Stockport was a cotton town which perhaps embraced progress more readily than some others.
It had begun with silk spinning carried out in the then traditional method of throwing. Part of the production was used in the town’s button industry and rather more sent down to London which was the largest silk producing area in the late seventeenth century. The problem for the English silk throwers was the in Italy silk was being spun much finer by water powered machinery and its method was a closely guarded secret. A little early industrial espionage reveal the method in England and Derby became home to the first water power silk mill. This first attempt failed but the second succeeded as I tell in my blog on Derby.
On the expiry of the patent, a mill was built in Stockport, the Park mill, and this was the start of an expansion of water powered silk making in the town.
The traditional spinning and weaving of cotton began at roughly the same time but would take place in people’s home, as had been the tradition with wool and linen. 1733 saw the invention of the fly-shuttle by John Kay of Bury which demanded similar mechanisation in spinning came James Hargreaves of Blackburn with his spinning jenny. Richard Arkwright added his carding machine and then brought it all together in Cromford mill. This business was too attractive for the silk mills to ignore and slowly they changed over. some silk continued but Stockport was now wedded to cotton.
An eighteenth century producer of fine muslin was Samuel Oldknow and Richard Arkwright had guided him in setting up his mill. His Higher Hillgate factory was the first to take a Boulton and Watt steam engine although others would follow. Oldknow focused on retailing to the growing middle classes in Manchester and also through merchants to the fast growing London market.
With mechanisation, mills would be built but then demolished when new processes came in which demanded more or different space. In 1851, the textile industry employed half the working population. In the second half of the century it was said that Stockport was building mills on a ‘monumental scale’ and many of these along the Ashton canal which provided fuel and raw materials and took away the finished product. Among many others, two families come to be mentioned. The Gregs, whose father built Quarry Bank Mill in Styal, and the Houldsworths whose mill is a classic example of great industrial architecture; it was designed by architects AH Stott. It also offered a more efficient configuration and was in effect a double mill with a central section housing the steam power used by a factory on either side.
Stockport had become, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the great centre for power loom weaving. Manufacturers often carried on both spinning and weaving until weaving became concentrated on East Lancashire. Stockport shifted its efforts to spinning and embraced the spinning of cotton waste and doubling (spinning two or more yarns together to produce greater strength). Spinners also adopted the ring frame which worked much faster than the mule.
In the mid nineteenth century the weaving of silk was taken on once again in a number of mills to supply the manufacturers of Macclesfield until, with a downturn in demand, Macclesfield took over all their weaving. The weaving of wool had been done for many years as a cottage industry. This too was explored in the mill context with two mills in production until 1939. A further innovation falls to be mentioned. As mills got bigger they did of course cost more and a number of companies adopted a joint stock status following the lead of Oldham.
One industry successful through the centuries was hat making. The mid nineteenth century saw a fashion move from silk hats to those made from felt. Here, Stockport companies such as Christys and Battersbsy stepped in and in the last thirty years of the century employment grew ten fold. Stockport manufacturers embraced the latest American machinery and prospered until fashions changed once more.
Engineering followed textiles with manufacturers of the ring frame and power looms. They also made machinery for hat making. Cravens manufactured cranes, Simon-Carves made mining equipment and Lancashire boilers were built at the Wellington boiler works.
With the coming of the First World War, National Aircraft Factory No 2 was built in the town and run by Crossley. The associated airstrip was also used by Avro from their Woodford factory. Later Fairey manufactured aircraft in the Second World War in nearby Heaton Chapel. The company moved to wheeled armoured vehicles and now operates as KNDS UK. Mirrlees which merged with Blackstone of Stamford made diesel engines.
McVitie makes chocolate digestive biscuits and Jaffa cakes
Further reading:
Peter Arrowsmith, Stockport – A History (Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, 1997)
British Manufacturing History 