.-Route:The Ashton leaves the Rochdale Canal at Ducie St. Junction in central Manchester, and climbs for through 18 locks, passing through Ancoats, Holt Town, Bradford-with-Beswick, Clayton, Openshaw, Droylsden,...

 Warehouse at Portland Basin
Portland Basin
The Portland Basin is a roughly topographic and structural depression in the central Puget-Willamette Lowland. The Portland Basin isapproximately long and wide, with its long axis oriented northwest. Studies indicate that as much as of late Miocene and younger sediments have accumulated in the...

. It ceased spinning cotton in the 1960s and was used as a warehouse until it was destroyed by fire in 1970

Location

Tudor mill was built on the site of the former Portland House and the Stamford brewery, next to the Portland Basin on the final section of the Ashton Canal, where it joined the Huddersfield Narrow Canal
Huddersfield Narrow Canal
The Huddersfield Narrow Canal is an inland waterway in northern England. It runs just under from Lock 1E at the rear of the University of Huddersfield campus, near Aspley Basin at Huddersfield to the junction with the Ashton Canal at Whitelands Basin in Ashton-under-Lyne...

.

History

The Minerva Spinning Company Limited was registered in 1891 to build the
Minerva Mill
Minerva Mill, Ashton-under-Lyne
Minerva Mill was a cotton spinning mill in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, England. It was built between 1891 and 1892 for the Minerva Spinning Company which was later known as the Ashton Syndicate. Minerva Mill was next to the later Texas mill, at Whitelands. It ceased spinning cotton in...

 at Whitelands. The directors were Messrs Barlow, Marland, Coop, Newton, Pollitt and Pownall; they were later referred to as the Ashton syndicate. The syndicate went on to build the Rock Mill
Rock Mill, Ashton-under-Lyne
Rock Mill was cotton spinning mill in the Waterloo district of Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, in England. It was built between 1891 and 1893 for the Ashton Syndicate by Sydney Stott of Oldham. Rock Mill was built on the site of Wilshaw Mill retaining and using the octagonal chimney...

, Curzon Mill
Curzon Mill, Ashton-under-Lyne
Curzon Mill , later known as Alger Mill was a cotton spinning mill in the Hurst district of Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, in England. It was built between 1899 and 1902 for the Ashton Syndicate by Sydney Stott of Oldham. It was a sister mill to the Atlas Mill. It was sold to the Alger...

, and then, in 1901, the Tudor Mill. It was built with a capital of £70,000. It opened in May 1903 with 250 workers and 85,464. The Tudor Mill Company became part of the Atlas Mills Limited in the 1920s. Further mills built by the syndicate were Cedar Mill and finally the Texas Mill
Texas Mill, Ashton-under-Lyne
Texas Mill was a cotton spinning mill in the Whitelands district of Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, in England. It was built between 1905 and 1907 for the Ashton Syndicate by Sydney Stott of Oldham. It was destroyed in a massive fire on 22–23 October 1971...

.

The cotton 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
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 bought up by Courtaulds in August 1964.-Formation:By...

 in 1929 to attempt to rationalise and save the industry. Atlas Mills Limited was taken over by the LCC in 1929. Thus, Tudor Mill was one of 104 mills brought into LCC ownership, and one of the 53 mills that survived through to 1950, though its spindleage had been reduced to 54,104. It closed in the 1960s and was used as a warehouse.

It was destroyed by fire on 24 June 1970.

Architecture

This was a Sydney Stott building. It was six storeys high built on a basement. It was 11 bays long (65 m), and 40m wide with a corner water tower and a detached engine house. The chimney was round and displayed the two rings that were a trademark of a Sydney Stott mill.

Power

The steam engine was a 1800 hp triple expansion vertical engine by George Saxon, of Openshaw built in 1906. It had an 18-foot flywheel that operated at 75 rpm. The flywheel drove 40 ropes that transmitted the power to each floor. The cylinders all had Corliss valves. They had a 48" throw, the high pressure was 22½" in diameter, the intermediate was 34" and the low pressure was 56". The air pump was driven from the low-pressure crosshead, there was a Saxon governor on the high-pressure end of the bed.

Equipment

The preparation machinery was provided by Brookes and Doxey, and the mule frames by Hetherington and Sons Ltd. There were 85,464 mule spindles spinning fine counts of twists and weft from Egyptian cotton. By 1948, this had been reduced to 54,104.

See also

  • Textile manufacturing
    Textile manufacturing
    Textile manufacturing is a major industry. It is based in the conversion of three types of fibre into yarn, then fabric, then textiles. These are then fabricated into clothes or other artifacts. Cotton remains the most important natural fibre, so is treated in depth...

  • Cotton Mill
    Cotton mill
    A cotton mill is a factory that houses spinning and weaving machinery. Typically built between 1775 and 1930, mills spun cotton which was an important product during the Industrial Revolution....

  • Stott
    Stott
    The Stotts were a family of architects from Oldham in North West England who specialised in the design of cotton mills. James Stott was the father, Joseph and his elder brother Abraham Stott had rival practices, and in later years didn't communicate...


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